OPTEKA lenses for Sony Alpha

[diving dicky]

Can any body give me a hint as to why my Alpha 300 displays "no lens attached, shutter is locked" when I fit an Opteka Reflex Mirror Lens. My better half is a fan of e-bay and bought me the lens for my birthday (yesterday). The lens itself looks good quality although admitedly being new to photography I don't really know how to rate it anyway. Any advice welcomed, thanks.:help::thumbs:

[Flash In The Pan]

Would I be right in assuming the lens doesn't have any electronic contact with the camera?

That would possibly explain why the camera doesn't know it's fitted, but I could be wrong....

[diving dicky]

You're right, the lens doesn't have any 'contacts' so what you're saying is probably correct. I am an electrical engineer so that was the first thing I thought although the Opteka website clearly states that the lens is suitable for all Sony Alpha cameras. They have supplied a T mount adaptor and the lens clicks into position fine. Is there anything I have to do to the settings on the camera, other than switch it to MANUAL FOCUS - this doesn't make any difference by the way.

[The Matt]

Switch to manual focus and manual exposure. Should work fine.

[diving dicky]

HA HA - at last that works, thanks. I told you I was new to all this didn't I. Does you or does anybody else know about these Opteka lenses? As I said, the website looks professional enough but are they the optical equivalent of a Skoda 20 years ago? (no offence to Skoda fanatics!). I have of course heard of Tamron and the likes, but have never heard of Opteka. On a couple of occasions the misses has bought me electronic equipment from all over the world from e-bay which has turned out to be a cheap version of a copy of Alba or Bush - I suppose she has the best intention really.:thumbs:

[aligibbs]

What Opteka lens is it? I am guessing its something like 500mm-1000mm F8 ish. They are not the best quality, and very slow.

[diving dicky]

It's a 500mm F8, yes. I won't show the misses the bit about it being not the best quality, ha ha. I suspected so but didn't like to tell her - I do still like sex. What do you mean when you say the lens is slow?

[George7]

I would guess he means the AF is slow :) I personally have a pretty slow lens (Tamron 18-200) and a really fast lens (Minolta 28mm Prime) and to be honest for normal shooting the AF speed doesn't make a huge amount of difference.

[aligibbs]

Slow in the sense of slow AF- and also slow because of the F8 won't let that much light in. Having said that, its the cheapest 500mm your going to get by a long long way. Have been tempted in the past- but wouldn't use it that often.

[Flash In The Pan]

It will be very slow to af, mainly because it's physically impossible for the lens to do so without any electronic connection to the camera :naughty:

[aligibbs]

It will be very slow to af, mainly because it's physically impossible for the lens to do so without any electronic connection to the camera :naughty:

Doh! I am sure they make Canon/Nikon fit ones that AF? Or maybe not & that's how they have kept the cost down.

[diving dicky]

Thanks for everyones help so far. I guess the slowness (is that a word?) of the lens irrelavent anyway as I seem to only be able to use it in Manual Focus anyway. Next time I shall ask for socks and sneek out and buy a lens myself !! ha ha.:D

[heidfirst]

there is only afaik 1 autofocus reflex lens for any SLR/DSLR & that's the Minolta/Sony 500 AF Reflex. It's also optically 1 of the best mirror lenses going.