Vivitar Series 1 600mm f8 solid catadioptric telephoto lens

[Sandy Vongries]

JDM, Thanks!

[Gary Naka]

The Vivitar 600mm solid cat arrived :)

Man is it a short lens.

The lens hood that I will have to make will be longer than the lens.

[rick_drawbridge]

One lens that seems to have been a little overlooked in this thread is the little Tamron Adaptall II SP 500mm Catadioptic (Model 55b). Using Mangin mirrors in it's construction, at 87mm in length it's only 3 mm longer than the Vivitar and, weighing in at 575g, it's considerably lighter than the Vivitar at 1360g. As it focuses down to a handy 1.7m I use it extensively on my Sony A7-series full-frame digital cameras for botanical photography; I increase the ISO until I can hand-hold the rig at 1/1000th and the results can be quite striking. I'll post an image I took this afternoon of the Everlasting Sweetpea (Lathyrus Latifolius) in bloom. But first, a diagram of the construction, courtesy Adaptall-2.com

 

Construction

 

 

Lathyrus Latifolius

 

[Mike Gammill]

I also have the Tamron 500 f8 Adaptall II. I find it to be a sharp, compact and useful mirror optic.

[JDMvW]

One lens that seems to have been a little overlooked in this thread

 

Not overlooked, just not on the topic of the Vivitar solid cat.

As for me personally, I'm still thinking that over a dozen catadioptric lenses may be enough for one person.:oops:

[Gary Naka]

JDM

Maybe we need a thread on mirror lenses in general.

I think we only have 2; the Vivitar solid cat and the Sigma mirror threads.

Now that I've started my collection (of 3), I'm getting into the subject of mirror lenses.

 

Maybe I should get a Nikon mount for my wife's 5 inch reflector telescope ;)

[woodrim]

JDM

Maybe we need a thread on mirror lenses in general.

 

Is there one?

[mwmcbroom]

I just searched the forums here and I wasn't able to find any threads that were dedicated to the general topic "mirror lenses." So, I thought I'd start one. Go here:

 

Cool Mirror Lenses You've Known and Loved -- or at least Liked

[teddyweverka]

Any luck with the lens cap? I have the plastic 106mm on mine, but the old thing is broken down into bits.

[teddyweverka]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J8WRZBC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got this lens cap to fit the 600mm f8 solid cat by wrapping a few layers of tape to the lens.

[Sandy Vongries]

There are quite a few plastic press on caps from grocery items that will work, just find the size you need. Free, if it is a product you use,

[leonchase]

Hi,

 

Thank you for all the valuable information! I found this post after a friend recently gave me one of these lenses, with the filters and case. Apparently her father was a private investigator in New York City, and used this lens as part of a counterfeiter sting in Chinatown in the 1980s.

 

Just for fun, I adapted it to fit my Canon C100 MkII video camera. You can see the results here: