Zenit MC 3M-5CA 500mm f8 - vintage mirror lens review

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 It was probably late 2016 when I first stumbled upon mirror lenses, on Amazon, of all places, and I was quite intrigued by them, but they were too expensive to justify buying one for the sole purpose of satisfying my curiosity. So I kept pushing the thought aside, until a few weeks ago, when I saw an ad for this Zenit 500mm f8, reasonably priced and in good conditions.

Zenit MC 3M-5CA 500mm f8
MC 3M-5CA 800mm f8

Well, to be precise, it’s the MC 3M-5CA made by LZOS and there’s always a bit of confusion when it comes to soviet brands and factories, but luckily the original owner’s manual has survived so we know that this lens came out of the Lytkarino Optical Glass Plant on the 06 11 1996.

The Lytkarino Optical Glass Plant, or LZOS, was founded in 1935, producing mirror reflectors for anti-aircraft systems. In 1952 they created an internal division for civil and educational production, like microscopes, binoculars and camera lenses. Since 1960 it has been producing mirrors and optics for massive astronomical telescopes all over the world.

We always say that vintage soviet lenses are built like tanks, but in this case, some of these lenses were actually built to be used on tanks. Anyways...

The Zenit 500mm is made out of metal, it weights 620g, it is 13,3cm long when focused to infinity and 13,6cm when extended, with a 72mm front thread.

The focusing barrel is textured and it turns 340 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 4 meters. Keep in mind that when focusing the whole barrel turns, and the front element with it.

Being a mirror lens, there are no iris or aperture control.

It comes with an m42 mount

Sharpness is not great but not terrible either and it benefits from a bright sunny day, fast shutter speeds and a sturdy tripod.

Colors are on the colder side and a bit muted, contrast and saturation are fairly low and all combined contribute to the vintage look.

Due to their construction, mirror lenses do not produce chromatic aberration. I didn’t know that and I was pleasantly surprised.

Doughnut boke is one of the most loved and hated features of mirror lenses and makes for a very distinctive look.

Even with the constant f8 aperture, at 500mm you can easily annihilate backgrounds into soft colors.

This lens is very prone to ghosting, but nothing that can’t be dealt with a sun hood

Truth be told, I was expecting this lens to be quite bad but it turned out to be interesting and fun to shoot with. It is a challenging lens and you find yourself having to take in consideration stuff like atmospheric haze and distortion or only being able to shoot on a tripod, but overall I’ve found it to be an enjoyable experience, although it might not be the same for you.


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