Rokinon Lens

SpunkyKid · Jul 8, 2009

Has anyone tried the Rokinon 500mm f/6.3 Multi-Coated Mirror Lens for Olympus Evolt E-30, E-300, E-330, E-410, E-420, E-500, E-510, E-520, E-450, E-620, E-1, E-3 Digital SLR Cameras?
I'm looking for a new lens and I tried finding some reviews for it just to see if what some opinions of it are, but I haven't been able to find any.
Any help would be amazing

Thanks.

JerryPH · Jul 8, 2009

Crap. Don't waste your money on it.

Good 500mm lenses are in the thousands of dollars range, not a hundred bucks.

JustAnEngineer · Jul 8, 2009

There are a few mirror lenses that are okay at infinity focus for astro photography, but even the good ones have doughnut-shaped out of focus bokeh effects when used at less than extreme distances.

SpunkyKid · Jul 8, 2009

Yeah good 500 mm lenses are in the thousand dollar range, I was just wondering what people thought. Thanks for the response : ]

KmH · Jul 8, 2009

It's a novelty lens, inexpensive, fixed aperture, fun for a while and then consigned to the next yard sale.

benhasajeep · Jul 9, 2009

It is an inexpensive lens. I do not have one, but have seen pictures from them, and was unfortunate to buy a similar one about 18 years ago. I had a Promaster 500 f/8.0 that I bought when I went to college. After about the first couple rolls of film through the camera I realized the limit to the lens. The new lenses do have some coatings now but are still inexpensivly made. The Rokinon and others (several are same lens with different brandings) 500 f/6.3 being 2/3 of a stop faster helps with focusing. The doghnuts for the backgrounds is not so pronounced unless you have reflective items in the background. But the lens will be soft, contrast will be low, and since newer cameras no longer have split focusing screens, pinpoint focus is hard to achieve. A tripod is a must as camera shake is a factor with a focal length this big.

At best the lens could be used for snap shots. But do not plan on making any kind of enlargements from the pics. They look decent on a monitor as small pics. But once you start going with larger pics, or printing them, the faults start to come out. Kinda like looking at your LCD on the camera and thinking a shot is good, only to find out on the computer once you get it to half or full size, you actually missed and it has several issues.

For a toy to play with, it's probably not such a bad lens. But for serious pictures, save the money for a better long range lens like a 50-50 Sigma (has a 4/3's version). They are a $1,000 but if your willing to drop $180-200 on a mirror lens. Why not toss some money into the piggy bank and wait a little. You will be much happier with the end results! Fight the I wanna have it now, and get something better down the road.