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Albinar ( Samyang ) 80-200mm F3.9 | | Latest Review Posted | Sigma Mirror 600mm F8
I've owned three Sigma 600mm mirrors over the years. The best one was the first one I bought back in 1983. The worst was one I bought a few years ago, probably one made fairly late in the product run. Then I bought another just a couple of weeks ago, which is most likely the oldest of the bunch. Here's how to tell them apart, more or less:
The oldest of the Sigma 600mm mirrors has a chromed metal handle used for inserting and removing the metal tray that holds the rear filter. All later designs used a plastic handle/tray for holding this filter.
The one I bought a couple weeks ago has this chromed metal handle. The early 600s are physically smaller than later ones. Mine has an 84mm filter thread size. The later ones are 86mm. Early mirrors also have a gloss black enamel finish. I suspect the gloss black finish remained standard until the mid-1980s, at which time you saw this mirror appear in a variety of different colors, from white to OD green. I own a fairly late one that has a dark matte gray finish.
Optically, these mirrors have much more variability than I'd like to see. The one I bought back in 1983 was in Canon FD mount and was an outstanding performer. All the shots I have from it are on slides, so I have no digital images to show it off. But it was a great lens. The one I bought a few years ago is in Canon EOS mount -- a rather uncommon version. It performs poorly, exhibiting a pronounced double image. The optics are perfectly clean, but there is an obvious misal... | |
