The Mirror Lens Club!

**Marc Sabatella** · 08-31-2009, 12:02 PM

Inspired by my resounding success in turning an existing thread into "the kit lens club", I've decided to go one better and create a new "club" thread for these classic lenses-we-love-to-hate: mirror lenses. Yep, they're slow and have a fixed aperture, they're not usually very contrasty or sharp, and they have extremely odd bokeh (some are worse than others on any of these counts, of course). But that doesn't mean you can't have fun with them, and sometimes even get a pretty decent image out of them!

So here's a place to post your favorite shots taken with mirror lenses. Do identify the specific lens used if possible.

**Marc Sabatella** · 08-31-2009, 12:10 PM

Here's a few from my Vivitar 500/8. Definitely *not* considered one of the better mirror lenses out there, but every once in a while it can surprise you.

*ivoire* · 08-31-2009, 12:33 PM

And we're off! These are from my Tokina 500mm f8 lens. Unfortunately, fungus has attacked it so a replacement Tamron 500mm f8 is arriving this week. Mirrors are quirky and controversial... 2 good reasons to own one. The moon of course, is a crop.

Miserere · 08-31-2009, 02:12 PM

Great idea, Marc!

Mummy mockingbird feeding her chick:

K10D + Sigma CAT 400mm f/5.6

.

*Ash* · 09-01-2009, 08:35 AM

Here are my contributions courtesy of the Tamron SP 500/8 mirror lens:

Uncropped and minimally post-processed.

*reeftool* · 09-01-2009, 09:29 AM

These are some very nice shots posted. I am kicking around buying one of these so I'll be following this thread with interest.

*Rense* · 09-01-2009, 10:21 AM

Great idea Marc! I bought me a mirror just some weeks ago, and now I have a place to dump all my photos. Thank you

!

*ovim* · 09-02-2009, 01:00 PM

Inspired by this thread I dug out my Russian 3M-5A 8/500mm. Although I had to hurry to work I managed to get a few shots of butterflies. Handheld and converted from raw with LR defaults with some cropping.

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

Miserere · 09-02-2009, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by ovim

Inspired by this thread I dug out my Russian 3M-5A 8/500mm.

Proving how soft mirror lenses are.

NOT!

Nice butterfly pic!

.

georgweb · 09-02-2009, 02:01 PM

Great idea Marc,
I am stunned by the quality of the posted photos !

T2 Hama Spiegel-Objektiv 'Made in Japan' 5.6/300 on K100D (What's that camera?)

This lens is handholdable for me and the SR does work OK with it. The 300mm (edit: 250mm) Minolta equivalent went for around 300 US-$ on the fleabay
last time so I've given up on it.

Best, Georg (the other)

Miserere · 09-02-2009, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by georgweb

Great idea Marc,
I am stunned by the quality of the posted photos !

T2 Hama Spiegel-Objektiv 'Made in Japan' 5.6/300 on K100D (What's that camera?)

This lens is handholdable for me and the SR does work OK with it. The 300mm Minolta equivalent went for around 300 US-$ on the fleabay
last time so I've given up on it.

Best, Georg (the other)

Crazy bokeh, and a huge Canon for such a small girl

*ivoire* · 09-02-2009, 03:49 PM

Thats the most common complaint with mirror lenses... donut bokeh. But 3 minutes in photoshop can easily correct it by selecting the donut area and adjust with a surface blur set to radius 6, threshold 255. A smart sharpen of 2pixels at 20% as the finishing touch helps also hope i'm not out of bounds here Georg

georgweb · 09-02-2009, 05:53 PM

Miserere I see that's a Canon brick camera. That girl's neck would not stand the load so she's carrying it, another marketing victim :-)

Thanks a lot Ivoire, your PP looks perfect except the borders but that's more a question of accurately using the scizzors I guess. I did a similar
thing in the gimp with above pic and will try to follow your detailed instructions. In fact I'm quite ignorant with PP and it shows with such lenses.

Next try with Ivoire's hints (as far as I could follow up in Gimp) Same Hama 300mm mirror lens

Best, Georg (the other)

*ivoire* · 09-02-2009, 06:23 PM

Georg, I've never used gimp, so i can't help you on that one, but it looks like you get how to reduce the donuts. I just zipped around the people without regard to a good outline just to get the idea across. A bit of work on the outline with the smudge tool would have helped and the sharpening brings the outline more into focus. Mirror lens donuts don't have to be a problem.

**Marc Sabatella** · 09-02-2009, 11:34 PM

This hawk just buzzed me while I was out painting this morning: