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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-29-2013, 05:12 PM
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As for taking the 55BB apart. It is not obvious. I thought about cleaning mine and gave up. The first thing you need to ask yourself is IF you need to open it up at all. First, the fungus is, as is usually the case, near the edge of the element. This is the front element so anything there will be wildly spread out by the time it reaches the imager plane. Also, you're dealing with a cropped imager which means the fungus, which may not even be in the image rectangle for full frame, probably is not in the cropped image rectangle. It may well have little to no effect on in focus details.
The ONLY place where EVERY lens flaw shows up is in OOF highlights. However, this is a mirror which means you want to avoid the OOF highlights because of donut bokeh. Thus OOF highlights aren't really important for you.
All in all, the fungus probably isn't an issue.
Take the lens out on a bright sunny day and let the sun shine on that fungus for an hour or so. That will kill it in case it's still on the move.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-29-2013, 11:27 AM
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Has anyone here ever done a comparison between the Tamron 55BB and the Vivitar Series 1 600 solid cat? I have the Tamron and it is a great mirror but I have long wanted the solid cat. I wonder if it's actually any better though. If not, then no reason to pick it up as it would just be a heavy collectors item.
Thanks,
Scott
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-23-2012, 11:49 AM
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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.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-17-2012, 06:57 AM
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-17-2012, 06:52 AM
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-15-2012, 01:51 AM
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Nice shots! Thanks for the examples. That King Fisher is beautiful! Nice color on all the shots as you said.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-13-2012, 07:30 PM
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That Minolta was a cool lens. Really nice shots! Looks very sharp.
Needless to say I've always liked Minolta. First SLR I ever had. Great innovators they were.
Autofocus, wireless flash, sensor IS... all Minolta.
I just joined the mirror club with a couple eBay purchases. Picked up a Soligor C/D 500 for $17 just to try it out. I figured that would be a low risk first cat to try but then watched another auction and nailed a Tamron 55BB for $100... that was a great price! It will be interesting to compare them.
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