A really good range of specialised long lenses for wildlife and action
photography is made by a german firm Novoflex.
These rather large lenses have a built in pistol grip with a squeeze
focus
action. This allows you to follow focus fast action.
Unfortunately they are inordinately expensive new. They are available in OM
mounts and the system is very flexible in
that you can interchange lens mounts on the fly. (At least for the more recent
models. Older models are still easy to
change, with screws somewhat like a T mount.) Having a pistol grip allows you
to handhold long lenses and still have
reasonable chance of sharp pictures. Another nice feature, is that they have
interchangeable heads so the basic barrel allows you
to mount a variety of optics and can even convert to a super micro lens. The
barrel also has built in short bellows that
allows the lens to focussed very close almost macro with a 400mm!. This is
nice for snakes and small reptiles where you
don't want to get too close. It appears the latest version may have got rid of
the bellows (see http://www.novoflex.com/html/produkte.htm)
The more recent models also have another attachment with a seperate
trigger
release and shoulder pod. Getting
these things through customs is a nightmare they think you are a terrorist, in
fact a news photographer using one
in Israel was shot and killed because they thought he was aiming a bazooka at
a politician.
The lenses are quite simple in design and are optimised for very high central
resolution wide open but at the expense
of the edges. They are presets but this is not a problem as they are normally
run wide open to keep shutter speed up.
I have owned a very old shorter Novoflex with 240mm head and also use
it as
micro since the old heads are
leica screw mount and I then use my enlarger lens and OTF flash. I have
used it with a 2X convertor for game photography
but then usually need to reset it on a post or my knees. I have used this
extensively both in the US and on trips to Africa and
really like it.
I recently bought (used) a 400mm Novoflex with shoulder pod. In terms of size
and commitment this is a big step up
from the older lens system. It is much easier to hand hold a longer lens with
this by pulling the pod tightly against ones shoulder
or chest.( just like a rifle!)
The older smaller system is also available with a 300mmm head. When buying
used you need to be sure you are buying
the whole lens system not just the head.
See the cult lens page for even more details:
http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/third/cult.html#novoflex
This site has lots of other descriptions of interesting lenses.
Also Novoflex does have a website but this is not that great:
http://www.novoflex.com/html/home.htm
Tim Hughes
hi100@xxxxxxx
Latest version from Novoflex website :
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