On Sat, 22 Aug 1998 03:23:02 GMT, "Jim Williams" wrote:

>>Does anyone remember the Vivitar Series 1 600mm f/4 Solid Catadioptric
>>lens? What a hunk of glass that was! A unique design, it was almost solid
>>glass, instead of being filled mostly with air, as most catadioptric
>>(mirror) lenses are. It must have been awfully heavy, but I suspect it was
>>probably quite sharp, as it was one of Vivitar's original Series 1 line of
>>lenses. (I'm actually not quite sure that it was an f/4 design; it may
>have
>>been slower.) Has anyone ever seen one?

>f/4.5, I think. I've never seen one, but they've got an excellent
>reputation (Herb Keppler lauded them in an article on little-known
>"superlenses" a couple of years ago.) It may not have been quite as heavy
>as you'd think -- I thought some of the "filler" was acrylic instead of
>glass (or maybe I'm thinking of the shorter version; I think they also made
>a 450mm Solid Cat.) Either way, very few were sold; they're supposed to be
>quite rare and valuable now. Anybody out there in 'net-and have one?

As I recall, the Vivitar Series I "solid cat" came in three versions,
the 450mm f4.5, the 600mm f8, and the 800mm f11. They were
made in the US by Perkin Elmer, and were quite compact for the FL's.
I have the 800mm, which is an OK long lens, but it is easily beaten in
image quality by the older-style Nikkor 500mm f8 + TC14 - though
the 800 appears to have a much longer FL than the 700mm Nikkor
combination. Illumination is remarkably even for a mirror with
the 800mm I have. It is quite heavy and amazingly small.
Anyone have the 450 to sell??? ;-)