Bring out the big guns - 500mm+

[iangreenhalgh1]

Hi folks

With the recent threads about shooting the moon and drawing inspiration from the very fine work people have been doing with long lenses and mirror lenses I felt like having a go myself. I'm not a person who uses long lenses much, 135mm is usually my limit, so I only have a Tair-3 4.5/300 and a Konica Hexanon 4.5/300, both great lenses but a bit short for shooting the moon.

Then I found a big old gun of a lens I had completely forgotten I owned, stuck at the very back of my cupboard and a bit dusty.

So I dug it out, dusted it off, strapped it to my most rigid tripod, attached my Sony a850 and tried it out, pointing it at the local wildlife, such as it is.

Some mild sharpening and a little tweak of contrast using Auto Contrast in PS CS6.

I'll keep it secret as to the identity of this lens for now as I'd like a unbiased opinion on the IQ before I put this thing to some more serious use.

#1

#2

100% crop:

#3

100% crop:

#4

#5

100% crop:

#6

100% crop:

[Attila]

Nice to see great light at your place, light is matter, excellent samples!

[iangreenhalgh1]

Yes, light was good for a couple of hours late afternoon. This is definitely a lens that needs good light.

[konicamera]

[iangreenhalgh1]

Hello. It is 540mm.

[marcusBMG]

Didn't you post on this before Ian - I remember being both impressed with the optic and the pics..

[Lloydy]

Impressive results, whatever it is. The crops are very sharp, a lot sharper than I'd expect a 3rd party budget lens to be.

[uddhava]

[iangreenhalgh1]

I am going senile, I forgot I had posted about this before, but in my defence it was over 3 years ago and I had to search to find the thread to see if I had already posted it.

It's a Wollensak Apochromatic Raptar 10/540 process lens I bought for 20ukp inside a huge prism device that turned the image through 90 degrees. I mounted it on the end of one of those cheap 8/500 lenses that I had removed the glass from.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Tried again today. This thing is very hard to focus accurately on some subjects. I ended up throwing half the pictures away due to being slightly out of focus.

#1 Not sharp, maybe misfocused, maybe atmospherics, likely both:

#2 This one came out really sharp:

#3

#4 This is a crop of about 50% of the frame:

#5

#6

#7

100% crop, not sure it's actually in focus:

[480sparky]

Does my Celestron 2800mm count?

[uddhava]

[WNG555]

Very nice results from that big hunk of glass. Nail the focus, and it's sharp!

My favorite big gun is my Tamron SP 55BB. I recently tried a Sigma 600mm f/8 mirror, but Tammy still showed she's the best. My copy of the Sigma is at 90% potential. I've seen sharper copies.
But a Russian ZM 3M-5a 500-f/8 kit is enroute and potentially could give the 55BB a fight for the title. Read some reviews that it's better by a small margin.

Even though this shot should belong in the Tamron mirror Moon thread, it's a recent effort.

DSC00081b_Tamron SP 500mm f8 55BB by wNG 555, on Flickr

Birdie Num Num! These colorful parrots are local to the neighborhood, thanks to someone who bought a bunch to breed for sale. They all accidentally escaped from their captor. They've done pretty well and the trees are full of them!

DSC00585c-Tamron SP 500mm f/8 55BB by wNG 555, on Flickr

[Big Dawg]

Vivitar Series 1 800mm F/11 Solid Cat lens

[Big Dawg]

Vivitar Series 1 600mm f/8 Solid Catadioptric lens.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Thanks for all the contributions guys, keep 'em coming! I've never seen any of the solid cats for sale in the UK, must be rare here.

I'd like to see some Celestron 2800mm images!

[luisalegria]

Hey Big Dawg!
That cardinal is art, man.

[Pontus]

Nikkor AI-S 600/5.6

[Big Dawg]

[Big Dawg]

[Big Dawg]

Vivitar 300mm f/5.6 TX lens.

[Big Dawg]

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[Big Dawg]

Vivitar 400mm f/5.6 Preset lens.

[Big Dawg]

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[Big Dawg]

Vivitar 75-260 f/4.5 TX lens