760mm Apo Nikkor f/11 vs Nikkor-T ED 800mm f/12

[Bob Salomon]

I know who makes many of the lenses for NASA, the DEA, NSA, etc., - lenses which were more sophisticated 30 yrs ago than anything the public can buy today, or probably even imagine. Well, maybe they would make one of us something super if we had a credit card without any limit. But the Soviets certainly knew how to turn ballpoint pens into recorders, cameras, and lethal injection guns; so who knows.

You talking about Perkin Elmar?

[Joerg Krusche]

You talking about Perkin Elmar?

Yes .. Perkin Elmer and others .. but often no iris, extreme weight .. a challenge to adapt .. and were they so much better ?

[Bob Salomon]

Yes .. Perkin Elmer and others .. but often no iris, extreme weight .. a challenge to adapt .. and were they so much better ?

In the mid 60s I managed the camera department in a Caldors on RT 7 in Norwalk a mile or so south of P.E. They would come down to us every few days and buy top of the line refracting and reflecting telescopes. Then, after a few days, they would bring back the scopes, less the lenses. To see if we could give them credit. Candor had a very lenient return policy so we did give them credit for the units.
After a while a couple of the engineers brought in a reflector lens about a 500mm focal length! But very small and very heavy, it was obviously hand made and had a Nikon mount on it. They wanted me to shoot a couple of rolls of film with it. So I did and quickly discovered that it wasn’t all that sharp! When I showed them the shots and commented on the performance they explained that the lens would be used by being shot through a rather thick quartz window on the Appollo Space Program, and the quartz window will sharpen things up. They had used the lenses out of our telescopes to prototype the lens they made that they called the Solid Cat.
A few years later P.E. Teamed up with Ponder and Best and sold the lens as the Vivitar Solid Cat through camera stores. It still was not very sharp!

[Joerg Krusche]

Interesting.. I was thinking more of lenses for aerial reconnaissance .. not the newer ones .. certainly optimized at infinity .. but at focal lengths over 300mm real beasts ..

In the mid 60s I managed the camera department in a Caldors on RT 7 in Norwalk a mile or so south of P.E. They would come down to us every few days and buy top of the line refracting and reflecting telescopes. Then, after a few days, they would bring back the scopes, less the lenses. To see if we could give them credit. Candor had a very lenient return policy so we did give them credit for the units.
After a while a couple of the engineers brought in a reflector lens about a 500mm focal length! But very small and very heavy, it was obviously hand made and had a Nikon mount on it. They wanted me to shoot a couple of rolls of film with it. So I did and quickly discovered that it wasn’t all that sharp! When I showed them the shots and commented on the performance they explained that the lens would be used by being shot through a rather thick quartz window on the Appollo Space Program, and the quartz window will sharpen things up. They had used the lenses out of our telescopes to prototype the lens they made that they called the Solid Cat.
A few years later P.E. Teamed up with Ponder and Best and sold the lens as the Vivitar Solid Cat through camera stores. It still was not very sharp!

[Bob Salomon]

Interesting.. I was thinking more of lenses for aerial reconnaissance .. not the newer ones .. certainly optimized at infinity .. but at focal lengths over 300mm real beasts ..

I sold NASA both Linhof Aerial Technika and Rollei 6008 systems for use in the Space Shuttle and all the lenses used on the Rollei were off the shelf lenses and all the lenses for the Linhof were Linhof selected common lenses selected by Linhof for the Aero Technika.
The Solid Cat was 500mm and designed for use specifically for aerial work through that quartz window.

[Joerg Krusche]

I sold NASA both Linhof Aerial Technika and Rollei 6008 systems for use in the Space Shuttle and all the lenses used on the Rollei were off the shelf lenses and all the lenses for the Linhof were Linhof selected common lenses selected by Linhof for the Aero Technika.
The Solid Cat was 500mm and designed for use specifically for aerial work through that quartz window.

Bob,

thx for info !!

[Pere Casals]

I did and quickly discovered that it wasn’t all that sharp!

The other lens Perkin Elmer made that was not sharp was Hubble telescope They had to send astronauts to LEO (STS-61 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-61) to fix it... since then it delivered amazing results

Another PE superb job was KH-9. U-2, SR-71 and Apollo were attached to that camera, saying that the camera was attached to the vehicles is less exact

[Bob Salomon]

The other lens Perkin Elmer made that was not sharp was Hubble telescope They had to send astronauts to LEO (STS-61 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-61) to fix it... since then it delivered amazing results

Another PE superb job was KH-9. U-2, SR-71 and Apollo were attached to that camera, saying that the camera was attached to the vehicles is less exact

But NASA signed off on the Hubble and told P.E. That a test, that would have discovered the fault, was not needed.
A friend of ours was a product manager for P.E. While Hubble was being made!

[Pere Casals]

But NASA signed off on the Hubble and told P.E. That a test, that would have discovered the fault, was not needed.
A friend of ours was a product manager for P.E. While Hubble was being made!

Well, sometimes a big project is launched while knowing it won't work, because not having the solution, or solving it would make slip the project in the time, and this is politically incorrect. Then a problem is found, and nobody is responsible of it, and then it's solved...

[Drew Wiley]

No, not Perkin Elmer, but the folks here that fixed the Hubbell after their screw-up. I dealt with them on a regular basis for facilities maintenance supplies, and even for the sealant for the Hubbell correction lenses. I have reason to believe some of their lenses apparently go into hybrid optical/magnetic surveillance devices analogous to what is sometimes used in the most expensive optical microscopes and some extremely expensive astronomical devices, where miniscule amounts of chromatic aberration, diffraction, and even light scattering effects of haze can be corrected by selectively splitting apart specific wavelengths of light and then precisely recombining them using magnetically controlled mirrors. It's way more precise than what digital can do. But a lot of it is still no doubt also secret too; and this particular optical supplier (which specializes in custom aspherics) probably doesn't know the full equation either. The persons I interacted with, including the owner, have all either passed away or retired, but I've seen astounding sample photos, true optical film. The company is still going, but at night they host workshops helping local amateur astronomers grind their own mirrors.