Mirror lens

I'm kinda interested in long focal length lens. My longest now is 400mm,
so I would be looking for at least 600-700mm, and I do not fancy TCs.
I'm aware of mirror lens limitations, but for the price it seems like a
nice toy... I cant afford 500mm refractor-type lens for sure.

All I've been able to find is 500mm mirrors - not good enough. Are there
any longer ones out there?

Peter

I'm kinda interested in long focal length lens. My longest now is 400mm,
so I would be looking for at least 600-700mm, and I do not fancy TCs.
I'm aware of mirror lens limitations, but for the price it seems like a
nice toy... I cant afford 500mm refractor-type lens for sure.

All I've been able to find is 500mm mirrors - not good enough. Are there
any longer ones out there?

Sorry. Forgot to mention this is for Canon 20D

Peter

Peter wrote:

I'm kinda interested in long focal length lens. My longest now is 400mm,
so I would be looking for at least 600-700mm, and I do not fancy TCs.
I'm aware of mirror lens limitations, but for the price it seems like a
nice toy... I cant afford 500mm refractor-type lens for sure.

All I've been able to find is 500mm mirrors - not good enough. Are there
any longer ones out there?


There is a Sigma 600mm mirror lens, the Vivitar Solid Cat 600mm and
800mm lenses plus the Soviet-made MTO 1100mm mirror lens. The
Vivitar Solid Cats are relatively rare but they do come up on eBay
from time to time.

The Soviet lens used to be advertised as a 1000mm lens but its focal
length is actually nearer 1100mm. In later years it was sold
(optically unchanged) with 1100mm focal length markings.

Peter wrote:
I'm kinda interested in long focal length lens. My longest now is 400mm,
so I would be looking for at least 600-700mm, and I do not fancy TCs.
I'm aware of mirror lens limitations, but for the price it seems like a
nice toy... I cant afford 500mm refractor-type lens for sure.

All I've been able to find is 500mm mirrors - not good enough. Are there
any longer ones out there?

Sorry. Forgot to mention this is for Canon 20D

Peter

Saw an article recently on a 300-800 Sigma zoom, long lenses get really
expensive fast above 300mm. This one was $4000, I beliieve Canon has a
600 in about the same price range. There were 800mm at one time but
again $$. Also you should start working out the guy writing about the
300-800 said with a tripod strudy enogh to hold this lens his kit
weighed 35lbs, thats just the camera gear.

Tom

Peter wrote:
I'm kinda interested in long focal length lens. My longest now is 400mm,
so I would be looking for at least 600-700mm, and I do not fancy TCs.
I'm aware of mirror lens limitations, but for the price it seems like a
nice toy... I cant afford 500mm refractor-type lens for sure.

All I've been able to find is 500mm mirrors - not good enough. Are there
any longer ones out there?

Peter

Unfortunately, it seems that the mirror lenses for cameras are made
cheap and perform that way too. That is not a property of
mirror optics, but low budget manufacture. If you only do
static photos, then check out telescopes. Unfortunately,
you only get manual focus.

Quality TCs on good lenses perform very well with only small
percentage loss in detail and contrast. In general, you will
probably get better performance from a quality telephoto
plus a TC than you will with a cheap mirror lens.

I have many images on my web site with and without TCs. Check out
the birds and bear galleries at: http://www.clarkvision.com
There are also stacked 1.4+2x TC images, e.g.:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...-c-5x-700.html
See also:
Teleconverter Experiences
http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedeta...onverter1.html

Roger

Quality TCs on good lenses perform very well with only small
percentage loss in detail and contrast. In general, you will
probably get better performance from a quality telephoto
plus a TC than you will with a cheap mirror lens.

I have many images on my web site with and without TCs. Check out
the birds and bear galleries at: http://www.clarkvision.com
There are also stacked 1.4+2x TC images, e.g.:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...-c-5x-700.html

See also:
Teleconverter Experiences
http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedeta...onverter1.html


I've tried 80-400mm Sigma OS with Promaster 1.4x TC and seen dramatic
loss of sharpness. Are you saying that Canon 2x TC will give me
noticeably better results than Promaster? Sigma is not exactly the
sharpest lens around but it's not bad either.

Peter

"Peter" wrote in message . com...
I'm kinda interested in long focal length lens. My longest now is 400mm, so I would be looking for at least 600-700mm, and I do
not fancy TCs. I'm aware of mirror lens limitations, but for the price it seems like a nice toy... I cant afford 500mm
refractor-type lens for sure.

All I've been able to find is 500mm mirrors - not good enough. Are there any longer ones out there?

Peter

You can adapt Nikkor lenses to Canon bodies, and since the adapter
doesn't allow for auto-diaphragm operation and mirrors don't have
auto-diaphragms, this can work well. The older-version 500mm f8
is quite sharp at distances out to infinity, unlike most others - so sharp
that it works well on the Nikon TC-B, giving a good 700mm f11
('course the "real" stop is about one stop less, as is generally true with
mirrors...). The 1000mm f11 Nikkor never impressed me much, though.
The MTO 1000mm is OK, as is the 800mm Vivitar, but these are not
as good as the Nikkor 500+1.4x.
--
--
David Ruether


http://www.ferrario.com/ruether

In article , Peter
wrote:

I'm kinda interested in long focal length lens. My longest now is 400mm,
so I would be looking for at least 600-700mm, and I do not fancy TCs.
I'm aware of mirror lens limitations, but for the price it seems like a
nice toy... I cant afford 500mm refractor-type lens for sure.

All I've been able to find is 500mm mirrors - not good enough. Are there
any longer ones out there?

Peter-

I have a Celestron C-90 mirror telescope with T-Mount adapters on the
telescope and the camera body. The resulting lens is 1000mm f/11. I used
it on a Canon Rebel 300D for a lunar eclipse. It is OK for pictures of
the moon, but makes a lousey lens for terestrial photography.

One problem is its low contrast. Perhaps it is affected by atmospheric
haze, but a clear blue sky looks quite dismal. It is also very hard to
focus. Even on a film camera, the split-image focusing aid doesn't work
at f/11. The one advantage is price compared to a 1000mm refracting lens.

The only AF mirror lens I know of, is the Minolta 500mm f/8 AF mirror
lens. It has been out for many years, so there may be AF competitors by
now. However, some bodies won't autofocus at f/8, so an f/5.6 version may
be required for them. (The Minolta 500mm f/8 does autofocus with the Sony
Alpha body.)

Fred

Peter wrote:
I'm kinda interested in long focal length lens. My longest now
is 400mm, so I would be looking for at least 600-700mm, and I do
not fancy TCs. I'm aware of mirror lens limitations, but for the
price it seems like a nice toy... I cant afford 500mm
refractor-type lens for sure.

All I've been able to find is 500mm mirrors - not good
enough. Are there any longer ones out there?

What camera and what price range are you looking at?

As far as teleconverters, try different TC's with your lense,
because some of them will work better than others.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...002000/cat.htm

---------------------------
Tony Polson wrote:
Peter wrote:

I'm kinda interested in long focal length lens. My longest now is 400mm,
so I would be looking for at least 600-700mm, and I do not fancy TCs.
I'm aware of mirror lens limitations, but for the price it seems like a
nice toy... I cant afford 500mm refractor-type lens for sure.

All I've been able to find is 500mm mirrors - not good enough. Are there
any longer ones out there?


There is a Sigma 600mm mirror lens, the Vivitar Solid Cat 600mm and
800mm lenses plus the Soviet-made MTO 1100mm mirror lens. The
Vivitar Solid Cats are relatively rare but they do come up on eBay
from time to time.

The Soviet lens used to be advertised as a 1000mm lens but its focal
length is actually nearer 1100mm. In later years it was sold
(optically unchanged) with 1100mm focal length markings.