Samyang 500 mirror lens (1 Viewer)

[RonClark28]

Hello all

London Camera Exchange is selling the above lens at £199 plus adaptall mount and I'm wondering if anyone has bought and used one and if so with what results. I know that you tend to 'get what you pay for' in many areas but cash is in very short supply right now and I can't afford the cost of the same Sony lens for my Alpha 350.

Regards

Ron

 

[jfmgb777]

Used Sigma 400 mm far superior to el-cheapo Chinese 500 mm mirror

Hello all

London Camera Exchange is selling the above lens at £199 plus adaptall mount and I'm wondering if anyone has bought and used one and if so with what results. I know that you tend to 'get what you pay for' in many areas but cash is in very short supply right now and I can't afford the cost of the same Sony lens for my Alpha 350.

Regards

Ron

Don't even go there.

I tried using a used Tamron 500mm mirror which was a good lens in its day on a (what is now called full format) 35 mm SLR.

With a Canon 350D it became an 800mm, but was simply not usable for three reasons:

1. At these focal lengths with fixed aperture (usually f/8) the depth of field is very shallow, so you have to get the focus exactly right, which is nigh impossible because
   
2. modern autofocus DSLRs don't have the old split screen at the centre of the viewfinder for accurate manual focusing. You have to rely on being able to judge when the whole (dull-due to fixed f/8 aperture) image is in focus.
   
3. At 800 mm effective focal length your field of view is so restricted that it is very difficult to get the camera on-target. This is especially true if like me, you are mainly interested in capturing birds in flight. All too often I would miss a shot with the 500 mm mirror that I would get with a shorter lens with a wider field of view.

In addition to this there is the issue of the unaesthetic bokeh (taken from a Japanese word used to describe the aesthetic quality of out-of-focus points of light in a photographic image). Due to their construction, all mirror lenses exhibit doughnut-shaped circles in out-of-focus points of light (e.g., reflections off water), which appear unnatural and are considered to be less pleasing to the eye than those produced by conventional refractive lenses.

I would suggest that a shorter-length used autofocus refractive lens (the Sigma 400 mm f/5.6 APO in Minolta/Sony mount) would be obtainable off eBay for much the same money, and would produce superior results. I have the 300 mm f/4 APO in Canon mount mated with my 350D, and despite the shorter focal length can get superior results from distant birds to anything I got with a mirror. The fact that you have a Sony camera means that you can use older Sigma or Konica/Minolta autofocus lenses without difficulty (unlike Canon users). Have a look at this website for reviews:

http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/detail.asp?IDLens=224

If in spite of the above you really want a 500 mm mirror lens, see if you cannot get a used copy of the old(er) autofocus Minolta equivalent (information also available from www.dyxum.com).

 

[Wildmoreway]

It might be worth looking for a secondhand minolta 500mm mirror lens, I have one and have had some good results with it, it does have auto focus as well. You might drop on one within your price range.

 

[RonClark28]

Thanks for the replies ... I shall keep both in mind.

Ron