Vivitar Series 1 500mm f8

[MaXXXic]

I find it on sale now, price is 60USD. As I understand, the only thing I need to adopt it to Nikon mount is TX-Nikon adapter. Who have the experience of this lense? Who produced that kind of lenses for Vivitar? What is your opinion - is it bargain or...
Thank you for any info!
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[marcusBMG]

Similar ones are sold under a variety of nameplates like quantaray, bower, opteka... There's quite a lot of info about these cheap mirror lenses online for example:

http://makingitasapro.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/lens-review-opteka-500mm-f8-mirror-lens.html

http://www.photographyreview.com/cat/lenses/35mm-primes/quantaray/500mm-f-8-0-mirror-w-macro/prd_84660_3111crx.aspx

This is a good discussion of mirror lenses by Wayne Grundy

https://advancedphototech.wordpress.com/lenses/mirror-mirror-a-guide-to-choosing-and-using-mirror-lenses/

[konicamera]

[Attila]

Most Japanese cheap ones are so so, buy rather Russian MTO or even better Rubinar 500mm MC 5.6.
In case of you I won't take it even for 60 USD.

[luisalegria]

This is a very recent Vivitar Series 1 - long after the "Series 1" label meant anything about quality.

Back in the 1970's-early 1980's a "Series 1" lens was usually quite good of its kind, and sometimes excellent.

But after that the name was used for very ordinary products.

Marcus is right, this same lens is sold under many other brands. For a new low-cost mirror lens its a good price. The ebay price for a new one (Vivitar, Bower, Opteka, Samyang) is around $90-150.

[sceptic]

The box is filled with meaningless "selling points", indicating it's probably not that good.
" Full-time manual focus override"? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that lens MF only (as the "MF" after the f/8 in the name indicates?)
"High definition" means absolutely nothing at all.
"Super Spectra Coatings" sounds very much like Canon's Super Spectra Coating used on their FD line of lenses (perhaps Canon's copyright on that name has expired?)
Topping off the list is the most creative way of saying "it's a manual focus lens with fixed-aperture" I've seen:
"Focus preset function allows circular aperture" (I guess manually setting the focus distance before you shoot can be seen as a rudimentary form of focus preset).
I'd stay away from it.

[MaXXXic]

[guardian]

[Lloydy]

I also think it's a Samyang, this blogger has one and thinks the same.

http://marcsabatella.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/vivitar-5008-mirror-lens.html

I wasn't greatly impressed with the Samyang that I had briefly, but I also have a Canon FD, Minolta and Tamron 500 / 8 mirror lenses. SO comparing the Samyang to any of those will make it seem a bit worse than it probably is.
My biggest issue with the Samyang is the very short throw of the focusing ring, again compared to the other lenses, which makes it hard to focus.

[buerokratiehasser]

Does that even fit Nikon without dreaded optical element?

Unless you need the compactness or anti-bokeh, Wundertüte 500/8 are cheaper and probably better. Or 400mm some even with AF.

[konicamera]

[ZuikosHexanonsandVivitars]

Here is my version of that lens. Same same, but different

I think it´s an earlier version. Says "Korea" on the bottom. Test shots are not very convincing. It looks like astigmatism, it is not entirely sharp, despite my best efforts. Plus poor color depiction and low contrast. I would have never bought it, but it was content of a sort of surprise package I got rather cheap.

It´s still some fun. Especially on a Micro 4/3 camera, this is a real spy lens

[martinsmith99]