Sigma 600mm F8 Mirror suitable for 10D?

[nucki]

Hi folks!

I just cam over this lens and want to know if anybody tested this lens on a 10D! is it working? ok, with fixed F8 for sure. I think if it is working, than you have to use Av mode, am I right?

any experiances? maybe testshots?

best regards
Peter

[CyberDyneSystems]

These mirror lenses pretty much suck...

Among other things they produce little donut ring artifacts throughout the image..


They are all manual focus of course,. and indeed they are fixed aperture.

That said, there isnt a cheaper or lighter way to get to 500/600mm than a mirror lens.

[nucki]

These mirror lenses pretty much suck...

Among other things they produce little donut ring artifacts throughout the image..


They are all manual focus of course,. and indeed they are fixed aperture.

That said, there isnt a cheaper or lighter way to get to 500/600mm than a mirror lens.

Hi CDS!

of course it prdoduces tiny rings, but thats ok. sometimes it looks good on a picture. and the fixed F8 is also ok I think. I've read an article about a tamron mirror (500mm) compared to a 500mm L Lens. It was not that bad! and if you compare the price.... :shock:

But I want to know if these lens works ok on the 10D?

best regards
Peter

[robvonk]

I've had this lens on my D10 once. I just had my D10 a week and a friend of mine popped in with it. We just did a short test and we didn't have a tripod so all pictures were messed up :)

It didn't gave any errors but the test was too short and my lack of knowledge on that time was part of the messed up photos.

This friend lives too far away to pop in and test it again. He'll be visiting me on the 21th of feb again. So if you want to wait..

Rob

[DaveG]

Hi folks!

I just cam over this lens and want to know if anybody tested this lens on a 10D! is it working? ok, with fixed F8 for sure. I think if it is working, than you have to use Av mode, am I right?

any experiances? maybe testshots?

best regards
Peter

It should work OK and you should be able to use it on manual as well.

Once you get it you'll find that you have to use it a bit differently than most lenses. First and foremost it must be on a tripod. This is going to be effectively a 960 mm lens on the 10D and your best case exposure with ISO 400 would be 1/2000 @ f8 and you won't get there very often.

The other thing that will come as a surprise is the lens's inability to be stopped down. We all wish for that extra stop to let light in but it's surprising when we can't stop a lens - even an f8 lens - down. There is going to be very little depth of field with this lens so any extra D of F would help and it's just not going to be there.

There are a couple of optical concerns with a lens like this as well. I had a Nikkor 500 mm f8 lens and it had a noticable hot spot. If you took a picture of a blue sky you could easily see the fall off from centre to edge. The out of focus, specular highlight "donuts" get old very quickly as well. The Sigma isn't going to be any better built than the Nikkor so be prepared for both of these problems.

But this lens will get you to 1000 mm and it will do it cheaply. If you get it cheap enough and can live with a mirror lens's foibles then it's a good idea.

[CyberDyneSystems]

You know Minolta made (makes?) an autofocus one of these lenses!

Peter,. Sorry I don't have first hand experience with this particular lens on the 10D,.

but I can offer this.

I have a 1000mm mirror "Spotting Scope" made by Celestron,. which provides a t-mount for which I bought the EOS adapter. With the adapter the scope is essentially EXACTLY what one of these mirror lenses is. Completely manual, fixed aperture etc... (although in the case of my spotting scope the image is even worse!)

The set up works fine. Set the 10D to "M" or Aperture priority with the aperture at f/8 and the 10D will meter correctly.

Also,. I do know that someone that used to stop in on this forum had the Pheonix/Samyang 500mm mirror lens working on his 10D with no problems at all.

You may want to look at one of these pheonix numbers,. they are only about $100.00 at Adorama.. and will really give you the same performance/image quality as the Sigma for less than half the cost. You only sacrifice the 100mm. But for an "Experimental" lens,. you may want to risk $100.00 as opposed to $300.00

Good luck,. and do drop in a post some images!

[nucki]

Hi all!

thanks for you detailed answer! I'm not sure if i really get one mirror lens. it was just an idea and I wanted to know if anybody of you has an experiance with this type of lens.

but, for sure, if I ever get one, I will post images as soon as possible!


best rgeards
Peter