Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 (SL66)
Carl Zeiss · Rollei SL66 · 1966 · Mirotar catadioptric (mirror lens), fixed f/5.6
Also known as: Rollei SL66 Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 · Rolleiflex SL66 Mirotar 1000mm F5.6 · Carl Zeiss Mirotar 5.6/1000 SL66 · Zeiss Mirotar 1000mm f5.6 for Rollei SL66 · Rollei SL66 1000mm mirror lens Mirotar · ローライ SL66 ミロター 1000mm F5.6 · ローライフレックス SL66 Mirotar 1000mm F5.6 反射望遠
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mirotar 5.6/1000, special order (October 1966 – April 1991) | Rollei SL66 | 1966–1991 | — | — |
- Rollei built the SL66 lenses under licence from Carl Zeiss from 1974, engraved 'Made by Rollei'; the Mirotar is recorded as a special order from Zeiss itself. The brand is Carl Zeiss.
- Optical construction is disputed and left out of the table: English Wikipedia gives 6 elements in 4 groups, Japanese Wikipedia 5群5枚 (5 elements in 5 groups), and sl66.rolleigraphy.eu gives no count. Neither figure is from a Zeiss document, and a mirror lens's count depends on whether the mirrors are counted, so neither is stronger; a Zeiss data sheet would settle it.
- Closest focus: English Wikipedia gives 14.7 m (48.3 ft), the same figure it gives the Tele-Tessar 1000; Japanese Wikipedia gives 22 m as a working distance. The lens has no helicoid, so both describe the body's bellows at full extension; the English figure is used, with the disagreement left open.
- A fixed f/5.6 with no diaphragm, so there is no minimum aperture and no blade count. Weight and dimensions are from the English Wikipedia table. No production figure or price was found; English Wikipedia's 'special order' suggests very few were made.
How to tell them apart
- The only mirror lens of the SL66 system, and the only SL66 lens without a diaphragm; the refracting Tele-Tessar 1000 is twice as long, half the weight and has an aperture ring
- A Mirotar with the SL66 double bayonet; Zeiss's Mirotar 1000 for Hasselblad has the V bayonet and the Contarex and Contax Mirotars are 35 mm lenses
Mirotar 5.6/1000, special order (October 1966 – April 1991):
- A 277 mm drum only 405 mm long weighing 16.5 kg, with a turret of built-in filters behind the optics and no aperture ring at all: exposure is set by shutter speed or the neutral-density filters (sl66.rolleigraphy.eu; English Wikipedia)
- No open-aperture metering; a special-order item from Zeiss, not a stock lens
- Mirotar 5.6/1000, special order (October 1966 – April 1991): Listed by sl66.rolleigraphy.eu from October 1966 to April 1991 as a special order from Zeiss. English Wikipedia describes it as a special-order item, 16.5 kg and 277 × 405 mm.
Specifications
- Formula
- Mirotar catadioptric (mirror lens), fixed f/5.6
- Aperture range
- f/5.6
- Min. focus
- 14.7 m
- Dimensions
- 277 × 405 mm
- Weight
- 16500 g
- Filter
- Built-in revolving rear filters
- Years manufactured
- 1966–1991
- Country
- West Germany
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
History
The Mirotar 5.6/1000 is the SL66’s catadioptric telephoto: a mirror lens of 1000 mm at a fixed f/5.6, a stop and a third faster than the refracting Tele-Tessar 1000 and a third of its length at 405 mm, but at 16.5 kg nearly twice as heavy and 277 mm across. It was never a stock lens. sl66.rolleigraphy.eu lists it from October 1966, with the camera, to April 1991, and English Wikipedia records it as a special-order item from Zeiss. There is no diaphragm; exposure is set with the shutter speed or with the neutral-density filters in a revolving turret built into the rear of the lens. The lens has no focusing mount, the body’s bellows focusing it to a closest distance that English Wikipedia puts at 14.7 m and Japanese Wikipedia at 22 m, and on the SL66E, X and SE it cannot use open-aperture metering.
Its construction is not settled. English Wikipedia gives six elements in four groups, Japanese Wikipedia five in five, and sl66.rolleigraphy.eu gives no count; whether the mirrors are counted as elements would account for the gap, and no Zeiss sheet for the SL66 version was found, so the numbers are left out of the table. No review exists, and examples are so rare that the market offers no pattern. A Mirotar 1000 with the Hasselblad V bayonet is Zeiss’s lens for that camera, and the Mirotars of 500 and 1000 mm for the Contarex and Contax are 35 mm lenses.
This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.
Example photos
Sample photo wanted — shot with a Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 (SL66)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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