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Nikon Mirror Lens

Coincidently, I see today that Matsuiyastore , the excellent Japanese camera store, has the Nikon equivalent of my MTO mirror lens to for sale: NIKON AI REFLEX NIKKOR 1000mm f/11 Note the beefy tripod mounting socket and long focusing lever. Both great features to make this lens much more practical than the MTO. It is, of course, a much more expensive item!

Moons of Jupiter

The clear evening skies at the moment have provided great views of Jupiter, which is currently well placed for Northern Hemisphere observers. To get a closer look, I got out my Russian MTO 11CA, which is a 1000mm f10 mirror lens originally built for the Soviet military in the Cold War period. It is built like the proverbial tank and reasonably sharp for such modestly priced lens. I hooked it up to my Panasonic GF-1 via an M42 to micro 4/3 adapter. This gives an equivalent focal length of an enormous 2000mm! MTO 11CA 1000mm f10 Mirror Lens Pointing the combo at Jupiter showed a clear view of the four brightest moons: Jupiter's 4 brightest moons L-R: Callisto, Ganymede, Jupiter,  Io  and  Europa Unfortunately, there is no surface detail visible on Jupiter and the whole image is lacking in sharpness. This was mainly due to difficulties in keeping the lens still, as it is a light lens with a long focal length, making it susce...

Indian Summer

With England basking in a late Indian Summer, we've been having some terrific sunrises over misty fields: Autumn Sunrise I shot this with the iPhone4 and in my opinion the quality and immediacy of such devices mark the death knell of the traditional compact camera. Also shot these dahlias in the morning light. Note that these were the real colours and not enhanced in software :-) Dahlias I used my Nikon D300s, 70-200 f/2.8G VR II and TC-1.4E II converter for this shot and all the following images, which were captured in the local fields just after sunrise: Wildflower Covered in Dew Morning Dew Lone Bunny Bark Wild Rose Field Funghi

Autumn is Coming

Autumn is definitely arriving here in St Albans, with the leaves starting to fall and the squirrels collecting acorns. Autumn Berries This greedy fellow was running around our garden with two acorns in his mouth at the same time: Not one acorn but two! The farmers have ploughed all the fields round about and there are plenty of Birds of Prey to be seen soaring high over the freshly ploughed fields looking for food. Unfortunately I couldn't get close to them and the following shots are the best I could do armed with my  Nikon D300s, 70-200 f/2.8G VR II and TC-1.4E II converter  (420mm focal length equivalent). I think you would need a 600mm and to get a lot closer to get decent shots. Buzzard SparrowHawk (female) SparrowHawk (female) Kestrel (female) Also saw a group of 3 partridges picking over the fields, in the same place as the Birds of Prey above - I wonder how long they will last before becoming food themselves?