Not as good as expected will try again if nothing else to do but do not hold your breath.
BigJohnNot as good as expected will try again if nothing else to do but do not hold your breath.
BigJohnAwful. I knew I was expecting too much for the price, but I wasn't expecting so little. Impossible to focus accurately. . . except that I'm not sure it can be focused accurately at all. Build quality seems OK, but what's the point when the quality of the image is so poor? Sending it back and saving up for something better.
S. Rouseinteresting lens appears well made,not the easiest to use but it can take good images.hand holding needs care but on a tripod it will be fine,not expensive so worth a shotno pun intended,depth of field very small if you have peaking on your camera it will help.it comes with three filters one skylight and two nd,s
john coleinteresting lens appears well made,not the easiest to use but it can take good images.
hand holding needs care but on a tripod it will be fine,not expensive so worth a shot
no pun intended,depth of field very small if you have peaking on your camera it will
help.it comes with three filters one skylight and two nd,s
This is a great piece of kit as i do quite a lot of phatography.
alan clarkeLens produces decent results, it is all what it was described. Reasonable quality but of you will be using it constantly would advise buying a more expensive lens
Mick IsmailBought this lens because I thought the price was acceptable for my bank account and to have it handy for the odd wildlife shot,photography is what I do.Got to say I tried every conceivable setting on my camera, in every possible situation, and I think I got one half decent picture !!!It wasn't down to my lack of knowledge or my camera, it was down to a company making a lens claiming its something it isn't ?You get what you pay for I guess, and sometimes you get a nice surprise, this time I got a nasty surprise.I returned it a week later, disappointed, but lesson learned.Don't waste your money on this lens folks, go on eBay or better still save your money and get something decent. :-)
SRHWith a 500mm lens & the fixed F-stop makes images quite dark, but with a change in ISO setting and shutter speed you can overcome this. On a bright sunny day, it isn't even a problem. I use mine for photographing aircraft, birds, the moon (some great images) and other far away things - the lens is very compact and makes friends go "wow" when I get it out my bag. Awesome bit of kit.
ATC BrianWith a 500mm lens & the fixed F-stop makes images quite dark, but with a change in ISO setting and shutter speed you can overcome this. On a bright sunny day, it isn't even a problem. I use mine for photographing aircraft, birds, the moon (some great images) and other far away things - the lens is very compact and makes friends go "wow" when I get it out my bag. Awesome bit of kit.
ATC BrianI'm a amateur photographer with a couple second hand old manual focus lens, so i'm used to do everything by hand, this said and after testing this lens for a couple of weeks with my camera (NEX3) and with the camera of a friend pro-photographer (EOS 5D Mark III) couldn't find a way to take any photo that it was relatively sharp!Bottom line the "Opteka 500mm f/8 High Definition Telephoto Mirror Lens" should be called "Opteka 500mm f/8 Extremely LOW Definition Telephoto Mirror Lens".
BrunoI didn't expect a professional lens, but when I spend £80 I expect to get SOMETHING resembling focus. Not with this lens.This lens does not have any point at which it is in focus. It simply has different stages of blur. Don't even bother trying it for astronomy because on a tripod, turning the focus ring in the smallest increments possible, there is no point at which the stars actually become points of light. the best I could manage was a fuzzy oval. Having said that, some sort of art shots may be possible where colour and softness are an asset. Of course I don't TAKE photos like that. Bought for birding and moon. Well i haven't seen the moon yet to try it, but am not holding my breath. Ok for record shots in birding. I will try and upload some photos is it lets me.Edit - The best focus that I ever managed was 3 overlapping images. The faulty lens is now on its way back to Opteka who have been excellent. I cannot fault their customer service at all. Fast replies to emails and extremely helpful in all respects. Pity about the lens though.
PJ LightningI didn't expect a professional lens, but when I spend £80 I expect to get SOMETHING resembling focus. Not with this lens.
This lens does not have any point at which it is in focus. It simply has different stages of blur. Don't even bother trying it for astronomy because on a tripod, turning the focus ring in the smallest increments possible, there is no point at which the stars actually become points of light. the best I could manage was a fuzzy oval. Having said that, some sort of art shots may be possible where colour and softness are an asset. Of course I don't TAKE photos like that. Bought for birding and moon. Well i haven't seen the moon yet to try it, but am not holding my breath. Ok for record shots in birding. I will try and upload some photos is it lets me.
Edit - The best focus that I ever managed was 3 overlapping images. The faulty lens is now on its way back to Opteka who have been excellent. I cannot fault their customer service at all. Fast replies to emails and extremely helpful in all respects. Pity about the lens though.
I was a bit aprehensive, as the lens was inexpensive as far as tele's go, others I have seen can run into 1000's, as with most bargains you get what you pay for, this is not a proffesional lens, but it is an excellent lens for the amatuer / casual photographer, the build quality is excellent and pic's are great, as with most large lenses, best quality comes with use of tripod, and you have to be aware that all auto lens features cannot be used, lens must be set for manual, not a bad thing as it gets you useing the camera as it is supposed to be used, there is a bit more graining tnat with standard lenses, but the use of the RAW mode is better and the black and white stills even better, I note from other review that a customer had a propblem with the T adapter, in which he said he thought he had crossthreaded the mount, I to thought this was the case, as it kept turning when attached, as I use T mounts for my astronomical telescope mounts, the problem has happened before, the fix is to realise that the mount is in 2 parts held together by allen screws, which when loose, allow inner ring to turn to overcome, just tighten screws as I did and unit was perfect, and all round good buy.
DV manThis is not a bad lens for your money at all.I am pleased with this lens now i am getting used to it. The lens is quite well made and has a smooth focus to it .But buyers must remember what you are paying for this lens and its limits.It is full manual only fixed a F8 But at least you tell the camera what to do and the photos you take you can say i made the settings not the camera .So once you get used to this you should get some good photos out of this lens. And the money you save on this will be hundreds if not thousands of £££ on the alternatives and of coarse you can carry it around with you very easily
LOUIS57This is not a bad lens for your money at all.I am pleased with this lens now i am getting used to it. The lens is quite well made and has a smooth focus to it .But buyers must remember what you are paying for this lens and its limits.It is full manual only fixed a F8 But at least you tell the camera what to do and the photos you take you can say i made the settings not the camera .So once you get used to this you should get some good photos out of this lens. And the money you save on this will be hundreds if not thousands of £££ on the alternatives and of coarse you can carry it around with you very easily
LOUIS57The Opteka manual focus mirror lens is incredibly compact and lightweight. Using an advanced reflex design, this is a mirror lens that is ideally suited for wildlife and sports photography. It has a fixed aperture of f8. It comes complete with a soft pouch and three (3) rear mounted, 30.5mm filters, (ND-2X, ND-4X & Skylight). Opteka mirror lenses incorporates advanced computer designed optics and the latest in multi-coating techniques.á The process of multi-coating assures virtually flare free photographs even under adverse lighting conditions resulting in crisp high contrast pictures with full color fidelity.
Specifications
Filter Size: 72mm front, 30.5mm rear
f/Stop Range: f/8.0 (fixed)
Minimum Focus Distance: 5.6' (1.7 m)
Magnification: 1:3
Angle of View: 5Deg
Groups/Elements: 6/7
Length: 3.4" (8.6 cm)
Maximum Diameter: 3.0" (7.6 cm)
Weight: 0.79 lb (360 g)
Included Items
~ Opteka 500mm f/8 Telephoto Mirror Lens
~ 3 Filters (Skylight, Nd 2x, Nd 4x)
~ T-Mount Lens Adapter
~ Lens Caps
~ Lens Pouch
~ 10 Year Warranty
.