Samyang 500m

[carvinrocks2]

Does anybody have any information about this lens?

5008EOS Samyang 500mm f/8 Ultra Telephoto Manual Focus Mirror Lens with T-Mount for Canon EOS Mount

I was wandering around Adorama when I found it and the cheap price threw me out of whack, and I'd like to know if this thing is any good just for the sake of knowing!

 

[dxqcanada]

Here is info on the Nikkor 500mm mirror lens:
Nikon | Imaging Products | NIKKOR - The Thousand and One Nights, Tale 13 : Reflex-Nikkor 500mm f/8

Mirror lenses are great for astronomy.

I would not recommend it for other types of images ... though it was popular for Bird photography as it was powerful but cheap.

 

[Big Mike]

There are several similar 500mm F8 mirror lenses floating around.
There are even a fair number of old threads around here that talk about them.

Overall, the consensus seems to be that the quality is terrible compared to a good 'normal' lens, but for the price, then can be fun...just don't expect too much from them.
And of course, with such a long focal length and an aperture (non variable) of F8, you pretty much need to be on a stable tripod.

 

[djacobox372]

One good thing about mirror lenses is that they usually have zero chromatic aberration, which makes them perfect for taking photos of bright light sources like the moon, or birds against a bright sky.

They are also very light weight, but that's both a positive and a negative, as the weight of a standard telephoto makes it easier to hold steady, allowing you to shoot slower shutter speeds.

 

[Derrel]

Mirror lenses can be fun to use,and are a good way to get a long,light telephoto very affordably. The main problem is that they are slow,aperture-wise, and 99.99 percent of them are manual focusing (Sony has anew 500 AF mirror), and the focusing is pretty critical with a 500mm lens. This means that mirror lenses are not well-suited to "action" photography. There have been some very high-quality mirror lenses made by Nikon and Vivitar and Tamron, but the majority of 500/8's are pretty cheezy.

Here is a Vivitar Series 1 "solid cat", made by Perkin-Elmer, of NASA and space program fame...this is one of the better types of cats--the old Vivitar "solid" cats...this 600/8 uses three pounds of solid optical glass, and is part of a family of superior,professional-grade mirror teles...

 

[usayit]

Yeh.. most mirror lenses are going to be a huge compromise.. I've heard ok things with the one Derrel pointed out as well as the Tamron SP Adaptall 2 in both 350mm and 500mm variants.

Tamron SP Adaptall-2 500mm F/8 Model 55B

Tamron SP Adaptall-2 350mm F/5.6 Model 06B

btw... the good ones aren't going to be as cheap as the samyang one you linked which is also sold under various other brands.

 

[usayit]

Look what I ran into...

50063 Pro-Optic 500mm f/6.3 Manual Focus, T-Mount Mirror Lens

P09081 Samyang 500mm f/6.3 TDX Phenix Ultra Telephoto Manual Focus Mirror Lens - fits all Cameras that use Standard "T" Mounts (Required T-Mount Not Included)


Apparently there is another 500mm mirror that's roaming around under the similar brand names. The build looks different than the one originally linked and the max aperture is f/6.3 instead of f/8.

So I headed to pentaxforums which has a lot of users using/enjoying/experimenting with older manual focus M42 and OK lenses. There's some input there that might be interesting read:

PentaxForums.com Third-Party Lens Review Database - Rokinon / Kenko / Bower / Samyang 500mm F/6.3 DX Lens Reviews

For the price, it this f/6.3 "might" be ok... within limits. Also notice in one of the samples you can see doughnut shaped specular highlights.. another "characteristic" of mirror lenses which you might or might not like.