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This vintage “bazooka lens” takes the word “shooting” almost literally

by 16 Comments

From time to time, Mathieu Stern presents us with a cool, unusual lens. This time, he found Novoflex 600mm f/8, or as he calls it: a “bazooka lens.” It’s not an ordinary telephoto lens, at least not when it comes to its design. It’s made to look like a rifle, and it’s definitely not something you’d want to shoot with in a crowded place. At least if you don’t want to scare people off or have a talk with the police.

Novoflex 600mm features the f/8 aperture, with 22 blades. It was introduced in 1955 and made in Germany, and the concept was to control the focus with the pistol grip. Since it’s a long lens, it was mainly used for wildlife and sports.

Mathieu found this lens disassembled in a box at a yard sale near Paris. Lucky as he is, he managed to get it for $15, while its usual price is around $500-$600 on eBay. When he assembled the lens, he ended up with a piece that almost takes the word “shooting” to its original meaning. So, as you can imagine – it would cause him trouble to use it in Paris, especially after the terrorist attacks the city went through.

So, not wanting to risk, Mathieu traveled to a peaceful city of Angers to try out his new toy. He shot people and wildlife to demonstrate the reach of the lens and its quality. He even got spotted a couple of times, and I sure hope nobody called the police. It would definitely cause an awkward situation.

[THIS WEIRD BAZOOKA LENS Will Make you Look like a Terrorist | Mathieu Stern]

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  • Glenn C Fallang

  • Harmless until you go to the wrong place. I recall lifting my camera to take a photo in a place where photos were allowed in from of Chile’s presidential palace. Guard had immediate eyes on. Had I lifted something like this there or most anywhere…….

    • I had a very unpleasant experience like that, and I wasn’t even using a DSLR, but my cellphone. With the lens like this, I would probably still trying to explain the guard it’s not a gun. 🙂

  • yeah,…try using that in London !
    😮

  • Never heard about it.
    And i got 3 versions of tair 300 4.5

  • Bartosz patrz 😉

  • You’re dead in Cleveland OH using something like this. The president gave a pass to kill citizens. This is a weapon to them. You are a fool to use this.

  • The Novoflex was a great rig in years when autofocus was unheard of. A friend of mine was not happy with the quality of the original optical system back then and had it replaced with Leiz Telyt.

  • Let’s play the “good idea/bad idea” game..
    good idea- taking photos.
    bad idea – taking photos with gear that will get you shot by homeland security.

  • “Hoooold still”… 😂

  • The same as this one

  • But when you have two 😀

  • KGB / CIA surplus 😉

  • This is the 280mm from Novoflex.

  • when i was a kid, i could swear i had a plastic camera toy similar to this. it was definitely in the shape of a rifle/bazooka. i feel like it was maybe blue or yellow. you would take the film (the kind that was in a cartridge) and snap it on the back.

    sound familiar to anyone or am i totally trippin???

  • Watch “collateral murder” it will show you how harmless a lens looking like that can be. And with the current paranoia running through America at the moment it could get your head blown off. No thanks.

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