The real Bigma - or How High The Moon?

From the Dec. PP&I comes a brief mention of a new Zeiss lens,
custom manufactured for a private client. Intended for use on a
Hasselblad 203 FE to "photograph wildlife at a great distance", its
focal length is 1700mm and weighs in at 564 pounds. Aperture and
cost not given, but a small photo of this BWL is on the bottom
corner of page 18. Anybody know what the effective focal length
would be if it could be adapted for use with an APS sensor DSLR?

"ASAAR" wrote in message
...
From the Dec. PP&I comes a brief mention of a new Zeiss lens,
custom manufactured for a private client. Intended for use on a
Hasselblad 203 FE to "photograph wildlife at a great distance", its
focal length is 1700mm and weighs in at 564 pounds. Aperture and
cost not given, but a small photo of this BWL is on the bottom
corner of page 18. Anybody know what the effective focal length
would be if it could be adapted for use with an APS sensor DSLR?

It's a 1700/4.0.

From a thread on the MF list: (where there was a link to a photo that's
since been taken down).


"Never before has the world of photography seen such a lens. The ZEISS
Apo Sonnar T* 4/1700 was developed by Carl Zeiss for a customer with
very high demands and a special interest in long distance wildlife
photography." dpreview

Actually this Zeiss statement is hype: Canon made 5000mm lenses for the
1964 Tokyo Olympics which came with their own pedestal and seat, and
had a nitrogen bottle attached so that the photographer could flush the
internal environment of the lens. You could mount a canon FT on it, as
well as a TV camera. When I worked in Photo-Retail in Pennsylvania in
the 80-s, I had an Oil-millionaire ask me if I could find one for
him... then the oil bust....


David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

On Thu, 30 Nov 2006 02:46:19 -0500, ASAAR wrote:

From the Dec. PP&I comes a brief mention of a new Zeiss lens,
custom manufactured for a private client. Intended for use on a
Hasselblad 203 FE to "photograph wildlife at a great distance", its
focal length is 1700mm and weighs in at 564 pounds. Aperture and
cost not given, but a small photo of this BWL is on the bottom
corner of page 18. Anybody know what the effective focal length
would be if it could be adapted for use with an APS sensor DSLR?

Just imagine hand holding it - two and a quarter cwt. :-(

--
Neil
'The moving finger writes and having writ still makes the same mistakes'.
swap 'ra' and delete 'l' for email

ASAAR wrote:
From the Dec. PP&I comes a brief mention of a new Zeiss lens,
custom manufactured for a private client. Intended for use on a
Hasselblad 203 FE to "photograph wildlife at a great distance", its
focal length is 1700mm and weighs in at 564 pounds. Aperture and
cost not given, but a small photo of this BWL is on the bottom
corner of page 18. Anybody know what the effective focal length
would be if it could be adapted for use with an APS sensor DSLR?

APS size sensors have a magnification factor of about 1.6X vs Full Size
35 mm film. So the Equivalent focal length on an APS DSLR would be a
whopping 2720 mm!!!!
Bob Williams

On Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:55:47 +0900, David J. Littleboy wrote:

"Never before has the world of photography seen such a lens. The ZEISS
Apo Sonnar T* 4/1700 was developed by Carl Zeiss for a customer with
very high demands and a special interest in long distance wildlife
photography." dpreview

Actually this Zeiss statement is hype: Canon made 5000mm lenses for the
1964 Tokyo Olympics which came with their own pedestal and seat, and
had a nitrogen bottle attached so that the photographer could flush the
internal environment of the lens. You could mount a canon FT on it, as
well as a TV camera. When I worked in Photo-Retail in Pennsylvania in
the 80-s, I had an Oil-millionaire ask me if I could find one for
him... then the oil bust....

Probably not well suited for the veldt.

Methinks dpreview needs to hear the voice of an expert:

"That's not a lens. THAT's a lens." -- Paul Hogan

In article , David J. Littleboy
wrote:

From a thread on the MF list: (where there was a link to a photo that's
since been taken down).


"Never before has the world of photography seen such a lens. The ZEISS
Apo Sonnar T* 4/1700 was developed by Carl Zeiss for a customer with
very high demands and a special interest in long distance wildlife
photography." dpreview

Actually this Zeiss statement is hype: Canon made 5000mm lenses for the
1964 Tokyo Olympics which came with their own pedestal and seat, and
had a nitrogen bottle attached so that the photographer could flush the
internal environment of the lens. You could mount a canon FT on it, as
well as a TV camera. When I worked in Photo-Retail in Pennsylvania in
the 80-s, I had an Oil-millionaire ask me if I could find one for
him... then the oil bust....


this one?

http://www.canonfd.com/mirrorlenses/pages/page10.html

On Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:32:14 -0800, Bob Williams wrote:

From the Dec. PP&I comes a brief mention of a new Zeiss lens,
custom manufactured for a private client. Intended for use on a
Hasselblad 203 FE to "photograph wildlife at a great distance", its
focal length is 1700mm and weighs in at 564 pounds. Aperture and
cost not given, but a small photo of this BWL is on the bottom
corner of page 18. Anybody know what the effective focal length
would be if it could be adapted for use with an APS sensor DSLR?

APS size sensors have a magnification factor of about 1.6X vs Full Size
35 mm film. So the Equivalent focal length on an APS DSLR would be a
whopping 2720 mm!!!!

Whoops! Check again. The lens was built for a Hassy, not a D5,
so it should be quite a bit longer than 2,720 mm!

ASAAR wrote:
From the Dec. PP&I comes a brief mention of a new Zeiss lens,
custom manufactured for a private client. Intended for use on a
Hasselblad 203 FE to "photograph wildlife at a great distance", its
focal length is 1700mm and weighs in at 564 pounds.

I guess this just begs the question of when does
a lens become a telescope.

Or vice versa
http://www.digiscoping.co.uk/

Or something.

BugBear

SimonLW wrote:
"ASAAR" wrote in message
...
From the Dec. PP&I comes a brief mention of a new Zeiss lens,
custom manufactured for a private client. Intended for use on a
Hasselblad 203 FE to "photograph wildlife at a great distance", its
focal length is 1700mm and weighs in at 564 pounds. Aperture and
cost not given, but a small photo of this BWL is on the bottom
corner of page 18. Anybody know what the effective focal length
would be if it could be adapted for use with an APS sensor DSLR?

If my calcs are any good, it gives the angle of view of something like a
5200mm.
-S



Am I missing something here? If it is 1700mm, then it's 1700mm,
irrespective of which part of the image you crop. Or do you all mean
something else that I am missing?

"ASAAR" wrote in message
...
From the Dec. PP&I comes a brief mention of a new Zeiss lens,
custom manufactured for a private client. Intended for use on a
Hasselblad 203 FE to "photograph wildlife at a great distance", its
focal length is 1700mm and weighs in at 564 pounds. Aperture and
cost not given, but a small photo of this BWL is on the bottom
corner of page 18. Anybody know what the effective focal length
would be if it could be adapted for use with an APS sensor DSLR?

If my calcs are any good, it gives the angle of view of something like a
5200mm.
-S