[SRT201]

Staff note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means Pentax Forums may earn a small commission if a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase. If you would like to support the forum directly, you may also make a donation here.

---

Nice shots! Thanks for the examples. That King Fisher is beautiful! Nice color on all the shots as you said.

[cmar]

Here is one taken with my Tamron 500 mm f8 Adaptall 2 at 500 mm , hand held on my Kr. Bought new 30 years ago, and still takes perfect images, after half a lifetime of faithful service on my Me Super.

[aryeh]

Wow!!!! A very beautiful picture.

P.S. I want to buy the lens...

[aryeh]

Two questions..
Pentax K-r
1. Confirmation AF will work with Samyang 500 f/6.3? And with Samyang 500 f/8?
2. What advise to buy from these two? Samyang 500 f/6.3 ОR Samyang 500 f/8?
Thanks

---

Last edited by aryeh; 10-17-2012 at 05:39 AM.

[SRT201]

Check this out... No it's not Pentax mount but interesting anyhow. I didn't know Sigma made a lens like this.

SIGMA-XQ 1:8 F=500MM ULTRA-TELEPHOTO MIRROR LENS to fit CANON FD. A-1, E-1, etc: | eBay

[SRT201]

And another MONSTER mirror...

Sigma Mirror-Ultratelephoto 500mm f/4

Now THAT's a CAT!

I think this guy wants a bit too much for one.

Sigma-XQ Mirror 500/4 Pentax K mount # 21192 ...... Minty/Very Rare !! | eBay

[cmar]

Yes Sigma used to do quite a nice 600mm mirror years ago. A mate bought one for his Olympus OM10 the same time as I bought the Tammy 500mm I took the shot above with for my ME Super. I considered getting one but was pretty much sold on Tammy Adaptall 2 by then. Paradoxically I've never used any of them on anything else than Pentax!

[magicshi]

some handheld photos

[magicshi]

some handheld photos taken with ZM-5A 500mm M42

[SRT201]

I have passed on mirrors for a long time but after recently discovering how difficult the handling is with some of the large lenses, I decided to give the mirrors a try. After reading this thread I picked up a Soligor CD 500 f8 and found a good buy on a Tamron 55BB.

Here are two shots taken handheld with the 55BB. These are NOT art shots. They were simply taken to get a handle on shooting the Tamron and to see what kind of sharpness I could get handheld with SR and CIF. This lens amazes me! VERY sharp. Here are two shots I threw together - just OOC jpegs. They are obviously scaled down but no other sharpening or contrast adjustment was done. Even the in-camera settings aren't pushing the contrast. Both were taken with the default Landscape settings. Each has an included 100% crop to show the detail. This lens gets the most accurate CIF shots I have managed yet. Sorry the quick little editor I used destroyed the EXIF. Both shots are f8... duh.

The almost total lack of CA is refreshing as well. You have to watch the bokeh but it can be managed. With foreground subjects, I find the donut bokeh gives the sky a very creamy appearance.

One complaint... WHO at Tamron thought the hood was a good idea??? It doesn't connect to the lens at all when reversed and doesn't accommodate a lens cap... What the?

I picked up this hood on eBay. It's longer, providing yet more flare protection and uses the same 82mm lens cap when attached. Yeah it has to be stored separately but it's better IMO.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sonia-Metal-82mm-82-Tele-Telephoto-Lens-Hood-Shade-N...item336343c847


ISO 640, 1/2500s --- Note the fine strands of spider web



ISO 400, 1/2000s



MAN!.... Those wood storks may be endangered but they surely aren't protected because they're pretty.


By the way... the Soligor is no slouch. I have no idea why it has been treated badly in this thread. I don't think it warrants the comments it has gotten here and I'll bet it performs better than the cheap mirrors. It was, after all, a member of the Soligor C/D high end line of lenses.

In regard to sharpness the Soligor almost matches the 55BB! Excellent solid build quality. The 55BB is brighter. As discussed earlier in the thread it is probably one of the few f8 mirrors that actually approaches a real f8. Obviously that's why it's an 82mm thread. The Soligor isn't a tiny lens either with a 77mm thread instead of the 72mm found on cheap mirrors. The Tamron also has better contrast but I would not pass up a Soligor if you can't get your hands on a Tamron. I got my Soligor for less than $20 with the hood! Both lenses seem to work well with focus confirm. I haven't tried CIF on the Soligor yet because I have one of those anodized T-mount adapters. I will try to post a few shots from the Soligor as well. Maybe even some A/B shots with the Tamron.

[Jean Poitiers]

Sigma 600 f8 (PK mount w/drop-in filters), first of a few test shots ... w/K-7

[ChopperCharles]

I just picked up a K-01, and suddenly my neglected Tokina 500mm mirror lens has a whole new life. The focus peaking really makes focusing a breeze. No longer do I have to zoom way, way in and take forever to make sure it's focused, just to find out later it was off just a little bit. Focus peaking allows me to see when the exact area I want is in focus. Because the DOF is so narrow with the mirror lens, it's a piece of cake to make sure my target is right in the center of the focus peaking effect.

Here are a few shots (resized for the web)









Charles.

[Miserere]

If anyone's interested, I'm selling my Sigma CAT 400mm f/5.6. A nice mirror lens! Sale thread here.

[Colorado CJ]

I recently picked up an old Soviet 500mm F8 mirror lens, a 3M-5C-MC. I decided to modify my Photosniper stock (another Soviet era photography kit) to use the new mirror lens and my Sony Nex 5n. The 5N's shutter is pressed with the stock's trigger via a pushrod.




I took this setup out today to do a little wildlife photography. It turned out not to be a good day for photos since we had a low cloud ceiling all day and the dust was blowing with winds in the 10-20 m.p.h. range.

That, combined with the F8 lens made it necessary to use pretty high ISO during shooting (between 2000-3200 ISO).

That would have been fine with my D600, but the Nex 5N isn't near as good at those high ISO settings (although not extremely bad).

With that said, here are a few photos.

I came up on a lone coyote watching over a prairie dog town.




He stalked up to a prairie dog and got him




All that hard work made him sleepy (he didn't eat the prairie dog, probably saving him for later )




Just a view to the west





Here's a pretty good sized mulie. He was pushing around a tumble weed in the high grass




Here's another mulie, quite a bit smaller than the first one




Well, that is it for today. I kind of like the way this mirror lens renders images. They aren't as sharp as my Nikkor 300mm F4, but they have a certain "old" look to the photos that I kind of like. It is definitely a lens you need to use on a bright day because of the F8 set aperture. I'll be bringing it out on the next bright day we have to see how it works at lower ISO's.

[Jean Poitiers]

Thanks for posting CJ ... some good captures there! J