900mm mirror lens

[chappo1]

I am a Sony owner and am familiar with the Minolta 500mm mirror.

I am going to post in the Canon thread and maybe the Nikon thread as there are more of you than us Sony owners and they are offering all mounts.
Does anyone have any experience of comment on the 900mm mirrors offered/

They look cheap and I would be interested in any comments on image quality
If they are sharp enough the 900mm would be useful for birding ....john


http://www.linkdelight.com/buy/Kelda...4c31b-44720789

[arthurking83]

in a word .. avoid!

Some mirror lenses do work well, and the only one I know of that may come in an easy to mount version for sony is the MTO series.
They generally come in M42 mount .. sometimes T-mount, so a simple and cheap adapter is used to mount it to various camera types.

While they're not particularly cheap compared to some others, they can offer some usable quality.

From experience too tho, manual focus for birding has a very limited use. Birds will need to be large and slow and basically static subjects.

[ameerat42]

And on the MTOs, they are as HEAVY as LEAD and move about as fast. (If you know what the speed of lead is!) But they DO produce a reasonable image.
They are DEFINITELY a static lens, like maybe for moon shots on heavy tripods. MTO make a 500mm f/5.6 (!) and I did think of the combination with a
GOOD 2X converter. They were lighter by far than the 1100mm MTO and they had a min focus of about a metre, let alone the 9m of the larger MTO.

(Gosh! I had a l ink to a range of them, but now I can only find 500mm/8 listings.)

(And BTW, I think it means "Maksutov Telescopic/-photo Objective" in Russian.)
AM.

[chappo1]

Thanks for the comments. I know the old adage of getting what you pay for but there is always hope and 900mm is mouth watering ....john

[ameerat42]

Thanks for the comments. I know the old adage of getting what you pay for but there is always hope and 900mm is mouth watering ....john

Well, at nearly a tonne in weight, the MTO 1000/10 (which is actually f=1100mm) should be dessert. Pay about $200-250 for this course.
m.

I suppose I should say: look up the Night/Astro forum and look for some of my threads. You should find pics with and of the same.

[arthurking83]

Thanks for the comments. I know the old adage of getting what you pay for but there is always hope and 900mm is mouth watering ....john

What sort of price range .. or max price threshold did you have in mind too.

I know it's tempting to go for the cheapest product available, but if there is any flexibility in the available funds allocation, maybe there's a totally different answer!

[CAP]

Chappo,
I was in the same position as you are now in, ala, wanted more reach but didn't have a lazy $12k lying around to splash on a 400mm f2.8 and 2x converter etc.
I purchased a Samyang 800mm Reflex lens with a focus assist chipped adapter for my Canon, all up cost was less than $250.00.
Of course this budget rig is never going to produce images any where the quality of something 48x the cost but for the money I think they produce an acceptable image.
Have attached link to a couple BIF photos on Flicker that have been taken hand held with the 800mm reflex/mirror lens, "Pelican and White Faced Heron".
This lens needs all but perfect conditions to produce 1/2 decent images, and shots are a bit hit and miss but like was stated above, you get what you pay for.
For me this lens has been worth the outlay, will only bring it out when conditions are right and when the 100-400mm is getting where I want.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100465040@N03/