Zufar-1 500mm/4

[BurstMox]

Zufar-1 500mm/4 by the GOI.
This is a lens designed by Volosov for UV photography with quartz and fluorite glasses.
This is the same design as Zufar-2 350mm/4 (which was made in the same body style) but scaled to 500mm.
According to Volosov, it is apochromatic from 230nm to 700nm, so apart from being designed for UV, it's also totaly good for normal photography. Volosov says it suits very good for photography of the Luna or other planets without atmospher.
It does not have tripod mount, it weights 10.5kg and it's like a giant tube, so it's very hard to use.

Here are some sample. Sorry for the quality of these photo, but the lens were very hard to handle, so my main goal was to make some photo with it as fast as I can before I break my arm, so forget about artistic researchs.

Interestingly, the lens gives black corners on 24x36, it might be mechanical vignetting.


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The lens :



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Regards,

[kds315*]

Excellent find Pierre! Congratulations!

Those lenses usually were designed for special cameras, I don't think it was made for 24x36mm, rather possibly 24x24mm.

[BurstMox]

[kds315*]

Interesting, the Zufar-2 was optimized for a smaller 24x24mm format.

[BurstMox]

[kds315*]

NASA also wrote about this ZUFAR-2CA lens (quote):

Zufar objectives were used on the television cameras carried by the Mars-2, 3, 4, and 5 spacecraft. The compact catadioptric quartz-fluorite anastigmat was developed as a result of research on the possible optical arrangements of lens and mirror-lens systems meeting the rigid criteria for spaceborne operation. The system is characterized by precise correction of all aberrations over a broad spectral range, about 300-700 nm. The spectral transmission is about 60% over this range. The Zufar-2CA version of the objective has a geometric aperture ratio of 1:4 and a focal length of 350 mm. The image format is 24 x 24 mm. The housing is 164 mm long and 130 mm in diameter, and the mass of the objective is 1500 g.

[jamaeolus]

I'm confused. The OP has it listed as 10.5 Kilogram (I'm skeptical of that number!) . While Klaus quote has it at 1500g (1.5 Kg). Did an extra zero sneak in while typing? Even one and a half kilos sounds very heavy for a 500mm cat.

Nice images!

[kds315*]

[justtorchit]

The performance of this lens looks excellent! I was actually just out playing with one of my mirror lenses and musing about it's erratic performance and ultimately relatively lackluster showing. Few mirror lenses really seem to be able to consistently perform but this one looks crisp and appears to have very nice contrast. Wow!

[calvin83]

Wonderful lens! Look much better than the Sigma one.

[JMC]

Very interesting lens, thanks for sharing.

[D1N0]

I am guessing that this lens would be pretty unaffordable had it been taken into production, even though it is Russian. It would have to come with a tripod cart anyhow because who can lug around 11+ kilo's including camera for any amount of time :p

[kds315*]

[Blazer0ne]

...

[vivaldibow]

Really sharp photos for a mirror lens and you must have "iron hand" to nail the focus!

[jamaeolus]

Why so heavy? Is it a solid cat?

[europanorama]

[BurstMox]

[kds315*]

Quite a beast!

[D1N0]

No wonder they didn't want to lift it into space.

[kds315*]