I use a Novoflex f8/600, basically as my main lens since lately I've been shooting little else than birds. As mentioned by others, center sharpness and contrast are excellent, but in the corners there's something to be desired. Also, when used on newer Pentax bodies, expect a lot of vignetting in the corners (which according to the Novoflex literature is caused by the narrow light path of the small pentax bodies). However, with an *istD this might not be much of an issue.
Unless you work from a hide or photograph birds that are relatively tame, 600 mm still isn't a very long lens. I routinely put a 1.7x converter behind it, and even then I normally do get rather small birds on big slides ;-). However, I mainly do raptors, and they are among the more shy of the bird realm. As a consequence, I also have to use rather fast film, so most of my shots end up rather grainy. I like that, but it isn't exactly be publication quality. Again, with an *istD you circumvent that problem, I'd imagine. You might want to have a look at this:
http://www.birdpix.nl/album_search.php?search_type=username&search=Karel
The recent pictures in this guy's album were shot with a canon 300D and a Novoflex/Leitz 560 mm head. Not entirely comparable, I know, but perhaps it gives some idea. You might be able to filter his technical data out of the Dutch comments.
Novoflex lenses are best suited to use with a shoulder mount and perhaps a bean bag. The optional tripod collar can only be mounted near the lens' center of gravity, which leaves quite some room for vibration on even the heaviest of tripods. The old novoflex shoulder stock is, however, the finest shoulder mount I've ever used. Brilliant design.
A huge advantage of the old Novoflex heads is the price...check German eBay, they are quite common there. You should be able to get a fully functional kit for only a few hundred dollars. They weigh about 2.5 kilograms, so shipping costs should be manageable.
Hope this helps, Z.
At 22:37 16/01/05, you wrote:
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 22:25:43 +0100 From: Carlos Royo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: Novoflex tele lenses Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
As some people around here are much more knowledgeable than me about long lenses, I would like to know their thoughts about the performance of the follow focus tele lenses made by Novoflex. I have only used a Sigma 400 5.6 AF, which I sold to a list member years ago, and the excellent F* 300 mm. 4.5 I still keep the F* 300 mm. but it is a short lens for birding and other kind of nature photography. If I ever get an *istD or other Pentax DSLR, perhaps the crop factor will allow a narrower FOV, but I will surely need a longer lens.
Carlos
