Ever use a Rokinon 650-1300 mm?

I know you are doing this for fun but....those pics lack a lot of contrast and sharpness. Someone again took the time to ditch the mirror lenses....

Canon 500mm Mirror Lens Ed Mika glassless adapter:

Sure they are keepers.
Thanks to genius Ed Mika.

I find focusing as the most difficult thing in such situations.

This was my FIRST DAY with the lens.

Challenge accepted!

Day 2. Picked up some cammo tape at the local farm implement store, then headed over to the yacht club for some focusing practice. You can see here where I was sitting on the wall and how far away the water was.

Nice one! What distance was this taken?

Shot from about 150 ft @ 800mm. Slight crop to frame him squarely. In one of the already published reviews, someone complained that the focus is limited on the ends of the zoom range. THis is correct, however, I don't find it to be much of a problem. To get around that problem, I find myself frequently at 800mm instead of 650 where I have full focus control. Too much reach is rarely a bad thing.

Pair of Trumpeter Swans yesterday (three if you look closely). 800mm at about 100 meters away.

I still use mine as seen above with the Cammo tape. Boy, put a 1.4x teleconverter behind it and WOW, what a spotting scope! This one shot from about 125 meters away @ 1300mm focal length. A slight crop. Focusing is real thin so I like to focus on the eye, and it helps to underexpose a bit to reduce purple fringing (which you can also fix in post processing). Not the best lens on the planet, but it gets the job done (and quite the conversation starter too).

IMAGE LINK: http://s219.photobucke​t.com …3996_zpsc35b6fc​6.jpg.html

Yup, I've still got this lens!

I saw these Common Merganzers feeding with the Trumpeter Swans across the lake where I live, about 300 - 350 meters away. I opened the back window, grabbed the Rokinon, put it on the 1DMkIV, and got these shots at about 1,000mm focal length. Still a useful tool to have at the ready. First shot cropped 50%, second one maybe just 10% to straighten the horizon. Shot in RAW, processed with Lightroom 5. Good enough for FB or eBird to document what was out there a LONG way away.

The more I use this lens, the more I like it, especially with the 1DMk4 body. No problems. Here's some shots at about 200 yards with maybe 20% cropping at 1,000mm focal length. Certainly better than I can do with my Canon 400mm f5.6 with or without 2x teleconverter. I live on a lake, and this lens is the go-to tool for really reaching out across the water.

Four Ring-necked Ducks, two Redheaded, and two Canvasback Ducks.

woos wrote in post #11945435
You'd get better pics with a Canon SX30 than with an SLR with that 650-1300 imho

Yup.

All day long. So many people get wrapped up in DSLR and lenses when for many, many applications an advanced point and shoot will do much better than cheap glass.

The zooms they are putting on the SX line are crazy these days.

So, I should sell my 1DMk4 and buy a SX-30 and expect to get better results?

Biffbradford wrote in post #17915148
So, I should sell my 1DMk4 and buy a SX-30 and expect to get better results?

yeah, that's exactly what i said.

oh wait, no it isn't.

I guess the point was that the SX30 can do better than a DSLR + the Rokinon. That's okay, I'm very happy with the lens and will keep posting the more interesting shots I find with it, even though I may be the only one. I'm not finding much fault with the lens when used for what it's made for.

If you want to try something a bit more expensive in the future, but not quite to the 100-400L pricetag, try the Sigma 150-600, with a Kenko 2x.

Here is a shot of a goose manually focused with a 2x (1200mm), then the moon with a stacked 2x, 1.4x (1680mm) also manually focused. I would think this quality would beat the Rokinon and would be a bit more manageable due to image stabilization. Both are handheld, I need to get this combination on a monopod if nothing else.

About a 2/3 crop on the goose and a 50% crop on the moon.