The lens is actually well made, and focuses very smoothly. As it turned out, I was surprised that it's quite decent. Maybe not as good as the Minolta Rokkor 250mm f5.6, but it certainly is not a dud. In terms of sharpness, it's passable for a mirror lens, if you can focus it properly. You may notice that all the pictures below are kinda grainy, that's because I had to set the shutter speed to around 1/1000s to maintain safe shutter speed. At that kind of shutter speed, even in broad daylight, the ISO is around 1600. This is one reason I don't like mirror lenses. The 500mm focal length (750mm equivalent on NEX-6) is way too long for most purposes. Holding it to my eyes, I feel like suffering from ET; the view jitters so badly that focusing becomes a problem. Seriously, I don't know what good a lens like this is for. It's too slow for action shots/birds, too long for most uses, and putting it on a tripod is almost mandatory. The only positive I see is the very light weight for the focal length.
I shot quite a few pictures, but the keeper rate is rather low, due to blur. I am sure if used on tripod, it will perform much better, but I am not a tripod guy. Maybe a camera body, like the E-M1 or E-M5, with in-body-stabilization, will make it easier to use.
All pictures below were shot using a NEX-6 & Quantaray 500mm f8 mirror lens. Except for the third picture, all were taken through very thick glass from 17th floor.
As you say, the advantage of a mirror lens is the long focal length for the size & weight of the lens. The disadvantages are the slow aperture and the donut bokeh.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would disagree that 500mm isn't useful. There are times where your object of interest is far away - like the TD sign. (Or, in my case, the gulls, puffins and NASCAR trucks I shot with a 200mm + 2x multiplier). And while F8 isn't great from a light gathering perspective, the extra DoF gives more room for focus error.
You are right that some would love to have a longer focal length without the weight. It's all about trade offs I guess.
DeleteNice, although there is a little more vignetting than I'd expected from such a design showing in the first picture.
ReplyDeleteFor value for money I've had my eye on a mirror lens for some time... if only me FD300 wasn't so good :-)
There is no vignetting from the lens. It might be due to the B&W processing plugin that caused it. Your FD300 will always be better than most mirror lenses, with the option to step down, or open up. If the weight doesn't bother you, there is no point in getting a mirror lens.
Delete