M42 with Canon 300mm Fluorite

[xelasnave]

Gee I thought there was about 6 grand there. I would rather invest in one of those than a refractor with double the price tag
alex

[astroboy]

Excellent image Bert , just shows there are some excellent lenses out there for anyone willing to hunt them down and take a chance.
There are also some crap ones , my worst being a Pentax 800mm F4 ( yes F4 ) looked impressive but is only usfull as a boat anchor ( it was 20 KG )
Now trying a Nikon 180 F2.8 ED with Sbig ST8i and HA filter so far so good.

Zane

[avandonk]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

Gee I thought there was about 6 grand there. I would rather invest in one of those than a refractor with double the price tag
alex

You may be getting confused here are both lenses.White one a Canon 300mm F2.8L about $6-7k Aus. new. Black one Canon 300mm F2.8 Fluorite an earlier version of the white one.
The white one has one Fluorite element and two ED elements.Super APO?
The black one has one Fluorite element and the usual glass available at the time.
The white one only works with a Canon camera as it is all electronic even in manual mode.
The nice thing about the black one is that it is manual and can easily be converted to work on any DSLR or SLR as it has an Arriflex mount. This is not the FD version.The FD version cannot be used with later cameras without an extra lens element to allow focus at infinity.This generally ruins the optical quality.
The Canon 300mm F2.8 Fluorite with the Arriflex mount is extremely rare.They were made by Canon for the motion picture industry where quality mattered not price.

Here's some info on early Canon lenses
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...es/300mmfd.htm



Bert

[avandonk]

Originally Posted by astroboy

Excellent image Bert , just shows there are some excellent lenses out there for anyone willing to hunt them down and take a chance.
There are also some crap ones , my worst being a Pentax 800mm F4 ( yes F4 ) looked impressive but is only usfull as a boat anchor ( it was 20 KG )
Now trying a Nikon 180 F2.8 ED with Sbig ST8i and HA filter so far so good.

Zane

The Pentax should work OK with H alpha, surely it can focus at one wavelength
bert

[astroboy]

Originally Posted by avandonk

The Pentax should work OK with H alpha, surely it can focus at one wavelength
bert

Its some years since I had the lens and I was keen on film photography at the time and used a 77mm 25A drop in filter for B&W with a Pentax 6x7 and tech pan, the biggest problem was the lens wasn't sharp , particularly off axis had just about every aberration I could think of and then some.
Had to stop the lens down so far ( F8 ) it was no point using a 20KG lens when my old Genisis would out perform it.
Had a Pentax 400 F4 for the 6X7 it was very good.
Don't know how Johnny Horn got a great comet shot with his 800 F4 tried to email him before I bought the lens but no reply.