Weird lens question for a 10D

[Dean LeMaster]

I'm new to the EOS and Canon 10D so be gentle if this is a dumb question.
I picked up this Vivitar 500mm manual focus lens cheap. It's supposed to be 10D compatable.

http://www.vivitar.com/Products/Lenses/lensmanl.html#500mmMirror

I'm wondering if anyone here has ever used it with their canon 10D's? It requires a T-mount so I use the same one I have with my telescope. I haven't used it yet until I can feel confident that it won't damage my camera. Was this a waster of money? TIA

[defordphoto]

One you use it and see the results you'll know why none of use have one.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Tell me you got a deal on a used one?

Well,. obviously it's manual focus.. but it's also got no aperture adjustment. The T-mount won't hurt your camera.. essentially this "lens" is a telescope... (or spotting scope) it does not behave in any way like a dedicated lens for a camera.

The trouble with mirror lenses is that the image quality doesn't even come close to a refracting lens.

That said.. it certainly is an affordable way to get to 500mm... and easy to carry.

You'll need a tripod :)

[DaveG]

I'm new to the EOS and Canon 10D so be gentle if this is a dumb question.
I picked up this Vivitar 500mm manual focus lens cheap. It's supposed to be 10D compatable.

http://www.vivitar.com/Products/Lenses/lensmanl.html#500mmMirror

I'm wondering if anyone here has ever used it with their canon 10D's? It requires a T-mount so I use the same one I have with my telescope. I haven't used it yet until I can feel confident that it won't damage my camera. Was this a waster of money? TIA

If it fits on the 10D then it shouldn't hurt the camera. You might get an error message - some Brand X lenses have had this problem of incompatability - but since the lens just sits there without any lens to camera linkage it might be OK.

As for the lens itself, mirror lenses' big advantages are that they are relatively small for their focal length and they - as you've discovered - are cheap.

But the downside of these lenses are many. They are very slow - I'm guessing your's is an f8. Equally and surprisingly the lens' inability to go to f11, is as much of a pain as not being able to go to f5.6. With a lens this long the depth of field is very shallow. f11, f16 and the increased D of F would often come as an improvement to the photograph; and since (once again) there's no diaphram, there's no f11. A neutral density filter will knock down the exposure, make the viewfinder even darker, but won't increase D of F.

I used to own a Nikkor 500 f8 and I suspect it's build quality was much better than the Vivitar. And yet it had an incredible hotspot. If I pointed that lens at the blue sky, I could see that the centre was about 2/3's of a stop hotter than the edges when I checked the transparency film results. This is just the nature of mirror lenses and I'm sure it's no better on the Vivitar.

As to the advice of the other poster who suggested a tripod, I'd second that but make it a VERY stable tripod.

Hey you got it, and for not a lot of money. So enjoy it. But the points above are thee reasons you don't see a lot of people with mirror lenses.

[Dean LeMaster]

Thanks for the input. :oops: I had immediate buyers remorse right after I bought it but it was pretty cheap and I figure I could sell it back on EBAY if it turned out to be really suckee. But I'll try it out first, it actually came with a doubler so 500mm X2 and 1:6, wouldn't that make it about 1600mm? Hmmm, might be fun to try.

[ron chappel]

Yes good point-you can allways resell it again on epay.
I've used that very model and didn't get very good results with it.Mirror lenses tend to be slightly low in contrast and colour and that's exactly what i got.I did find out mine had slight flaws in the smaller of the two mirrors but it was actually the best of several mirror lenses i have owned
These images are about representative of what you get

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=383889
note that this gallery and the one following later have a fair bit of jpeg compression.The original pics are both smoother and sharper

While you may get better results with your new one i still can't imagine it being anything more that a bit of fun.I had to take sooo many pics to get a few that looked good that it just annoyed me after awhile

If you still want a cheap option for tele's there are many cheap 'cheap name' brands around that are available in sizes such as 400/6.3 and 500/8.They have none of the great size advantages as mirror lenses but -even though cheap-they have MUCH better image quality than cheap mirrors.
Here are some pics from a Flexar(makes you cringe huh? :D ) 400/6.3
While the mirror images above were a real slog to get any that looked ok-these ones are allmost straight from the camera with a high keeper rate.Sure thay are nowhere near canon L quality but i think you can see it's not too bad for a au$80 lens ! :) (2nd hand,Tmount for it extra)

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=409106

Oh-the T mount lenses on EOS are easy.The main drawback is that the camera will get confused at times and need compensation or simply using a forced shutter speed