Soviet 1100 mm mirror lens - OK so mild flair up of G.A.S.

[Busted Knuckles]

So I saw this at Peta Pixel

http://petapixel.com/2016/04/27/soviet-1100mm-lens-basically-telescope-camera-mount/

And on a moments impulse I bought one and it arrived today. ROTFLMAO

The one that I got has -0- wear on the focus ring, though I have to rotate the mount about 5 degrees as it is off just that wee bit. It has a set of gun sights on the top that get annoying if you pick it and hold it against your body just wrong.

It seems sharp - certainly for the $$ paid - though I think I need to get a new concrete leg tripod set up. Trying to focus on something 1/2 mile away with 10x live view.... lets just say you don't want any caffeine in your system :)

This is surely not a "run and gun" by any means the focus travel is just short 360 degrees from 9 ish meters to infinity. And it is very smooth - it seems to be a well machined.

I can see this being a really cool wildlife lens (f stop kind of small though)

I will be playing with this over the weekend and will post some shots before the weekend is out.

Mike

[Busted Knuckles]

One of the first tests

Depth of field is really narrow. Shutter speed has to be way up - was on an old tripod - need to put it on my heavy -

ISO 3200 1/1000. Sharpening, Threshold and strength all set to 0-0-0

Seems reasonably sharp to me

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7048/26998339515_131ca1bb1a_k.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/H8KxJk)Sweet Bay at 20 meters (https://flic.kr/p/H8KxJk) by mbarrett5076 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/77760916@N05/), on Flickr

1920 x 1080 crop

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7780/26724649010_f6cc30924b_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/GHyP5w)Sweet Bay Crop 1920-1080 (https://flic.kr/p/GHyP5w) by mbarrett5076 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/77760916@N05/), on Flickr

[Sean Setters]

I saw the article too and thought it was a cool idea. :-)

[Kayaker72]

HA!

Love that you picked one up. Also, the "Made in the USSR" stamp....

Images do look usable. Next test, Spoonbill at a quarter mile ;)

[Busted Knuckles]

I am pondering how to build a rig for it. I think Kayaker was with me in the refuge and we saw a guy with some giant white Canon basically hung from a board strapped across the top of the truck cab and it dropped down outside the truck in such a way that the camera body basically stuck back into the open window. Should have taken a picture of it.

Perhaps I can do something similar and make a cradle of some sort - the tripod mounts are definitely designed to be on the bottom.

Once I get some sort of semi permanent mount, I think to make the focus faster, I will have put some sort of focus puller rig on it. The focus is smooth but loooooong and a bit stiff - I get the need for the long through as the precision needed at anything closer than 100 meters is comical.

I got out one of my old 3 way tilt/pan heads and was able to get the camera level and the tilt/pan pretty effectively.

I am certainly going to give it a run at the bird refuge in a couple of weeks.

More soon

[Busted Knuckles]

So I played a little this morning w/ the Russian Beast, tamzooka and the Canon 70-200 II.

All results are at f10 or f11 The results.

Russian lens is slightly better in resolution than 2x Tamzooka - contrast slightly and I mean slightly less in the Russian.
Tamzooka at 650 is better than Tamzooka at 400 scaled to 650
Tamzooka at 200 and Canon at 200 are pretty much equal (DUH its f10!)

Is it worth dropping $300 on a beast..... Nope - I couldn't really justify it by the IQ step up. I suspect the Sigma at 2x would beat the Russian (Sigma is definitely sharper than the tammy at 650) AND you wouldn't have to carry an extra 10 lb non stabilized beast, etc, etc. Have to spend another $500-600 on the set up but trade offs are likely worth it if you really have to go that extra 1/2 mile. Brant can opine on the Sigma w/ teleconverter and w/o 2x IQ

The target image was at 300 meters (laughable at any level) - which is just short of infinity for the Tammy and an a little longer throw for the Russian. From what I can tell, the closer to infinity the better for the Russian. So maybe there are a few more pixels to resolve at infinity.

Yea, I am not going to post them - you are going to have to trust me - or you can buy my Russian for $300 :).

Mike

[Busted Knuckles]

so of course I had to take a pic of the moon - the top one is std HD 1920 x 1080 crop

https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7514/27206327392_c81d825b4d_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Hs8xhd)Moon Shot std HD (https://flic.kr/p/Hs8xhd) by mbarrett5076 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/77760916@N05/), on Flickr



https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7157/26695913654_a18166a73d_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/GF2x4m)Moon Shot (https://flic.kr/p/GF2x4m) by mbarrett5076 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/77760916@N05/), on Flickr

[Busted Knuckles]

LOL. Now canon patents 1000mm DO.

I am sure the ratio on price exceeds 20 to 1 ;)

[Kayaker72]

Brant can opine on the Sigma w/ teleconverter and w/o 2x IQ


Just saw this. I actually haven't played with the 2x TC on the Sigma. With the 1.4x TC the IQ is usable. I've had a few images I've liked.



LOL. Now canon patents 1000mm DO.

I am sure the ratio on price exceeds 20 to 1 ;)

Ha....what you pay for more IQ, AF, IS, and that red ring. :)

[DavidEccleston]

In the news post about the 1000mm DO, there's a comment about it costing "18000 euro". Not sure where the number came from, but I got the impression they thought it was expensive. I had my mind on the 1200mm f/5.6's price, and how DO lenses are typically higher priced than non-DO lenses, so I was thinking that 18000 euro was an incredible bargain.