For those of us aspiring photographers raised in the 1970's United States, ads like the above filled our dreams of inexpensive "super" telephotos, and all manner of imagined uses for them; ballgames, the moon, possible spies, neighbors........., but I digress. One of the major purveyor of these sorts of lenses and the biggest advertisers was of course the everpresent Spiratone Corp. of New York. By the mid 70's they had both a 400mm/f6.3 and a 500mm/f8 for which you could get a "2x" multiplier and they'd even throw in the matching hood and "hard case".
Several decades later, these lenses are still available. They may only come with a bag vs. a case, they don't throw in the hood any more, and are likely to be made in Korea and imported under various brands ranging from Samyang to Bower; in the end though (as you can see), they are still pretty much the same lens.
For the dreaming teenager like myself, there would soon be more! By the mid-70's, there were whispers that the Russians (yeah, those guys) had some super-duper, secret-can't get it here-but-ridiculously-cheap, camera equipment out there....shhhhhh!!! Anyway; some time in those years, Jason Schneider who wrote a column on camera collecting for Modern Photography had a piece where he contacted the official Soviet exporter through their London offices and after great effort was able to order some equipment which eventually came directly to his house! I was astounded, but not surprised, as those of us who had on occasion been able to get the British magazine, Amatuer Photographer can tell you, this equipment had been available "in the West" for a number of years! But the one item that Jason referenced (but did not buy), and the British ads seemed never to include; was the fabled Fotosnaiper (that's Fotosniper to you and I). They might as well have named it the "snipe". Sorry; inside joke for those of us raised in the country.
Here was what I and every other weird equipment loving photographer was looking for! And the fact that it was Russian/Soviet, and furthermore basically unobtainable made it even better. The basis of course, was the Zenit E (or the '57 Chevy of Russian cameras), that was adapted to function with a well-thought-out "pistol-grip" stock mated to a very good, if not excellent 300mm "Tair" lens. I won't go into the complete history of it, since there are any number of very good sites that'll do a better job of explaining the very interesting history, but suffice to say that it's been in production a very long time from the KMZ facilty outside Moscow.
The fact that it came in a fitted (then) case, and all manner of accessories just made it all the more desirable. They can also be found easily today on eBay and other sales sites (often in Ukraine), but fitted to a vinyl/hardboard (now) cases in later production. As I've said before, I've always wanted one and in all probability when the right opportunity (cheap enough) presents, I'll probably get one. The fact that I saw/held an actual one in a photo-shop in San Jose years ago doesn't help one bit.....still want one.
Of course there's been another option for some time. And that's the mirror lenses, or more accurately described as the Matsutov Catadioptric. Although there are a variety of types adapted from the original Augustin-Jean Fresnel design, the vast majority of the type available for general photography are of this adapted Russian design. My own interest developed after being exposed to a Nikkor version used by our news-photographer teacher/mentor during a summer photography workshop while in high school. I'd heard of them, but never even seen one in real life, much less someone using one hand-held on a regular basis. And like everything else, they range from classic of the type, the Nikkor to the commonly found Samyang. However, there were the occasional unusual design such as the Vivitar Series 1, 600mm/f8 and 800mm/f11, "Solid Cat" contracted by Perkin-Elmer of the Hubble Telescope, and military optics fame!
I'd love to have one of these, but the collector's market has gotten ahold of them and the price is generally north of $500. This like the Fotosniper is another one of those, "some day" type things. I'll most likely target either the Nikkor (which sometimes gets down below $200), or the excellent (and compact) Tokina. There's also the Tamron Adaptall II SP, but those have gotten a collectors rep as well.
So far, I've only really discussed lenses that I can't afford right now. So, let's move on to the real purpose of today's rambling post: the Vivitar 500mm/f6.3 Preset of the mid-to-late 70's. As you can see, it's a beast! It is the rather prosaic preset telephoto design that most Japanese manufacturers mastered by the late-1950's, early-1960's, and certainly not an especially difficult formula to produce. In this case, Ponder & Best (aka Vivitar) looks to have contracted these from Olympus given the serial numbers being with a 6. This is definitely, no bad thing! You might have noted that I bolded the aperture of f6.3. And that's because it's unusual (I like unusual), as most lenses of this type at this focal length are almost always f8. These lenses are generally considered (apart from their heft & length) more photographically flexible than the mirror lenses with their aperture fixed at f8 as well as the other eccentricities of the breed. My interest in them (other than the usual fact that they aren't typical) is that I've always wanted a real "super-telephoto" and that I have a Bushmaster shoulder mount that makes would make it much more useable. On top of that, there is the fact that they will sometimes appear at less than $50.
And as if that wasn't enough, while researching this lens, I came across some other Vivitar "Super-telephotos" of similar vintage contracted from Tokina that were even more interesting! These were a series based on a two part system that had different heads: a 600mm and an 800mm! There was also a 400mm that didn't take apart, but that certainly isn't as interesting! So, I may have just gotten myself in more trouble in finding another sub-hobby/obsession within a hobby!
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