I believe it was discontinued in 2002...maybe 2003. It is a beast. Came with it's own tripod and was a great lens for shooting in MLB ball parks from the outfield. My understanding is the besides the Oakley guy, National Geographic had one, SI had at least two, one on the east coast one on the west coast. More than likely the PGA or MLB Photos owns one. I am also under the impression that CPS carries one in Irvine and one in New Jersey for special request use by Canon artists of light, like Art Wolfe, George Lepp, and others...When I asked my CPS rep about borrowing one for the Iditarod sled dog race (I was half serious...who would want to carry that in the snow) he laughed at me..
Another thumbs up for a refractor - or a Maksutov telescope. I regularly shoot with a 1250mm f/12.5 Mak and I love it. Oh, by the way, you can get one for about $600. If you want a straight refractor telephoto you can afford, you can look at the Orion 100mm (aperture! ) ED apocromat. It's rated as good as the Teleview at half the price - around $1100, I think. Check www.telescope.com.
A couple of years ago a Melbourne shop called "Camera Lane" was offering a free car (compact, but well specced) if you bought the 1200mm. At that time the asking price was $AU120,000 (about $80,000 US). Maybe they'll still do it.
For you telescope types: any claps or boos for the Celestron 9.25 SCT?
Carl Auer wrote:
I believe it was discontinued in 2002...maybe 2003. It is a beast. Came with it's own tripod and was a great lens for shooting in MLB ball parks from the outfield. My understanding is the besides the Oakley guy, National Geographic had one, SI had at least two, one on the east coast one on the west coast. More than likely the PGA or MLB Photos owns one. I am also under the impression that CPS carries one in Irvine and one in New Jersey for special request use by Canon artists of light, like Art Wolfe, George Lepp, and others...When I asked my CPS rep about borrowing one for the Iditarod sled dog race (I was half serious...who would want to carry that in the snow) he laughed at me.. ...Show more →
Add one more for CPS Australia. They drag it out for the industry trade shows and to the three CPS-supported annual sporting events from time to time.
The 9.25 in the old days was sorta mystic beast. Many folks thought it was a fluke of design providing the best views for the least dollars of any OTA anywhere. Some folks claim the newer ones are not up to the standards of the old ones since a company in China is now making them after buying Celestron.
Never the less they are still great OTAs. A bud of mine has one and I am very impressed with it. The Tallahassee Astronomical Society has a 14 inch celestron mounted on a concrete pier in a shuttered dome and if you join ($US48) a year I am authorized to instruct members in its use and once you pass the test you get the combination to the gate leading to the 5acre dark site where it is located as well as the combination to the dome. Most reasonabley sized cities have an astronomical society with somewhat similar arangements.
I also have one of the Orion ED80s (a 600mm APO) that I have used with a T-mount on a DSLR. I would recomend you have a tripod on the level of a Gitzo 1410 and a gimbal mount. Or you could simply put it on an like this one.
[url=http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=198749&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=atlas+mount]]Atlas mount
The biggest problem with using an APO like the ED80 or ED100 is how slow they are. And the Maks are even slower. I have imaged a couple of times with my Mak using a DSLR, but the T-mount and adapter on the DSLR makes it stick out at one end causing real ballance problems. And this is not even discussing AE/AF problems.
I still use my OTAs on astronomy mounts and tripods for viewing the sky, but for long range photography nothing comes close to the Sigmonster. Romy has stacked TCs on his Sigma 300-800 to get unreal focal lengths. Sometimes he is forced to AF, but as long as you stay below say a 2500 fl or so and have a 1 series body in the bright sun you should be able to AF.
While I have no proof I suspect the reason there are no big glass alternatives is Sigma offers such a functional 300-800 mm zoom capable of taking TCs and still preserving AF/AE and suprisingly good IQ.
there are photos floating around of a XL-1, EF>XL adaptor, 2x TC, and 1200mm 5.6L, which should be an effective FL of 17,200mm or so.
Supposedly, they were reading a doctor's eye chart from 20 blocks away with that setup....
numbers I've heard range between 10 and 25 produced, supposedly for $90,000...though if it was $60,000, that's not nearly AS bad...(gonna go rush out and buy 3 now! lol)
I wish there were some way to find exact amounts of some lenses produced - I'm interested in the 1200 5.6, 600 4, 400DO, 400 2.8, and 200 1.8's especially.
wtlloyd wrote:
I bet we'll get a 700mm or 800mm f/5.6 IS out of Canon someday.....
Should I start holding my breath now?
No. What would be the purpose of IS on a 800, or even 700mm lens. Even Shaq would not be able to hand hold the thing. Not to mention the many threads debating how to use IS on tripods with even 300 or 400mm lens.
One real problem with big glass is the IQ is probably more dependent on photographer disipline, good plates, good gimbal head, and good tripod than the glass itself. I still cant get over how the IQ is using my Sigmonster. Course it is mounted on the Bogen 3421 gimbal mount and a Gitzo 1410 and I use a remote shutter release and MLU and 2 or 10 sec delay. I have tried it in H mode with a 1d2 and the results are acceptable. Nevertheless for real IQ with big glass you probably would need to radically alter your shooting style, even if you were comming from a 600 IS.
According to the latest canon EOS catalog, the 1200mm f5.6 is still a production lens and is built once a customer places an order. Not sure how much the price is as canon brochures don't list prices.
The 1200mm L was part of the fierce competition between Nikon and Canon that got really crazy in the 1980's & 90's where each was producing super lenses like the 50mm f1.0 or 50mm f1.2 AIS, 1200mm f5.6L, 200mm f1.8, etc.
Nikon came out with some very impressive optics and won that battle as far as SLR's were concerned - the "F" series (starting with the F3-HP versus the T90 and the EOS 1 versus the F4s) were ahead of canon. The optics were almost a tie with canon just slightly ahead with the EOS EF "L" lenses . However, seems like canon is back on top for now for both SLR's and lenses.
I would be very satisfied if canon delivers a 500mm f5.6L for around $1500
Ragebot - actually, the IS does as much or more to correct shutter and mirror vibration as it does gross motion. When I have the 2x on my 600, I am not waving the lens around, taking flight shots. It's mirror prefire, often with a remote release, and the wimberley is locked down and I am forcing down the lens with my left hand.
pascal03 - don't know that it's still available - they dropped it from LensWork 3, it was in book 2.....I heard the optical glass formula was for leaded glass, and they no longer are working with those old leaded formulas.....
OT: I would like to see a super teli zoom lens. They use to make a 150-600 f/5.6 L in the FD mount, Would be nice to see it made in EF mount. Add IS and you have a versitile lens!
) ED apocromat. It's rated as good as the Teleview at half the price - around $1100, I think. Check www.telescope.com.