Review of MS MTO-11 10/1000

For the opportunity to review MS MTO-11 10/1000 Many thanks to Alexander Gradovsky.

MS MTO-11 10/1000 with a light filter

TTX MTO-11 10/1000
Focal length: 1000 mm
Aperture: F / 10
Weight: 2.5kg
Filter Diameter: 120 mm
Optical design: 3 lenses, 2 mirrors, 5 elements and 3 groups
Mounting: replaceable, in this case "H" (similarity PRE AI without iris control for Nikon)

There are several options for the MTO-11 10/1000 lens. This review presents precisely the MTO-11 MS 10/1000 1983 model year, Lytkarinsky Optical Glass Plant... There is also the "CA" option, as well as different MC and non-MC lenses, and a somewhat similar lens MTO 1000A 10.5 / 1100. Strange but both versions MTO-11 10/1000 SA (letter A is indicated) and MTO-11 10/1000 (without the letter A) can have an interchangeable shank.

MC MTO-11 10/1000 indicators and mount for tripod

Focusing

The lens has a very large (huge) focus ring, which rotates all 360 degrees, from 8 meters to infinity. In fact, the lens has infinity race и run towards MDF less than 8 meters. Focusing is very smooth, when focusing, the front of the lens travels only 1 cm forward. Infinity begins after 200m on the focus distance scale.

МС МТО-11 10/1000 first-person view

DOF Aperture and Scale

MS MTO-11 10/1000 not has iris control rings and does not have DOF. The aperture is always in the same value and can not be changed, such is the design of the lens

Sample photo on the MTO-11 10/1000

Design

The lens has a wonderful telescopic hood, which helps him a bit to improve images in side and backlight. The whole lens is made very soundly, like a piece of metal pipe. A very useful property of the MTO-11 10/1000 MC is two types of tripod sockets - wide and narrow. The narrow socket fits modern tripods. And also, the protrusion with slots is duplicated on the lens with a shift of 90 degrees, which allows you to use the lens in both landscape and portrait orientation of the camera. This is really a very good design. The front lens (meniscus) is simply huge - 120mm. In the kit, the lens comes with several filters (just huge) and a nice black case for transportation. The disadvantage is the front cover, which simply puts on and does not snap into the thread of the front lens, the cover often flies off the lens by itself.

Sample photo on the MTO-11 10/1000

Second life on the figure

The MTO 10 \ 1000A lens received a real second life on digital SLR cameras, and the scope of its use has expanded significantly on the central brake cylinder. The lens gained great opportunities due to the ability of modern CZK to shoot at very high ISO. It decreases very much excerptat which you can shoot on the lens, which allows you to “freeze” fast-changing scenes during the day. Usually, MTO 10 \ 1000 was used for highly static scenes where long excerptswhich were the only solution to combat the small aperture of the lens. So, at MTO 10/1000 it was popular as an astronomical lens, on which the moon and stars were shot. It was very difficult to shoot a more or less scene in the afternoon with rapidly changing details in the frame. For example, on a sunny day, using a film with ISO 100 due to the fixed aperture of the lens, excerpt should be 1 \ 100. To shoot during the day, you need a very strong tripod to avoid movement. In those days, even a film with an ISO 800 value was quite difficult to find, because the problem of stirring was very, very serious. Using on modern cameras short excerpts from 1 \ 1000 to 1 \ 4000 with an MTO 10 \ 1000A lens and high ISO values, you can not be afraid for lubrication, using a monopod, which greatly increases the mobility of the lens.

Sample photo on the MTO-11 10 1000mm MS

Myths:

Mirror lenses are said to have a much lower effective aperture than indicated. This is due to the fact that when calculating the value of the number F, the front compensating mirror, which is not taken into account in the calculations, is not taken into account. Therefore, the real diaphragm of MS MTO-11 10/1000 has a value of the order of F / 16.0. If you have any information about this, I will be grateful for the informative link in the comments.

Sample photo on the MTO-11 10 1000mm MS

How to shoot on modern cameras and MS MTO-11 10/1000?

The lens of the MTO-11 10/1000 has interchangeable shank (back). Unfortunately, in the name of the lens there is no letter “A”, which is responsible for this possibility, because you just need to know. Interchangeable shank can be chosen as you like. For the Nikon system, I used KP-A \ N, as a result I got a lens with a native mount for Nikon. You can read how to use old lenses on Nikon in the section Soviet optics. For the Canon system, the easiest way is to use two adapters: KP-A \ 42 + M42-Canon EOS, in more detail in the section old lenses at canon.

MTO-11 on a monopod. Not for women's hands such a heavy lens.

Personally, I managed to shoot on the MTO-11 10/1000 MC holding the lens in my hands, using the automatic ISO up to 6400 and the minimum shutter speed from 1 \ 1000 to 1 \ 4000, though I had to use sharpness to get into sharpness bracketing focus and make inhuman efforts to hold the lens in his hands. So I got pictures of nature in motion, for example, fly of butterfly, which earlier, in the era of film cameras, it was very, very difficult to do on the MTO-11 10/1000. Of course, taking a tripod is much easier.

An example of a photograph on a MTO-11 10 1000mm MS. Bagel-shaped bokeh.

Attention 1: when used on modern Nikon central control centers, confirmation with a green dot does not work, and the electronic range finder does not work either. You can focus in Live View mode only with a tripod, and the tripod must be very, very strong. Using flimsy tripods and Live View, the picture on the display will “twitch” very much, which causes inconvenience and makes you nervous. Take off hand in Live View does not work. Taking off the hands, the lens will respond to any of your movements, even heartbeats will be displayed in the viewfinder with light jerks of the image. I do not see any possibility at all to use the lens with my hands. Personally, I managed to run with the MTO-11 10/1000 MC without a tripod for exactly 30 minutes, after which I was no longer glad that I had got out into the wild.

Attention 2: due to its size and weight, the lens can break the camera mount, therefore, it is strongly recommended to hold the lens itself with the camera on it (it will not work otherwise). Also, due to the size, the possibility of grabbing the handle of the camera is lost and access to the buttons that are on the left and right of the mount is lost. It’s very unusual that you can’t take the camera by the handle. Pressing the shutter button in this state is not very convenient. But, on the other hand, the lens does not catch the flash on my Nikon D40, D80 (precisely verified). In general, MC MTO-11 10/1000 is contraindicated for girls photographers.

An example of a photograph on a MTO-11 10 1000mm MS. Close-up pictures

Image quality

The lens gives quite normal image quality, slightly contrasting, but for a digital camera this is not a problem. Contrast falls under strong side and back light. Sharpness is average, but sufficient for normal shooting. Most importantly, there is no chromatic aberration, distortion and vignetting and a unique bokeh in the form of bagels.

An example of a photograph on a MTO-11 10 1000mm MS. Good sharpness of the lens.

Sample photos on the cropped CZK

All filmed on APS-C Nikon D200 DX, untreated, on-camera JPEG L, in image processing mode VI. Reduced size to 1600 * 1200 and imprinted data from EXIF. On camera with crop factor 1.5h EGF is 1500mm (one and a half meters of focal length). All removed from a monopod.

Examples of photos on a full frame (Full Frame)

All filmed on APS Nikon D700 FX, no processing, on-camera JPEG L, image processing mode VI. Reduced size to 1600 * 1200 and imprinted data from EXIF. Everything is removed from the tripod and from the hands.

Catalog modern brand lenses 'Zenitar' и 'Helios' can look at this link.

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MS MTO-11 10/1000 unusual vintage super fix telephoto. It is difficult to use, the lens is very small aperture, but the MTO-11 10/1000 MC is interesting for its ability to shoot remote objects and interesting bagel-shaped bokeh.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval.