Mirror lenses

[Felipe Garcia]

How do those F8 mirror lenses work? I've seen that they're MF and 500mm or over.

[E-Diddy!]

I have a very old one. F8 is a bit dark and kind of hard to focus right because of it, my lens vignettes a little bit, but it can actually produce some nice images:

[photoid=452276]

[photoid=452269]

Keeping in mind here that the film I was using at the time was off-the-supermarket-shelf Kodak 200, so the color isn't excellent here, but the lens is quite sharp.

[Showtime100]

How do those F8 mirror lenses work? I've seen that they're MF and 500mm or over.

Just screw on a t-mount for your camera's mount and you can use it on digital bodies. That is if you really want an f8 fixed lens. The samples shown should be enough to convince you against buying one for use shooting planes. But many people buy one because they are so damn cheap. ($)

[E-Diddy!]

The samples shown should be enough to convince you against buying one for use shooting planes.

Gee...Thanks...Actually mine came with the camera I got from my dad and it suits me fine for what I do.

[Showtime100]

Well having a fixed f8 aperature (dark viewfinder), and no split screen for focusing on a digital body obviously puts these in the less then desirable catagory for almost anything that moves, even the relative slow motion of an airliner.

They have limited use in landscapes, but some work well for still life use due to the unique bokeh. Most aren't very sharp edge to edge either.

[Kwashiorkor]

There is one from Minolta, though, which in some minds is relatively good and it has even autofocus with Minolta-SLRs.