Vivitar 800mm Lens
Written by Dave Barth 19 January 2009.
Back in the late '70s Vivitar appeared on the scene with a series of exceptional lenses. Today the Vivitar
brand has been debased and sits at the lower end of the market, but in the mid-70's to early '80's the brand
appeared on some fascinating and high-quality lenses. Probably the most famous of these was the first 70~210mm
f/3.5 macro zoom with the Series 1 moniker. It had incredible close-up capabilities.
The Series I line of lenses was designed by an American company - Opcon Associates, of Stamford Connecticut, whose
chief designer, E. Betensky had worked for Perkin-Elmer as a senior optical designer. Perkin-Elmer worked
extensively at the time for NASA as well as other U.S. government agencies and is renown as the designers and
builders of the Hubble Space Telescope's optical systems (including the near-sighted mirror).
The Solid Cats
One of the least known, yet most interesting, of the Series 1 lenses was the 800mm f/11 Solid Catadioptric
(solid mirror) lens. It was originally designed and built for the U.S. military by Perkin-Elmer.
There also was a 600mm f/8 lens in the
series of the same design. What made these two mirror lenses unique was that they were of a solid glass design,
with no air spaces between the front lens, rear mirror and front reflector. This means that this 800mm lens weighs
less than 3 lbs and is just slight longer than 3 inches in length. It also means that this lens is extremely rugged.
The lens barrel is metal and feels like it could survive reentry. When these lenses were new in the late 1970's,
they sold for about U.S. $650 (around $2,000 in 2007 dollars).