Show us your Mirror Lens shots!

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

Impressive images guys!!!

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

Studying ... with Canon CL f4/250mm

[Akira]

Studying ... with Canon CL f4/250mm

Beautiful shot!  The bokeh looks unique.  Never knew about this lens...

[Birna Rørslett]

Another with the 1000mm f/11 Reflex-Nikkor. A shot across the birch-forested delta of Øyeren, just as sap rises and colour birches reddish before onset of leafing.

The depth-of-field is way too shallow to keep but a slice of the forest into sharp focus, even when shooting across a delta 5-6 km wide.

[Birna Rørslett]

Another from the same area. This time an industrial smokestack as multitemporal IR with the B.I.G. 500mm f/5.6 Russian mirror lens. At the time I was unaware of the focus shift introduced by the rear-mounted Wratten 87C filter as the D70 used here had no Live View. I decided to keep the image nonetheless. Sharpness isn't always of paramount importance.

[Birna Rørslett]

I decided to try my luck with the Transit of 2004 (and in 2012, but that is another story) thus assembled a lot of appropriate gear and drove through the night south along the coast to get clear skies. The Transit itself occurred early in the morning.

The set-up included numerous mirror lenses as evidenced from the overview below. From left to right 1000mm f/10 MTO (Russian) + TC-14B, B.I.G. 500 mm f/5.6  (Russian) + TC-301, and an Itorex 300mm f/5.6 + TC-201. At that time the Reflex-Nikkor 1000mm hadn't arrived, or rather, I had sold the one I had in exchange for an old model with external filter wheel and the lens was still in transport. Thus I had to make do with whatever was available to me.

[Birna Rørslett]

The footage by the MTO delivered a nice "string of pearls" as Venus transited the solar disc.

[Birna Rørslett]

... whilst the shorter Itorex literally burned out the sensor of my D70. I got just this image before the camera went up in flames and smoke. Still, a result I treasure. What is a camera worthy anyway?

[Birna Rørslett]

The 1000mm f/10 MTO is not a bad performer, but gets easily out of alignment. The lens casing should be more robust I'd surmise.

I use it mainly for false-colour IR emulation these days. Here a test shot with the Fuji S5Pro Broad-band.

Distance to target slightly above 1 km.

[Birna Rørslett]

The tiny and featherweight Itorex 300mm f/5.6 mirror lens is not that bad, but its low weight makes it extremely prone to vibrations from any source.

A landscape shot to prove its decent performance.

[Birna Rørslett]

However, the featherweight of the Itorex makes it easy to put the lens into an empty pocket and use it for experimental purposes. If one foregoes any expectation of critical sharpness (with the lens hand-held), much fun can be had from it.

Here are two different views of Pahrump Valley, Nevada. Using the broad-band Panasonic GH-2 and no filtration

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

Very nice results you got Birna! Now I finally got to know how this amazing photo happened with that burnt sensor!!!

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

Spring has arrived here....with Canon CL 4/250mm CAT

[atpaula]

Very pleasant shots you got Dr Klaus.
Interesting how close this telephoto is able to work with.
I prefer this last one and the other with the lady at the top of the page. 

[Akira]

... whilst the shorter Itorex literally burned out the sensor of my D70. I got just this image before the camera went up in flames and smoke. Still, a result I treasure. What is a camera worthy anyway?

If I remember correctly, you disclosed for the first time that the D70 was burnt.  Why?  Did the ND film have some pin hole?