Some sample images showing the bokeh of various standard lenses from the Bronica D/Z/S/S2/S2A/EC/EC-TL/II system.

I own the following “standard” lenses for the system and they have the following number of diaphragm blades:

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT COMPLETE YET

75mm Nikkor HC f/2.8 (6 element version): 7 blades

80mm Zeiss Jena f/2.8 (Biometar?): 8 blades

80mm Zenzanon f/2.4: 9 blades

100mm Zenzanon f/2.8: 9 blades

100mm Komura f/2.8: 6 blades

105mm Nikkor f/3.5: 5 blades

All of these test shots were shot on a Bronica EC-TL using T-Max 100 which was developed in 1+50 Rodinal, and most were shot using the mirror lock up feature on the camera. Images were scanned on an Epson V850 using Silverfast. The camera was set up on a tripod about 1-1.5 meters from the subject and was not moved after being set up.

Nikkor 75mm f/2.8

Nikon NIKKOR H·C 75mm, 6 elements in 4 groups (from Lens-db.com)

This is the “deluxe” or upgraded standard lens that was offered for the Bronica system and features a 6 element double gauss vs the xenotar-esque standard 75mm lens. I wish I had the standard 5 element lens to compare with, maybe in the future.

This lens features a very classic Nikon Diaphragm featuring 7 blades, the lens stops down to f/22. The lens is Multicoated and a lens hood was used in these test images.

This lens is plenty sharp wide open with a mild vignette and quite sharp when stepped down. The bokkeh features a very slight soap bubble effect but is smooth and very pleasing wide open. Once stopping down, the shapes of the aperture can be seen but the background still looks quite nice.

Nikon NIKKOR H·C 75mm vs Nikon NIKKOR P(·C) (from Lens-db.com)

f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6

Zeiss Jena 80mm f/2.8

Carl Zeiss Jena DDR ZENZANON 80mm 5 elements in 4 groups (from Lens-db.com)

Ah the Zeiss Jena, as far as I know this is basically a repackaged 80mm f/2.8 Biometar from the Pentacon Six system. It features 5 elements in 4 groups which is very similar to the Nikon NIKKOR-P(·C) If you look at the optical diagrams. This lens has 8 aperture blades, when purchasing I would make sure they are snappy as this lens suffers similar issues as some of the Pentacon Six lenses with oil migrating to the aperture blades and making them slow. This (Zeiss 80mm) lens compared to the next lens, the 80mm Zenzanon, has a slightly tighter field of view even though both lenses are “80mm”.

This lens is nice to use and wide open has some really nice and very classic “Xenotar” bokkeh, the mechanical vignetting combined with some outlining in the highlights makes it a kind of fun swirly looking bokkeh. There is a bit of nervousness in the bokkeh with some mild double imaging but I think it works with the overall character of the lens. The bokkeh starts to change from circular to a longer shape faster than on the 75mm Nikkor HC. I would love to be able to compare this to the Nikon P(C) version since the optical layouts are so similar (I beieve the Nikon P(C) also has 9 bladed aperture vs the 7 on the HC)

Zeiss Jena Zenzanon 80mm vs Nikon NIKKOR P(·C) 75mm (from Lens-db.com)

f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6

Zenzanon 80mm f/2.4

When I was researching the Bronica System and all of the various lenses, I came across this lens. It is as fast as the 105mm f/2.4 for the Pentax 6x7 and also features a very similar 6 elements in 5 groups optical layout. This lens is one of faster lenses for the Bronica system, but there were 2 other lenses that were even faster! There is a Komura 135mm f/2.3 (very rare) and a even rarer Komura 100mm f/2! Of course getting my hands on any of those is probably impossible. Anyways, this lens has some very pleasing out of focus highlights, although I was a little surprised by the onion rings in the highlights. The lens has a little spherical aberration going on wide open adding a bit of glow to the highlights. Stopped down the aperture the points of light stay pretty round and the lens becomes very sharp.

f/2.4, f/4 (MLU not used), f/5.6