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Vivitar Series 1 600mm f8 Solid Cat and a Bird in the Garden
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 6:41 pm    Post subject: Vivitar Series 1 600mm f8 Solid Cat and a Bird in the Garden Reply with quote

Playing with the MTO this morning inspired me to break out several more mirror lenses. The 600mm solid CAT has a really short focus throw and doesn't resolve as well as the Sigma 600mm mirror I have or the MTO, but hey, it's a neat design.




PostPosted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 7:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Find a robin, some glitter, and you've got a Christmas card! Laughing That's a lot of donuts, but a good sharp shot of the bird.


PostPosted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 7:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very unique and very well made!


PostPosted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You are right, that is a card design right there.
Center the bird, do some pp to make the subject pop out better, and its good to go.


PostPosted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 9:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

has the vivitar got more of a donut effect than the MTO?..i often wondered whether all mirror lenses have the same bokeh or some more or less


PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank You Lloyd, Klaus and Luis. That is high praise from three members of this forum whose work and expertise I greatly admire.


PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

davev8app wrote:
has the vivitar got more of a donut effect than the MTO?..i often wondered whether all mirror lenses have the same bokeh or some more or less


Dave, I am sure bokeh differs for mirror formulas just like it does for refractive. These shots were at mfd, I actually had tonstep backwards to be at the 20 feet required, and I think that and the fact it was lots of small leaves oof esulted in more/smaller donuts in this shot. I have 5 or so mirrors now and have noticed differences among all of them.


PostPosted: Fri Nov 28, 2014 11:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

what other mirrors have you got? and which is the best?


PostPosted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 6:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have the MTO 550/8.5, the Vivitar 600/8, the Rmc Tokina 500/8, a Spiratone Minitel M 500/8, and the sigma 600/8. Not really an All Star lineup. I would like the Tamron 500, the Canon 500, the Minolta 500 and the Olympus 500. The Tamron samples have always wowed me most. Everything below 500, the prices don't figure for me.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yes i believe the tamron is good and seen test reports on it ,but i dont know how it compares to minolta and nikon..the most i ever find out is that some people suspect the minolta and nikon may be better but nothing concrete


PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 6:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The more I use the Viv 600 the more I like it. When the lighting is right and with the right subject it's great. Another bird visited my garden today, these are 100% crops from the A7. The last pic gives you an idea of how far away the guy was at 600mm on FF>







PostPosted: Sun May 03, 2015 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

can you post a shot of the lens?


PostPosted: Sun May 03, 2015 6:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've always been intrigued by the Vivitar solid cats. They were made by Perkin-Elmer, the same company who made the mirror for the Hubble Telescope. An 800mm was also made, not nearly as common as the 600mm f/8. I've never run across one at a price I could afford, however.

Tell me, weight-wise, how does it compare to the Sigma 600mm f/8? I have the Sigma and I find it to be quite heavy for a mirror. It dwarfs my Tamron 55BB 500mm f/8 mirror.


PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2015 11:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Me too, would like to see how this lens looks.

[cooltouch]
Perkin-Elmer was also involved in the making of the optics for the wafer fab machines at IBM, when I was working there in the 80s. Very similar to enlarger/developer process. But the resolution of the wiring is microscopic.

I've followed in your wake. I spotted a reasonably affordable Sigma 600mm mirror and plunked down on it.
Intrigued to read it's a lot heavier than the 55BB.


PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2015 4:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh yes, it's quite a bit larger and rather stoutly constructed. Has a very nice tripod mount on it, though, which makes up for its size.


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2015 10:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

kenetik wrote:
I have the MTO 550/8.5, the Vivitar 600/8, the Rmc Tokina 500/8, a Spiratone Minitel M 500/8, and the sigma 600/8. Not really an All Star lineup. I would like the Tamron 500, the Canon 500, the Minolta 500 and the Olympus 500. The Tamron samples have always wowed me most. Everything below 500, the prices don't figure for me.


As I have the Minolta RF 500 I can show you an example used on a MFT camera (Lumix GF-1) which doubles actually the focus length to 1000mm. This shot was taken freehand from a television tower in Pecs/Hungary. The distance between the camera and the motive (center of the city) is in the region of approximately 4 km's air distance. The second picture shows the shooting origin (tower), taken from approx. half distance with the 20/1.7 lens (40mm FF angle of view equ.) to give you some idea about the distances. So the first picture was taken from the top of the tower seen in the background of the second picture. The second picture was taken a few hours earlier under better light conditions.
A quite good description of the lens can be found here: http://www.rokkorfiles.com/500mm.htm





There was no PP whatsoever to show you the original JPG's out of the camera. With a little PP you can easily get rid of the little haze which is caused mainly by the weather and light conditions at nearly high noon (1st picture).


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2015 11:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've found a sample of a picture the other way round: From the hotel room in the city center to the television tower (RF 500 on GF-1):



PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2015 2:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kenetik wrote:
I would like the Tamron 500, the Canon 500, the Minolta 500 and the Olympus 500. The Tamron samples have always wowed me most. Everything below 500, the prices don't figure for me.


Just curious why you don't have the Nikkor 500mm f/8 on your "want" list also? I thought about the Leitz 500/8 as well, only to discover that it's actually the Minolta 500/8 in Leitz livery.

BTW, I can highly recommend the Tamron 55BB 500/8. It rivals a very sharp 500mm f/5.6 refractor lens I own in terms of sharpness. Contrast-wise, it's only about a notch or so down from the refractor, which can be increased easily in post.


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2015 3:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cooltouch wrote:
I thought about the Leitz 500/8 as well, only to discover that it's actually the Minolta 500/8 in Leitz livery.


That is very true. It's not the only one Leitz lens, which was actually designed and produced by Minolta. Some other Leica-R lenses like the 16mm and the 24mm and the first zooms (35-70 and 80-200) are produced actually by Minolta and are also available under the Leica brand in Leica-R mount, if my memory serves me right. Maybe some others too. I don't know it by heart. There was a rather close cooperation between these two companies for a couple of years. The Leica/Minolta CL and CLE are also resulting from this relationship. Even the Leica R4 was a joint devolopment and there was a respective Minolta camera (XD-7 in Europe and XD-11 in the U.S.) available. The legendary smoothness of the Minolta XD comes from Leitz in this case.....


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2015 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gotta concur about the Leica R4 /Minolta XD (Japan) / (XD-7 Europe) / (XD-11 here in the US). I own an XD-11, in fact I have it sitting here right next to me. I love the buttery smoothness of the film wind crank -- one of the smoothest, if not the smoothest of any camera I've owned, or even just played around with. As for the Minolta/Leica cooperation, in fact, the R3 was the first joint agreement SLR -- it was the equivalent to the Minolta XE (Japan) /XE-1 (Europe) /XE-7 (USA).


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2015 5:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cooltouch wrote:
Gotta concur about the Leica R4 /Minolta XD (Japan) / (XD-7 Europe) / (XD-11 here in the US). I own an XD-11, in fact I have it sitting here right next to me. I love the buttery smoothness of the film wind crank -- one of the smoothest, if not the smoothest of any camera I've owned, or even just played around with. As for the Minolta/Leica cooperation, in fact, the R3 was the first joint agreement SLR -- it was the equivalent to the Minolta XE (Japan) /XE-1 (Europe) /XE-7 (USA).


Michael, in fact I own a XE-1 myself and did know that also before. I am a little Minolta-maniac (I think I mentioned that already). However, although the XE-1 is a top end camera for the time it was produced, it is not as smooth as the XD-7. I've just done a comparison between the two different models to proof for myself again what I did already know. Wink
The only Minolta MF model which is still missing in my collection is the XM (XK in US and X-1 in Japan) which is hard to find in a collectible condition at an affordable price.


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2015 5:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tb_a wrote:

The only Minolta MF model which is still missing in my collection is the XM (XK in US and X-1 in Japan) which is hard to find in a collectible condition at an affordable price.


Yep, when one comes up on eBay, it usually goes for more than I'd pay for a Canon F-1, Nikon F3 or F4. And good luck even finding an XK Motor. There's an XM Motor on eBay right now for the better part of a thousand bucks.


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2015 6:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cooltouch wrote:

There's an XM Motor on eBay right now for the better part of a thousand bucks.


For another dust collector in the shelf that is simply far too much. Wink