Nikon 1000mm f11 reflex - any good?
 

Hi there - has anyone experience of a 1000mm reflex lens? I know you either love or hate the doughnuts but has anyone used one and what were its pros or cons? Thanks - Andy.

Andy, are you planning to buy that? If yes then try to figure out how often you're going to use that. Not only for doughnuts but just one opening may cause serious frustration at times..

Hi, Rudra, yes, I am planning on getting one. I know it will not be used very often, it's closest focus is 25ft and there are difficulties with focus at f11 but I intend it for landscape work, and shy animals/birds. My arthritis now prevents me from using the best telephoto - two legs- from getting close to various stuff so I thought I might try a longer reach lens. I also thought that "live view" should help with focus - any thoughts are very welcome. It will be used on a Manfrotto 055V tripod with Arca Swiss B1 ball head, which I think should be sturdy enough.

Manfrotto 055V tripod with Arca Swiss B1 ball head sounds good enough especially when that 1000mm lens in not heavy.

Andy, I think Sassan is the right person to check out more. He uses one.

I used my D2X and 70-200 VR f2.8 on a Manfrotto 055 pro tripod and found it very wibbly-wobbly. Consequently most of my shots were blurred!

Also at almost 2kg I would not describe the 1000mm lens as 'not heavy'

I suggest a much sturdier tripod and heavy duty head especially with the slow shutter speeds f11 would yield.

Lens spec here

I have got an old Canon FD 500mm mirror which was difficult to use because of difficulty in focussing due to the fixed f8 aperture and narrow DOF. It was used in the film days of course which meant slow shutter speeds which sometimes caused blur due to subject movement. The Nikon superb high ISO capabilities will help there of course but even so I wonder if it will be a bright day only lens. I did try my mirror lens with a 2x converter once and only once because it exacerbated the above so much and wobble in a hide with people moving was impossible to deal with. Persuaded me, once I had gone EOS, to buy the cheapest autofocus 500 I could which was a 170-500 Sigma.

Hi Andy, I've no experience of the Nikkor one, but did use a Russian 'copy' for a while. Bit of a monster. I couldn't help thinking it wouldve been nice to have a wider field spotting lens on the hotshoe to try and track objects a little better. I didnt use it enough really to get the best from it, but mirrors are certainly a love 'em or hate 'em type thing. I think they're great, Sigma did a 600mm f4 one for a short while. I always fancied a bright mirror lens, but they're extremely rare....I never found one before the novelty and money for one was spent.

Andy,
I just had to read up on the Arca Swiss B1, never having had such a fancy ballhead.
The ballhead seems fine but I would have serious reservations as to the 055 legs with that lens. I have an 055 and know its limitation particularly if I put it up against my Slik Pro.

I regard the 055 more of lightweight travel job whereas the Slik is a serious camera platform. Foxy has a similar Slik to mine, so we are singing from the same hymn sheet in that regard.
For my moonshots when that thread was active, with 400mm + 2x tc on the Slik tripod I even added 5kg of ballast and used mirror lock and remote to all to combat vibrations.

Perhaps a long lens user could comment on the Gitzo range as that is probably your best lightweight solution on the legs front.

Don

Sure Stephen. Add weight of D3 to that. D3 body can’t be less than 1.2kg. So we’re talking about roughly 3kg plus.
As we all know that f11 need some miraculous light to allow using slower shutter speeds and in that case no single heavy duty tripod would help…
..probably two tripods setup would help. One goes for body and other for the lens. With mirror lock up of course.
Don, I doubt any single tripod can solve this issue. That lens is made for high shutter speed and high ISO.
But it still has one single point screw to lock the camera.

Andy’s current setup is fine for higher ISO and fast shutter speeds. It’s only working as a support, which is little better than a monopod.

Thanks Folks, I've had a trip to my local dealer and I'm investing in a Manfrotto 058 Triaut Tripod LINK http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/...lsf=68&child=1


with an Acratech GV2 gimbal ballhead LINK http://acratech.net/product.php?productid=9

I think it should do the job - I also have the 500mm f4 P Nikkor.

058 is a solid investment Andy. Mine is working fine for years now. What price they're asking for?

Its old stock so £180 Rudra.

I'm not keen on mirror lenses at all but I do have one that I think is worth considering instead of the Nikon 1000mm f11...The Russian MTO 1000A 1100mm f10.5...It offers a 100mm FL advantage yet its a wisker faster than the Nikon and its bound to be a lot cheaper too.

As a result, a lens with a focal length of 1000mm has a physical size of about 30 cm in length. This complicates the process.

You only have to move the focus ring a fraction of a degree to change the focus by many feet!

Although the thread is nearly ten years old, I think it only fair to point out this is actually the case for all lenses at the more distant end of the focus scale. Adjusting focus from distant stars to the moon (more miles than you can comprehend) hardly needs any focus adjustment at all :) In my experience the degree of focus movement with a mirror lens is not that different to a refractor of similar focal length. The design of the thread on the focusing helicoid being chosen to make it match the focal length. There is a range of focus sensitivities, some lenses giving more focus movement than others AF lenses tend to have less movement for a given change in focus, as precision in manual focusing is not so much of an issue.

Ohhhh Gush and this is an old thread with some earlier questions directed at me, when I never saw. So awfully sorry for that.

Yes "Petrochemist" and focusing with these (CAT lenses), in general is not difficult with a big cavate: "How much of perfect focus can we see on the view finder of our digital camera? as any degree of out of focus, will show up in final image".

Then the next biggie is not infinity focus, if it is achievable. The main problem is that it can not be achieved, especially with certain brands (s.a. Canon) and on DSLR. This is due to "Flange distance" and mirrorless did really served us fine here.

Well I won't go over the details but if anyone has a question, please say so and I'll try to help, if I can. BTW if anyone interested to buy this type of lens, I can pass you some secrets and some good suggestions.

Yes mirrorless has helped a huge amount. My Celestron telescope cant focus to infinity with a DSLR in prime focus mode. With a mirrorless its easy :) I've never tried my DSLR on my Helios 1000mm scope just went straight to mirrorless. Despite the need for re-colimating the scope it works reasonably well with the tube tucked under my arm! I picked it up very cheap due to a dented tube, which has off-course got things out of alignment, so the two sides of the image focus at slightly different distances.