DESCRIPTION

A 1000mm telephoto lens is big, heavy, and frightfully expensive, right? Well the answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no. There are some really big, heavy, and amazingly expensive 1000mm lenses around, like the Zeiss Mirotar which currently sells for more than most luxury cars, but few photographers need something this exotic. One way to make a long lens like this smaller and lighter is to limit it to a relatively slow aperture. Another way is to use a mirror lens design. Combine both approaches and you have the best of all possible worlds for many photographers, and at a more affordable price to boot. The new Adorama Pro Optic 1000mm f/11 is a good example of this approach. By using the folded optical path of a mirror lens (see sidebar) its length has been greatly reduced, and by restricting it to a reasonable aperture of f/11 the diameter has been reduced. Both contribute to its light weight.