How do I know if this works with my lens?

[ac12]

Look for a used lens in good condition.
However, a used 400mm with autofocus, would be hard to find.

Cheaper but more difficult to use, is to get an older used MANUAL focus lens.
Problems:
#1 - It is manual focus, so YOU have to focus the lens. This is not particularly easy with a dslr's screen. If you have never manually focused a lens before, this can be difficult for some people to learn.
#2 - You have to set the aperture and shutter speed manually. If you have a reasonable understanding of exposure, this is easy. And with digital, you shoot one shot, then adjust the exposure up or down based on that 1st shot, and repeat until you get the correct exposure.
#3 - You MUST check the compatibility charts and look up the lens and your camera. Some combinations will not work, others can damage the camera.

Caution. For lenses over 200mm, especially on a DX body, you need to use some sort of STEADY camera support, usually a tripod. The longer the lens, the greater the magnification, and the harder it is to hold steady.

I almost exclusively search for used lenses, as long as it's in good condition I have no issues with a used lens.

I actually prefer manual focus, just because I like the control and the challenge it can be, so that's not an issue. I've gotten fairly good at judging my surroundings and adjusting my settings accordingly. I have 20/20 with my glasses, so the screen and/or viewfinder are both easy for me to use. Do you have any suggestions???

Oh no worries there, I've learned on my own that my hands are too shaky to use long lenses without aid. Also I baby my camera and always hold the lens so that's also not an issue haha

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I would look for the older manual focus lenses, preferably from Nikon.
Nikon optics are generally better than the 3rd party lens makers. But there are exceptions.

The longer the focal length, the physically longer the lens.
This is why they earned the nickname "stove pipes."
My brother's 600mm lens is so long, that it disassembles into 2 parts, so you can carry it easier.

Mirror lenses are amazingly compact, compared to simple telephoto lenses (the stove pipes).
But there is no free lunch.

• A mirror lens is more difficult to set exposure, because you do not have an aperture ring/control.
  
  • You control exposure only by ISO level and shutter speed.
    
  • Some lenses have a ND filter that you can screw in. But, the filter may be missing on the older lenses. And changing ND filters is a slow tricky process, compared to just turning an aperture ring.
• It is harder to make a good mirror lens than a simple telephoto.
• Mirror lens generally have less contrast than non-mirror lenses.
  
• Some people HATE the donut shaped out of focus light images, that brand the shot as being from a mirror lens.

I have and use an old Nikon 500mm mirror lens. Between $150-250 USD on eBay.
I actually got it only because I always wanted a mirror lens, not for any real purpose.
Now that I have the lens, I am looking for ways to use it

 

[Vilatus]

Here you can see the difference in a real world situation. It's not a big difference, but it is something. Both are shot with the Nikon 70-300 VR, no cropping.
View attachment 153808 View attachment 153810
The 200 mm was somewhat of a fail, but it was the best I have that shows the difference.

These are beautiful, thank you!

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[petrochemist]

I would but I don't have the money. I'm just doing this as a hobby, so a cheap attachment is fine for me.

If you don't have the money, it particularly important you don't waste $20!
These are so poor that even a 6MP camera does MUCH better just cropping the image by the same proportion.

I was lucky enough to get a 500mm lens for less than that in the past. Yes it's manual focus only, fixed aperture & not in the smartest condition but it WORKS. More normally mirror lenses like this cost ~£50 though the best ones are significantly more.

I think these were with it (I'm sure of the second one):
lemur baby IMGP0944 by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

Racing at Brands 3 by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

 

[Vilatus]

I would but I don't have the money. I'm just doing this as a hobby, so a cheap attachment is fine for me.

If you don't have the money, it particularly important you don't waste $20!
These are so poor that even a 6MP camera does MUCH better just cropping the image by the same proportion.

I was lucky enough to get a 500mm lens for less than that in the past. Yes it's manual focus only, fixed aperture & not in the smartest condition but it WORKS. More normally mirror lenses like this cost ~£50 though the best ones are significantly more.

I think this one was with it:
lemur baby IMGP0944 by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

Oh geez, that really puts how bad they are into perspective. Thank you.

That's a beautiful picture. I don't mind manual focus and having to adjust the settings so actually that may be the direction I go... lots of used parts in my area it seems like

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[ac12]

Manual focus on a moving subject can be simple to very difficult/impossible.
It has to do with the speed that the subject is moving towards or away from you, and if you can track that movement. It is NOT easy to do with a fast moving subject. When I shot tennis with a 500mm lens, I had a 10% success rate. The DoF on the 500mm lens is very shallow, so focus accuracy is critical. The player moves quickly, and will go from standing in the ready position, to going left (towards me) or right (away from me) FAST, making follow focus difficult.

Shooting flying birds can be even more difficult.
I would shoot birds perched, and NOT flying.
Shooting flying birds takes a lot of experience, to train your eye and muscles to track the bird.

For shots like the motorcyle, I would pre-focus on a spot on the track and shoot when they hit that spot. That is a LOT easier than trying to follow focus.

 

[petrochemist]

For shots like the motorcyle, I would pre-focus on a spot on the track and shoot when they hit that spot. That is a LOT easier than trying to follow focus.

Thats the only way that works IMO. You can use similar techniques for BIF & tennis, but predicting the right distance can be more tricky.
On the day I shot the bikes I have a couple of sequences, taken at the same spot, of riders coming of & ending up in the gravel. It's a shame they drifted out of focus fairly quickly.

 

[LWW]

It will work, it won't work well.

You would get much better results if you crop a photo taken in your camera.

If you notice in the bay examples, the photos are already getting blurry.

Im assuming you have at least a 6 MP camera and you can crop a decent photo and get a decent 8 X 10 from that.

For $300 I would try to scalp something like a used SIGMA 400 f.6 APO AF and the can be had in decent shape for under $300 and will give you a pretty decent lens.

I recently shot this:

with that very lens.