Mirror, Mirror.....

Well, it came....and it's everything I expected it to be. If the Tokina RMC 500mm f/f8.0 Catadioptrics isn't the smallest/lightest lens of that class, then it's pretty darned close! At 3.95" and 17.2oz, it's amazingly small. When mounted on the Nikon D300, which although not a full-sized pro camera like the D3, is still pretty big (especially with the MB-D10 battery grip attached), this lens actually looks kind of small (relatively speaking of course)! The balance and smoothness of the long-throw focusing mechanism is amazing to someone used to modern AF lenses. Most importantly, it balances extremely well on my camera. There is also one technical issue that makes it (and the Tamron) advantageous for me. Both of those lenses (and the Nikkor of course) having an actual Nikon "AI" mount vs. a "T" mount thus having the mechanism to transfer the lens' information to the camera. You might be asking yourself, "what's the big deal"? After all, these lenses have exactly ONE F-Stop! Well....bear with me here; in this case, since the pro and semi-pro Nikons have the mechanism to take information from older manual focus lenses, AND the ability to "tell" the camera what lens it has on via a menu function, this small, but important piece allows the D300 to use that all important one F-Stop in it's automation. This is far different than not having any lens information when using a "T" mount.

But why this lens, instead of the Phoenix/Samyang that I already own? It's better built, by quite a bit. That's not to say that the Samy is "bad", because it's not. But that lens is made to sell at around $100, 2005 dollars, versus the Tokina which had a suggested retail of around $450 in 1980 dollars. Certainly that would also explain the fitted case, metal reversible lens hood, and the 3 included 35.5mm filters! ....But the feel! Can't explain it.....you'd have to hold it and turn the focusing ring yourself. Some of it might be the very long throw to go from minimum to maximum focus. Surprisingly the Samyang is a wee bit physically longer than the Tokina without the hood.

I don't know that the Tokina isn't going to be any sharper. Only time and lots of photos will tell. And this post isn't about that. It's really about that which I've nibbled around the edge of for a while now. I love mirror lenses....always have. It goes back to the first time I saw a picture of a Russian-made "MTO" lenses in British photography magazines of the 1970's. I was hooked! In today's market, they are commonly listed as Rubinars, but back then, they were called by there correct name: Maksutovs, so named from it's designer, Russian, Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov. It actually a derivitive of the Maksutov-Cassegrain variation of the Schmidt camera. You see those names a lot in relation to mirror telescopes of the same or similar types. I love the telescopes too, but can't afford them (as long as I remain with my current hobbies) and am too lazy to learn astronomy....at least for right now. 

These things were huge! However, as modern computer driven designs advanced and production techniques did too, the lenses themselves became smaller and smaller. By the late 70's and early 80's, the Japanese had it down to an the current size, but it was an American company contracting with an American firm using American computer-aided design that would astound the world. This was the Vivitar (Ponder and Best), Series One "Solid Cat" of the late 70's. I remember it clearly, since I thought it was about the coolest thing I ever saw! Although, it's $650 price tag put it in the category of "unobtainable", it was less unobtainable than the Nikkor 500mm which was more like $800-1000 at that time. The lens was actually designed at Opcon, by E. Betensky who had worked for Perkin-Elmer, who ended up doing the production. Fortunately these lenses (600mm and 800mm) turned out right the first time, unlike the Hubble! This was a really interesting design in that instead of simply having mirrors and very few, thin glass elements, it used rather large glass elements and eliminated the air-space making them much more compact than the norm and virtually impervious to atmospheric conditions and damage. So it's no surprise that the U.S. Army used this design for their scopes that the company contracted.

For the starry-eyed teenager of the day, these things were products that we saw in magazine articles and color brochures that we'd send away for, or sneak out of the camera shop while hoping that the scowling sales clerk didn't say something! Then, we'd go home and stare at that "family" picture which showed all the lenses together where the 1000mm and 500mm reflexes would dwarf the others by their girth. But we all dreamed about them of course, since they were at least somewhat obtainable on a per "mm" basis. We all knew that those other (refractor) behemoths with the giant (and exotic) elements had prices with more numbers than would compute in our young brains. 

Then the 90's happened, and Korea (South) came out of the "dark ages" to join the 20th and rapidly approaching 21st century. Their methodology was simple; first to "be the Japanese", then second, to "out Japanese, the Japanese". This happened on all fronts from ship to chip building.....also, cameras and optics. Sure it was the lower end of the industry for a long time. High-end glass elements take a long time to learn how to make. Just ask the Japanese! It wasn't until Nikon in the late 50's and early 60's and Kyocera (Contax) in the 70's that they were thought to be comparable to the Germans. So the Koreans started with the basics that weren't too optically complicated: the 500mm f/8 Preset and 500mm f/8 Mirror lenses were/are staples. Those ubiquitous Samyang/Phoenix/Bower/Vivitar/etc. lenses that cover eBay in that focal length. No, they aren't great, but they aren't terrible either. 

This was tried and true territory. The same path that the Japanese independent giants like Sigma, Tamron and Tokina used to get started. Remember the Spiratones, Cambrons, the Five-Star? There are of course, many more. 

So, today we have a wide variety of mirror lenses to work with on both the new and used market. No, it's not their "hey-day" anymore and even the last of the mainstream camera manufacturers, Sony has ended production of the old Minolta Rokkor design. However, in varying numbers, they are all still available through the miracle that is eBay where the Nikkor can be found in the dozens, the Samyang in the hundreds, and even the Vivitar Series One is regularly present. A few months ago, I bought one of the Samy's for less than $25 and thought I'd be satisfied. That was delusional! For me, where mirror lenses are concerned, there was always the big three: the Nikkor, the Vivitar Series One and the Tamron SP/Tokina RMC.

Of those three, only one is "affordable" in my world, the Tokina. I've seen this sell from a range of below $50 to close to $150. I figured that if complete, I'd be happy to pay up to around $75, which is exactly what this one ended up being. However, it wasn't just the cost though. Although the conventional thought has it as not as sharp as the OEMs and the Tamron. However, most reviewers (who aren't obviously anti-mirror) seems to rate it as being close and adequately sharp performer the type. At this point in time, I'm not quite ready to spend the over $300 that the other ones sell for, but I can completely see myself developing into a mirror collector someday.....if I'm not already!

Weird & Wonderous: Part 2......Da!

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!