LZOS MC Rubinar 1000mm f/10 Macro (mirror)

A hundred copies. That was the size of the pilot batch LZOS ran in 2019 when it brought the Rubinar 1000 back, and the full relaunch under Shvabe followed in 2021. So this is one of the few M42 super-teles where new copies have been made in recent years, alongside the used market rather than only in it. New or old, the recipe is the same: a multicoated catadioptric of 7 elements in 5 groups that folds a thousand millimetres into a barrel about 210 mm long. Folding the light path is what keeps it that short. It does nothing for the weight. At roughly 1.9 kg it wants your heaviest tripod and head, plus a cable release, before you think about pictures at all.

The view is narrow. Its 2.5 degree angle takes in about five full moons laid side by side, which makes the moon an easy target and turns finding a wren in a hedge into a search. Aperture is fixed at f/10, with no iris anywhere in the lens. The Macro on the badge is about close focus: it gets down to 4 m, where a songbird on a feeder fills a real share of the frame instead of sitting as a speck. At that distance the zone of sharp focus is only about a centimetre deep, so put it on the bird's eye and let the tail go soft.

The secondary mirror in the middle of the front glass turns out-of-focus highlights into rings. Sun glinting off wet leaves behind a heron comes back as a scatter of small donuts. You either build the frame around them or spend the session hunting for a background without bright speculars; there is not much middle ground. Contrast is softer than a good refractor of this reach would give. That is where the MC prefix earns its place, since the multicoating is there to hold down veiling flare when light comes in from the side.

Focusing is the real fight. At f/10 a typical SLR finder goes dim, and on many screens the split-image centre blacks out, so you end up working on the matte collar and taking a second frame with focus nudged on anything that moves. Heat shimmer does more damage at this length than any optical flaw. A summer afternoon over asphalt or a ploughed field turns distant detail to mush whatever you do; save the long shots for cold mornings. Vibration is the other enemy. Mirror slap and a breeze both show at middle shutter speeds, so use mirror lock-up if the body has it, keep the cable release on, and reach for faster speeds only when the wind will not settle.

With no iris, shutter speed and film choice carry the exposure, along with whatever filter you add. The front takes M116x1, which makes a large ND practical for bright sand or snow (early copies shipped only with small rear M35.5x0.5 filters, so check what yours has). In Zone Light Meter, lock the aperture at f/10, enter the ND as a filter factor, and let the meter solve for shutter speed.

It was also sold as the Astro-Rubinar kit, with eyepieces and a 90 degree prism that turn it into a small telescope. The obvious alternative is the LZOS MTO-11CA, which offers the same focal length and the same fixed f/10. The Rubinar's own case rests on its multicoated optics and on the recent production run; the telescope kit is a bonus if you also like looking at the sky without a camera behind it.