Mirror lenses??

[gerbstoke]

Is it worth getting one for longish range shooting of birds or animals? If so which would be the best for its price and what mm should I have. What are the pros and cons for such lenses. Also while I'm getting on everyone's nerves what would you say was a decent budget flash gun to use with a canon 550 or soon it might be a d7.

Thank you.

 

[Dave *]

Is it worth getting one for longish range shooting of birds or animals? If so which would be the best for its price and what mm should I have. What are the pros and cons for such lenses. Also while I'm getting on everyone's nerves what would you say was a decent budget flash gun to use with a canon 550 or soon it might be a d7.

Thank you.

Whilst I haven't used a mirror lens since film days I always found them far inferior to a conventional lens of similar focal length.

With regard to a flash for your 550D or (I presume you actually mean) the 7D, you could look at the 430EX, or something similar from Nissin or Metz.

 

[gerbstoke]

Cheers Dave. But some of these mirror lenses are a fraction of the price of normal 500mm lenses for instance those Samyang ones seem very reasonable or is that because they are crap?

 

[mortimerhill]

Cheers Dave. But some of these mirror lenses are a fraction of the price of normal 500mm lenses for instance those Samyang ones seem very reasonable or is that because they are crap?

They are manual focus and have a fixed aperture of f8. They can be tricky to focus, and in certain lighting conditions the out of focus elements of the image are rendered as donuts

more info here

http://www.mirrorlenses.co.uk/

Whilst there were some very good mirror lenses, the Samyang ones are the cheap and nasty type.

You would be far better saving up for a more modern zoom that will reach 500mm such as the Sigma 50-500 or Sigma 150-500. You will remember the quality long after you have forgotten the price.

If you really want a mirror lens, look for the Tamron 500mm SP, the Sigma 600mm or the daddy of mirror lenses, the Vivitar series 1 600mm or 800mm lenses. Avoid the Vivitar 500mm mirror lens

 

[Dave *]

You would be far better saving up for a more modern zoom that will reach 500mm such as the Sigma 50-500 or Sigma 150-500. You will remember the quality long after you have forgotten the price.

good advice, whatever you waste on the mirror lens would be better put aside and a little more saved to get something with decent optics.

My abiding memory is one of a distinct lack a clarity and contrast (I had a friend with a camera shop, so tried many models and makes).

 

[Myrdhinn]

While not as good as it's big brother the 200-500, the Tamron 200-400 LD can be had in the $200-240 range. It's main detraction is it is the old push/pull type aka dust magnet. To be fair I'm not noticing much dust pick up with my Minolta version. Constant f5.6 so much brighter than mirror lens and sharper.

 

[peak4]

I'm not wildly impressed with the Tamron 500mm mirror, but the 350mm F5.6 seems pretty good and has quite a following.
I can't offer any particularly stunning examples as I've not really had chance to play about with mine yet. I managed to pick one up at a very decent price on ebay, knowing that if I advertised and described it better, I would be able to sell it at a profit if I don't get along with it.

I had a very quick try a few days ago; I'm sure both I and the lens could do much better with more practice, less wind and a bit of sunshine.


Collared Dove by peak4, on Flickr

Poor lighting, so 1/320 @ ISO 1250, F5.6 of course as that's fixed, and fitted to an Olympus OM-D.
More or less out of camera, with a little bit of sharpening, as it was set to low on the body. AF is obviously manual only, but the Oly cameras will let you select the focal length for the In Body Image Stabilisation, which helps no end.

See what folks mean about the odd bokeh?

I gather both the Olympus and Minolta 500mm mirrors are worth having, but not for you, and the Russian Rubinar often gets a good writeup, though it is rather heavy.
The Minolta even has AF which is a bit of a rarity on mirror lenses; obviously that won't help a Canon user.

There's a whole selection of 3rd party mirrors available second hand, but most will probably struggle to come up with decent resolution on a modern Digital SLR.

I certainly wouldn't buy new, but why not bide you time until one comes up with a suitable mount on ebay at well below average price. You can have some (frustrating) fun and then sell it on again without losing anything.

 

[heidfirst]

The Minolta even has AF which is a bit of a rarity on mirror lenses

unique to the Minolta/Sony afaik for camera mirror lenses.

 

[Cyclops]

Hi,

Mirror lenses are ok if you are prepared to accept there limitations. They all tend to have poor contrast easily sorted nowadays with post processing. They are also quite hard to focus and need good light. The other odd thing is the out of focus highlights tend to produce donuts shapes, which you either like or dislike thay are also nice and light weight.

Don't expect it to produce images that out shine a Canon or Nikon 500mm f4 other than that that are not too bad.

I still have a Tamron 500mm f8 mirror bought around 1980 and still use it every so often on Digital, I will try and dig out some examples and post them.

In the end you pays your money etc but at least it's not a lot of money if you find you don't like it.

Ian.

Found em nowt special but not too shabby for a cheap soluton