Re: Mark IV Lens System

[Chris Albertson <chrisa@wavenet.com>]

Tom Droege wrote:
> 
> that this is high risk, and a lot of money for me.  We want to get it
> right.  I know this is hard.  Now is the time to speak up if you know
> anything.  It would be sad if say 600 or 300 would be a much better
> solution.

Tom,

Want to reduce the risk a little?  You can +RENT+ these high-end
lenses
for about $100 for a three day weekend.  I rented a medium format
studio
camera for $50.00 a while back.  The places out by me in Hollywood
will ship ship rentals via fed-ex but there is Calumet out your way.
They rent pro-level equipment. (1-800-cal-umet)  First figure a non-
destructive why to mount a Nikon (or Canon) mount lens then try out
the 
rental unit for a couple days.  I found a reverse t-mount if you have
not already found a source.

Also as a test, it is to slow for real use, there are 500mm f/8.0
mirror
lenses for cheap.  $350 to $400 will by a Nikon, $100 a generic brand.
KEH is the most expensive place to buy from.  If you buy else where
then
you can sell for the same price you paid.

The best (IMO) way to find an ideal focal lenght is to try a few
diferent
ones then look real hard at the data.  My guess is that dark skys will
do best with wider lenses while brighter areas may need a longer FL to
keep the background down.  You may not want to standarize.

One more thought.  If you told your lens designer that all your images
would go through a image processing step then maybe he could leave in 
something he would otherwise try to correct out.  Geometric distortion
would process out pretty easy  



-- 
   --Chris Albertson             home: chrisa@wavenet.com           
     Redondo Beach, California   work: chris@topdog.logicon.com