LZOS MC Rubinar 500mm f/8 Macro (mirror)

Five hundred and ten grams for 500mm of focal length. That number is why this Rubinar gets taken on long walks while its f/5.6 sibling stays at home. It is the lightest lens LZOS ever put the Rubinar name on, and it hangs off the front of a Zenit the way a big portrait lens would, not like a piece of artillery. The saving shows up elsewhere too. There is no tripod socket, no collar and no foot, so the M42 thread on the camera carries everything. On a monopod you won't notice. On a tripod the camera's own socket ends up holding the lens, and the whole rig sits front-heavy.

Close focus is not what sets it apart, because both Rubinar 500s focus to 2.2 m and reach roughly 1:4. That shared trick is where the Macro on the barrel comes from. At 1:4 a 35mm frame covers a patch of subject about 10 by 14 centimetres, so a swallowtail resting on a buddleia fills most of the negative while you stand far enough back that it stays put. The difference is that with this one you were willing to carry the lens out to the buddleia in the first place.

Folding the light path with mirrors keeps colour fringing very low, and a dark twig against bright sky keeps a clean edge on the print. Contrast sits below what a good refracting tele gives you; shadows come out soft and grey rather than deep. Then there are the rings. The central obstruction turns every out-of-focus highlight into a doughnut, and backlit dew behind a subject is the worst case. Plenty of photographers enjoy that look for a roll or two. If you don't, keep the background plain or in shade and the rings mostly go away.

The honest weakness is the finder. With no iris, f/8 is the only aperture there is, and on an SLR screen it is dim. Many split-image centres black out at f/8, which leaves you focusing on the ground glass or the microprism collar while depth of field at close range is about a centimetre. A twitchy insect at 1:4 means rocking your body back and forth and firing more frames than feels reasonable. Exposure control is narrow for the same reason. Shutter speed and film speed are your only levers, plus an ND filter if fast film meets hard sun.

Metering, at least, gets simpler, since every reading is taken at f/8. Through-the-lens meters handle the close end on their own. With a handheld meter you have to correct it yourself: 1:4 costs about two-thirds of a stop, and Zone Light Meter will work out that factor from the magnification you enter. In open sun on ISO 400, f/8 lands you somewhere past 1/1000, comfortably above the 1/500 or so a 500mm lens wants handheld.

LZOS also made a Pentax K bayonet version, the MC Rubinar-K 8/500, and Shvabe announced a renewed M42 version in 2021. Buyers usually weigh it against the f/5.6 Rubinar and the Japanese third-party mirrors. Since both Rubinar 500s focus to 2.2 m, the choice between them is simple. Pick this one for the weight and live with the dim finder; pick the f/5.6 if you want the extra stop and a tripod socket.