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Nikon 500mm f/8 Reflex

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Mt Spokane Photography:
I picked up a Nikon 500mm f/8 Mirror lens locally for $80, and finally found time to mount it on my 1D MK IV today.  I am really challenged when it comes to manual focusing, my old eyes are not that sharp.  I had to fool with the exposure, and when I finally got it right, I put the camera into live view so I could use the magnifer to focus, and the exposure was 3 stops off.
For those who don't know, this breed of mirror lens has a fixed f/8 aperture, and are manual focus.  As long as a adapter exists, they work equally well (or equally poorly) on all bodies.

After getting exposure set once again, I was able to get a couple of in-focus shots.  Its pretty frustrating to use.
As expected, its reasonably sharp, and  for a 500mm lens that only cost $80, its a steal. The sharpness is not going to blow you away, the birds were near MFD, so the depth of field is a bit shallow. The awful bokeh was a given, but those out of focus highlights were worse than I expected, when compared to a Sigma 600mm mirror lens that I had a few years back.
Still, for those who can't afford a real 500mm lens, a mirror lens is a cheap alternative.  I should go out and try my 100-400mm l on the same basic shots and crop, but I know it would win.  It cost 20 times as much, so it should be better!
 

 

 
 
 
 

wickidwombat:
not bad for 80 bucks! you still got the D800 to try it out on?

Mt Spokane Photography:

--- Quote from: wickidwombat on June 27, 2012, 08:19:52 PM ---not bad for 80 bucks! you still got the D800 to try it out on?

--- End quote ---

I have the D800 all boxed up to ship, and did not want to put any more exposures on it.  The D800 would certainly blatently expose all the flaws, the 1D MK IV does a good job of that as well.
I'll be selling the mirror lens as well, but it will go for a bit more than what I paid.  I just can't do manual focus well enough to justify keeping it. 
I had bought a Nikon 200-400mm f/4 AIS at the same time, but it needed some repair, so I returned it.  The issue with being able to focus factored in to that.
 

TexPhoto:
Every now and then i am tempted to buy a 600mm Sigma f8. 

dr croubie:
I've always contemplated getting a Mirror Lens, there's a lot out there that I have no idea about, which is better than the others. Prices vary a lot, I just saw a Zeiss 500mm f/8 in C/Y mount go for $380 shipped, or you can get an MTO500 soviet job for as low as $100 BIN. Every major manufacturer seems to have made them at some point, even Canon had a go (which is interesting, seeing as they never got into pancakes until now).

So which ones have the 'good' reputations, and which ones to steer clear of?

Btw, bokeh on those pics doesn't look too bad and 'doughnutty', did you specifically try to find a good background, or are some lenses just not that bad?

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