Pont states (p. 76) that there is only one serial number known for this lens.  Here is a second one!  It has a WE camera adapter mount, which means that, amongst the vast number of cameras for which Kilfitt produced mounts, there is one for the Pentacon Six: the WESI mount.  According to Pont (p. 77), other mounts included:

                                                                    WEHA  – Hasselblad 2000
                                                                    WERI   –  Rittreck/Norita
                                                                    FUEPE  – Pentax 67
                                                                    WEMA  – Mamiya 645

There are of course also numerous mounts for 35mm cameras, and if a lens has the WESI mount for the Pentacon Six / Praktisix, converters from this mount to numerous other cameras, including the newest mirrorless digital cameras, are readily available, both new and second-hand.

The 1000mm Zoomar/Kilfitt Sport-Reflectar compared with the 1000mm Carl Zeiss Jena Spiegelobjektiv

Let us first compare tihs Kilfitt lens with the Carl Zeiss Jena 1000mm mirror lens.  The following photograph and caption is from the article by Carsten Bobsin in Photo Deal Nr. 76, I/2012 (Januar Februar März) p. 25.  Below the image we translate the caption.

“With the 5.6/1000 Mirror lens one speaks more of putting the camera onto the lens rather than the other way round.  So that the 14 kg heavy lens does not become a piece of real estate property that cannot be moved,  it is supplied in a large wooden case with two handles. At 6.6 kg, the Zoomar Reflectar 8/1000 that was presented to the public in 1970 is substantially lighter and provides internal focussing.” [1000mm_Reflektar_u_CZJ.jpg]

As well as the very-visible difference in size, we also note that the Kilfitt/Zoomar lens has a carrying handle, which in practice is extremely useful.  At 14kg, getting the Carl Zeiss Jena lens onto a tripod is not easy and requires a good technique.  At less than half the weight – and with the carrying handle – the Kilfitt Sport Reflectar is easy to handle.  Of course, this 1000mm Zoomar has a maximum aperture of f/8, one stop “slower” (smaller) than the f/5.6 of the Carl Zeiss Jena 1000mm lens.  However, when shooting pictures of the moon (see here), we found that f/5.6 was almost larger than we needed!  We would also expect slightly more depth of field at f/8 than at f/5.6, not a negligible point with such a long lens.  After all, how often do we take pictures with an aperture of f/5.6?  It is not normally the aperture that is required to get the best image from a lens.

The 1000mm Zoomar Sport-Reflectar compared with the 500mm Kilfitt/Zoomar Sport-Reflectar

To give a further indication of the size of this Kilfitt lens, let us compare it with the Kilfitt 500mm Sport Reflectar, which is reported on here on this website.

Here we can see the focussing lever of the 500mm mirror lens. [k1000mm_15.jpg]

[k1000mm_10.jpg] Both of these lenses have inner focussing, which means that the length of the lens does not change as one focusses, in contrast with the Carl Zeiss Jena Spiegelobjektiv, which has bellows at the back of the lens to provide focus.  Both Zoomar lenses also have a focussing lever, while the Zeiss lens has a focussing wheel.  See details of the back of the Zeiss lens here.

[k1000mm_06.jpg] The 1000mm Zoomar has a base that is long, wide and strong and is provided with two tripod sockets, one for ¼" and the other for  3/8". I am here using one of my Arca-Swiss-compatible tripod-mounting plates, on which more details can be seen here.  I found that if I just used one of the sockets, the lens could swing on the mounting plate, so I had a second hole drilled in the plate at the right distance, so that both sockets on the lens could be used.  As each mounting bolt has a different diameter, I have two Allen keys, one for each bolt, visible on the left in this photograph. We can here also see the focussing lever for the lens, which has here been mounted on a Praktisix camera. To the right, the lens is mounted on the Arca-Swiss B1-G ball head, which is on the Berlebach tripod.  I think that in fact the Benro tripod described here would have no difficulty supporting this lens safely.

[k1000mm_18.jpg] Here one of the latest Pentacon Sixes, with the added mirror pre-release mechanism (see here), has been mounted on the lens.  The lens focussing lever is pointing down at about 50º.  The knob on the end of the lever enables focus to be locked at any point.  (The horizontal knob that is further forward is part of the locking mechanism on the tripod ball head.)

[k1000mm_22.jpg

In this photographer’s-eye-view of the lens (minus camera), we can see further features. Here the lens has a WESI mount for the Pentacon Six.  Between this mount and the back of the lens we can see the square corners of something.  This is the filter holder, for – in true Kilfitt style! – this lens can take gelatine filters.  This is potentially much more flexible than the filter system on the Carl Zeiss Jena 1000mm mirror lens, which admittedly had built-in filters, although these had been designed in the 1950s at a time when much photography was in black and white, so the filters available were UV, ND, Yellow, Orange, Light Red, Dark Red, the colour filters all having been chosen to darken the sky and enhance clouds to varying degrees with black-and-white photography. Below the lens we can see the aluminium (US: aluminum) tripod plate with its dovetail base. At the “five o’clock” position we can clearly see the focussing lever. If we look at the top of the handle, we may notice at its front a circular pointed protrusion in chome colour and at the back of the handle a similar raised piece of metal, this time with a V-shaped notch cut into it.  Line up the raised point at the front of the handle with the notch at its back, and you will see exactly where the lens is pointing!  We have here taken this picture from slightly higher than where our eye would be in practice, to make the raised point and the notch easier to see. With very long lenses, it can sometimes be very difficult to line up the lens and even to find the intended subject, and this makes the task much easier! In the image to the right we can see the notch on the handle just below the chimneys of the house in the distance, while the raised point at the front of the handle is lined up with the chimneys.  Once we have reached this point, we can put our eye to the camera viewfinder while making fine adjustments to the angle of the tripod head. [direction_aid.jpg]

Because of the Covid pandemic restrictions and the onset of winter in the northern hemisphere, it is likely to be several months before we are able to publish the results of tests with this lens.  As always, we will notify visitors via the upgrades page.

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To see information on the 500mm Kilfitt/Zoomar Sport Reflectar mirror lens, click here.

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© TRA First published: November 2020