I want more telephoto

[nodlenor]

I have a canon t3 with the 18-55 and 55-250 lenses. I've been looking for a 500mm lense and found an Opteka 500/1000 on Amazon. This is a 500mm lense with a 2x adapter. Has anyone had any experience with this lense? I'm definatly an amature so don't need and can't afford an expensive lense but would like one that will produce decent pics. Other suggestions would be helpful as long as it is in my price range.

 

[rgregory1965]

Might want to state what your price range is so we dont have to guess....thanks

 

[chuasam]

What is your definition of decent?

 

[nodlenor]

I would like to stay under $250. By decent I mean a clear image.

 

[Overread]

The Optecka lenses are not worth investing in for reach. They are ultra cheap because they are low grade optics with a fixed aperture (which is f8 at 500mm and f16 at 1000mm). They'll "work" but poorly and you'd probably get as good or better with a bridge camera.

If you want a budget 500mm you can consider options like the Sigma range of 150-500mm or 50-500mm zooms or there is the canon 100-400mm zoom. If you want to go cheaper than those then you can consider the sigma 120-400mm - any cheaper and you are going to be looking at 70-300mm lenses.
If you want the cheapest 500mm you could get an older sigma 500mm mirror lens - however these can leave odd ring shapes in the backgrounds and are not often the fastest of aperture lenses.

 

[TheBiles]

I would like to stay under $250. By decent I mean a clear image.

You need to save some more.

 

[nodlenor]

The lense I'm refering to is a 500mm f/6.3 plus a 2x adapter. It is listed for $159.95. I don't want to waste $159.95 if I won't get good pics. What would a good 500mm lens plus 2x adapter cost and where can I get them? I live in a rural area with no camera shops where I can look at accessories.

 

[KmH]

Apparently, you're looking at Opteka's catadioptric (folded focal length) mirror lens. Opteka 500mm / 1000mm f/6.3 Telephoto Mirror Lens for Canon EOS 1D, 5D, 7D, 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, 60D, Rebel XT, XTi, XS, XSi, T1i, T2i, T3 and T3i Digital SLR Cameras

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catadioptric_system

The 2x adapter also doubles the effective aperture, so at 1000 mm the lens will effectively be f/13. The lens is also manual focus only and it won't meter on your T3, so you'll have to guess the appropriate shutter speed and ISO settings.

With no image stabilization you'll need a good steady tripod to prevent camera shake, because of the long focal length.

A mirror lens has some advantages over a refracting lens. Most notable is little in the way of optical aberrations, becuase the light is reflected, not refracted.
Optical aberration issues you will likely see are coma and field curvature. Focus will likely not be all that sharp since what optics there are in the lens are likely resin and not glasss. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_aberrations

Mirror lenses are notorious for producing, very unpleasant, odd looking, donut shaped highlights outside the DoF. The odd bokeh is a result of the small secondary mirror that is attached to the corrector plate at the front of the lens. The small mirror is used to fold the optical path so the physical length of the lens is halved.

 

[Tony S]

That lens makes a perfect paper weight, although it is prone to rolling off the desk. You might get one really good shot out of 1000 if you are very lucky and the stars align perfectly.

For even average or ok images you need to budget more, there is a reason the long lenses cost more.... the produce really nice images. Use your feet and find the skill to get closer until you get more $$ to produce what you want.

 

[cgipson1]

You would be far better off buying a Point and Shoot SuperZoom... they get far better quality than that lens will!

 

[KmH]

As a point of fact, that isn't actually a lens, it's a small reflecting telescope.

It has mirrors instead of lenses, though it does have a corrector plate at the front.

Actually, for the price, I think you would get pretty good results. The issues are the aperture is not adjustable, ther is no metering, and it's manula focus only.

 

[nodlenor]

Thanks everyone for your advise. Bottom line is I need to wait until I can afford something better. Thanks again you are all mighty helpful.

 

[Railphotog]

I bought an Opteka 500mm lens from a friend a while ago, assumed it probably wouldn't be all that sharp. It isn't. Anyway, I only paid $50.00 for it, so I don't mind too much.

And such manual lenses can be used on Canon DSLRs, just set to Aperture priority and the camera will pick the shuttter speed.

 

[fjrabon]

A) there are a lot of people here who seem to be dogging the lens out who have obviously never tried it. As Keith stated, who seems to have some experience with these things, they're not totally awful.

B) They're basically good for shooting pictures of the moon or other stellar objects. (which isnt surprising given that they're essentially just telescopes that attach to a camera) It's going to take a LOT of trial and error to get your settings right, since it can't use your camera's metering system, this means you need a mostly static subject. You also generally want a black background, because of the weird background highlights effect Keith talked about.

A guy brought one of these things out to a local astrophotography meetup we had, and honestly the resulting shots he got of the moon were fairly okay. I mean it's not going to blow you away, and it is limited in what it can do, but for the price it's pretty good. And I think it got better results for astro photography than you'd get from a bridge camera, which tends to get really noisy in that type of atmosphere.

Now, would you use this as a general telephoto for 'normal' super telephoto type applications? No way. Trying to photograph wildlife with this thing would be a near disaster. You would NEVER get it in focus or properly exposed unless the animal was actually dead.

 

[bobandcar]

I use a 400mm Tokina fd mount lense on my t3i with an adapter from amazon that also has a 1.4x built in.
It deos pretty good! I can't complain for the 60 bux I got in it