Unrequited Love.....In Lenses

The last few posts that have been camera-heavy have really gotten me thinking about my photographic past. For many men (mostly) of my age, we grew up dreaming/lusting after camera equipment. It's just simply part of our history and psyche that we will probably never be able to separate from our lives. Although we're commonly able to acquire that coveted camera and a few lenses, but they were often compromises. It didn't matter whether you were a Canon guy (like I was), or a Nikon guy or whatever. The lenses from the manufacturers were simply too expensive since they were generally designed for professionals and to be sold in a different world where things were expected to last a lifetime. So, as I've said before, we teenagers would often look at the fabulous color brochures or go down to the "camera shop" and hang around. 

The object of our desires were often not just some particular focal length that we thought we wanted, but some combination of that, and what we wanted our camera to look like. Here's a good example: a Nikon F3 with the full motor drive, 250 Exposure Bulk-Film back and that really impressive looking 55mm Nikkor f1.2 Nok. that you could darned near shoot things in the dark with.....never mind that you didn't have the slightest idea what you were going to shoot "in the dark" in the first place! It looked COOL!!! Of course, nobody we knew owned one since they only sold to National Geographic photographers and NASA.

So, we bought the 50mm f1.4 lens for several hundred hard-earned dollars instead, because we couldn't be seen with a measly f1.8 that most any "family guy" bought with his camera still in the "ever-ready" case with that included narrow vinyl strap attached. As part of this little fantasy that we all played, there were certain lenses that we all wanted, but probably never bought. I've already talked about the 500mm mirrors, so lets look at the others.

You might be asking yourself; "what's so impressive about this little thing"? I'm starting here, because I just bought it. It's actually a lens that I once owned....kind-of. It's the 70-150mm/f3.8 out of the regular Vivitar line of the mid/late 70's. I know; it's not even a Series 1; what gives? This lens was VERY compact and pretty darned sharp. It was made by Kino of Series 1 fame, and so compact that it takes a 52mm filter, which is the same as the Nikkor main line of lenses, PLUS it could be had with a "matched 2X doubler", making it a 140-300mm, 35mm or a 210-450mm "APS-C" equivalent. Back in 1977 as a Junior in high school, I chose this lens to go along with the Canon AE-1 to replace our "long-in-the-tooth" Mamiya-Sekor camera. It was a nice lens that fit the compact AE-1 well as our budget. Although the school owned it, I carried it a lot, that is until I bought my A-1 with lenses. I've always had a fondness for this lens and last week, I bought it for.......$10, complete with the doubler on eBay. It will be nice to play with adapted to the GF-1 as well as the Nikon D300.

 

Since I'm on the topic of Vivitar, let's look at the Series 1 lenses that I really wanted at that time. From top to bottom, they are: 70-210mm/f3.5 Zoom, 35-85mm/f2.8 Varifocal, 28mm/f1.9 Wide, and 90mm/f2.5 Macro w/Doubler. These lenses need no introduction to photographers alive at that time. They were simply the fastest, and most innovative of their type, some of which even the top OEM firms such as Nikon/Canon didn't produce......and their cost were commiserate with this status. In my APS-C digital world, the one that I really want is the 28mm. It'd basically be a fast normal on the D300. 

Another lens/focal length that I really wanted was the 85mm. It originally started with our high school photography instructor/icon Milton Adams using the Nikkor version for his "normal". He really like his look "tight" and up-close. Probably has to do with his being paid as a photo-journalist. Which also explains the 500mm mirror as well. I loved the look of his pictures with this lens and I never forgot it. Later in the years that was building my Pentax system, I really wanted the SMC-M, 85mm/f2.0 that they produced, but just never could justify the expense.

 

The modern (for APS-C) equivalent would be the Cosina produced Voigtlander 58mm/f1.4 Nokton which translates to roughly 87mm lens. It that it on my D300? No, wish it was! With it's modern Nikon mount with communicates with the digital Nikons, I'd love to have it, but until then, I'll have to stick with my chip-converted 50mm/f1.4 Nikkor. 

Then there's the more obscure of my interests: "pancase" lenses, the Russian Tair 300mm on the "Fotosniper" and the rare Minolta Rokkor 300mm mirror lens mounted on an Olympus 4/3rds camera via an adapter. I've talk about these types before (and will probably do a post on "pancakes" some time), so I'm not going to talk about them much here.

Last, but not least today, is this oddity. While looking for images of lenses I ran across this and it stirred some odd corners of my memory. It's the Nikon FB-5 case, designed to hold a body with several lens ready to go since they were actually held in place by a Nikon mount! Virtually every camera company had them and were supposed to be a case for "professionals", although that intended audience virtually never used them and they generally only sold to well-heeled customers. The design was too bulky and the obvious intent as well as branding made them thief magnets. They are rarely if ever seen, but I've always wanted one. No surprise there!


 

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!