Rollei Sonnar 1:2.8 /40mm
Review of Rollei Sonnar RM 40mm/F2.8
Table of contents
Gallery
Impression
Rollei name lenses for which Kocina supplies parts, and when these were released, I thought that Kocina would get the Rollei brand as well, but the partnership ended with only the Sonar 40mm, Planar 80mm, and Rollei 35RF.
As for the release plan, the Planar 50mm/F1.8 was planned, and there were documents with specific specs of 7 elements in 6 groups, so it seems that concrete discussions were in progress, but it never actually appeared on the market.
The Zonar 40mm was a Koshina color scoper class in terms of lens size and quality. The lens was compact, and the barrel seemed to be made of brass, making it heavy and bulky.
The Rolle brand had a lot of fans in the film era for its descriptive qualities, but I think that this lens is quite ordinary.
I used both the black and silver lenses, but the focusing ring was light, and when I turned it, it was too loose, so I did not have a good impression of the lens.
I bought the silver one at a special price at Yodobashi Camera Shinjuku store, where it had been unsold for a long time. The disposal price was about half of the used price in 2023, because it was the end of the film camera era at that time. I would hesitate to purchase this lens at the current inflated price.
Specification
This is a Rollei-branded lens released with Koshina supplying most of the parts.
It comes with an M/L ring and can be used as an L39 screw mount lens.
The standard cylindrical hood can be screwed on and removed, although some English-language reviews describe it as a fixed lens hood. After it is removed, the optional hood pictured with the black lens is screwed in. This hood can be adjusted to the lens position after screwing it in, and its shape is the same as that of the Color Scoper 35mm/50mm, and it bears the Rollei name.
Like the Planar, it was released in two colors, black and silver.
Although the barrel has few features, the green letters in the foot distance markings are a beautiful design accent.
| Item | Value | note |
| focal length(mm) | 40 | |
| Maximum aperture | 2.8 | |
| Minimum aperture | 22 | |
| Leaf blade | 10 | |
| Lens configuration | 4groups 5elements | |
| Minimum distance(m) | 0.7 | |
| Lens length(mm) | 30.5 | |
| Lens max diameter(mm) | 51 | |
| Filter diameter(mm) | 39mm | |
| Weight(g) | 172 | |
| Release date | 2002 |
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