New to forum

pinkbomb542 · Aug 25, 2004

First off, thank God I finally found a forum that is not based soley on digital photography.

My setup(try not to laugh): Yashica FX-2, Yashica 50mm 1:1.9 lens, Yashica 75-200mm 1: 4.5 lens, Tokina 2x converter, 60" collapsable tripod, and an equally cheap auto flash from Vivitar.

I am new to being enthused about photography and this was my setup in college except the 200mm and the 2x. My aunt recently was kind enough to give me those two because she had doubles of them and really was wanting to move to digital anyway. That inturn sparked my new enthusiasm as soon as I saw what a difference the lenses make.
Anyway, to get to my point, I was looking at this 500mm Vivitar lens on ebay.CLICK HERE

here are my questions...
Would this lens work with my 2x converter making it a 1000mm?
Would this lenses macro capability be more powerful than my current 75-200mm lense?
How does Vivitar compare to other lens makers?

DocFrankenstein · Aug 25, 2004

It's an ok lens for the price, I've heard that their mirror design is superior, but this is an unconfirmed info.

Doesn't matter what equipment you have. As long as you keep taking pics and learning.

Welcome to the forum. I can't help you much, cause I only had experience with Canon stuff.

Big Mike · Aug 25, 2004

Welcome,

First off, that particular lens appears to have a mount for Canon EOS (auto focus) cameras and therefore would not fit your Yashica. You could get an adapter I'm sure though.

Is your Yashica auto focus? This lens has a constant aperture of F8. Which means that auto focus will probably not work...and looking through the viewfinder will be fairly dark. If you tried to use it with a 2X teleconvertor...it would be almost impossible to see through the viewfinder.

This lens would have more magnification than your 75-200mm but the minimum focus distance is 5.5 feet. That's not very good for any macro photography.

Vivitar does make some pretty good lenses but I don't know if I would spend money on a 500mm mirror lens...although for $100, it may be worth it.

Basically, you would have to use this lens in bright light situations and/or with fast film...because of fixed F8 aperture.

I'd suggest sticking with what you have, for now, and then after a while you can make a better choice for new equipment.

pinkbomb542 · Aug 25, 2004

My Yashica is manual focus and as for the Canon thing, the seller says that there is a t-mount included in the package...is that like a Canon to Yashica adapter?

My intention for this lens would be to take close up stills of flowers (my favortite type of photo) and distant landscapes. When I asked about the macro thing I was asking comparitively how would the 75-200mm fair against the 500mm in the enlarging of close objects. The 75-200 has a minimum focal range of about 3 ft. while the 500's is 5.5 ft. One other thing I have noticed was that most 500mm lelses have minimum focus lengths of usually over 25 ft. Thats why I am thinking macro with this one.

I never noticed the 2x making my viewfinder darker on my other lenses but I have read up on it and now I am wondering why I never noticed. Maybe in the act of changing the lenses out I changed the aperature unknowingly.

Big Mike · Aug 25, 2004

I'm not sure about the mount...you should make sure that it will work on your camera before you buy.

I don't think this would be your best option for flower close-up shots. You would have to be almost six feet away to shoot the flower...and at that distance, 500mm might not be enough magnification. Your best bet would be to buy a macro lens, the next option would be extension tubes and then there are close-up filters.

For distant landscapes, why not use your 75-200 with the 2X...400mm should be plenty.

You may not have noticed much darkness before because your other lenses have much bigger maximum apertures (1.9 & 4.5) at F8...it's not letting a lot of light in. Although, now that I think about it...F8 @ 500mm might be OK.

I don't know if anyone here actually has a 500mm mirror lens. Hopefully someone can offer a more educated opinion.