Very little information on the 400 f/4 EDIF exist in the archives. It appears that few people own or have experience using this lense. I have had an interest in adding the 400 to my 67 system, but lately have noticed a sharp increase in price from the mail order houses. B&H no longer list this lense in their advertisements or catalog. Can anyone comment on the future availability of the 400 f/4 EDIF and its design and performance characteristics.

-- Scott Seigmund (Ssgmd@aol.com), February 16, 2000

Answers

The reason that most people don't own this lens is that it is too expensive. Pentax should have continued to make their 400 Takumar and given the customer a choice like they did with their 800mm ED and F4. The Yen being 109 to $1 has caused this lens to be even more expensive than before. No camera dealer likes to sit on merchandise that doesn't move. The design of the 400 ED is typical of modern low dispersion telephotos. It is a ten element design with a cross section that looks as if it were intended to produce tack sharp images wide open. I don't own one but I can say that you are paying for an extra stop, maybe two in which it will outperform the older Takumar. It must be remembered that the five element Takumar has enough elements to correct all of the lower order aberrations. The only advantage the ED version is going to have, is in the area of longitudinal chromatic aberration at f/4. In other words, it will have less spherochromatism. The 400 Takumar will be softer wide open because of this. The performance of the two should be similar, in theory, between f/45 and f/8. At f/5.6, they could be close but I don't own both lenses to check it. I doubt very much that Pentax is going to discontinue the 400ED. SR

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), February 16, 2000.

An interesting point Rolland. Would anyone in this forum like to explain why you do not own the 400 ED IF? Is it cost or is it the lack of popularity of telephotos in MF? SR

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), February 21, 2000.

Peter, the 400mm Takumar can be shot at virtually any shutter speed without image degradation. It is possible that the ED version's tripod mount allows more movement than the Takumar's. The Takumar's design uses conventional glass but the focal length is short enough so that color separation is not a problem. One of the reasons why Pentax made an ED 400 was because they didn't want to get behind in the ED race. The 400 Takumar was a great lens. SR

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), July 28, 2000.

I've used the Pentax 67 400 f/4 EDIF lens. It produced excellent results. I don't own it, however, because of the price. I used on loan from Pentax.

Basically, it's a very nice lens at a very steep price.

-- Michael K. Gardner (gardner@gse.utah.edu), February 17, 2000.

Product #: 29415 Description: 400mm F 4.0 Lens for 67 II Price: U.S. $4,946.00 Colleen McGaw caycamer@candw.ky

As the above quote states you can get this lens for about $5,000 from Cayman Camera. Which is about $800 cheaper than B&H's price of $5,800 dollars. While the lens is extremely expensive, you can get it for a more reasonable cost by going through international importers. And Yes, Cayman has a 1 year warranty with their products. Hong Kong Distributors might be cheaper, and if you're a real penny pincher buying it used in Hong Kong would be the cheapest route to go.

If you compare this lens to say a Nikon 400mm f/3.5 or 500mm f/4 lens, the price is similar. So to say that this lens is not used solely because of price is incorrect. Many people own a Nikon 400mm or 500mm lens. It probably has to do more with the fact that it's extremely heavy and telephoto medium format work is just not that popular for some reason.

Peace Rolland Elliott

-- Rolland Elliott (rolland_elliott@yahoo.com), February 21, 2000.

There's a guy on rec.photo.marketplace.medium-format trying to unload one for $2,500. Sounds like a good deal to me, if you're a pro who can make money with the lens.

-- Bill Baker (wab@well.com), February 23, 2000.

Beside the price there is another problem with this lens. You can use only three shutter speeds: 250, 500,1000. Everything slower than that causes blurry images caused by the shutter mass, not by the mirror. This happens because of the construction with the tripod collar in center of gravity. The lens can swing sidewards and there is nothing to stop it. I sold my lens after having tried quiete a long time with various supports, nothing helped. When used wide open and with shortest shutterspeed it produced excellent results, comparable the latest Nikon ED lenses.

-- Peter Weimann (photoholic@t-online.de), July 28, 2000.

Great Lens! I use it for prof. Fashion-Shootings (mostly outside but sometimes also in my studio) on my P67 and P645 (using an P.-adapter). Together with an prof.tripod You can realize shutter-speeds down to 1/60.

-- Bernd F. Robers (bernd.f.robers@intertelco.de), October 25, 2000.