Coyote on the Hunt and Some Mulies -- Soviet 500mm Mirror

Colorado CJ · Joined: 29 Jul 2012 Posts: 210 Location: Northern Colorado

I recently picked up an old Soviet 500mm F8 mirror lens, a 3M-5C-MC. I decided to modify my Photosniper stock (another Soviet era photography kit) to use the new mirror lens and my Sony Nex 5n. the 5N's shutter is pressed with the stock's trigger via a pushrod.

3M-5A-MC-with-Photosniper-Stock-1 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

I took this setup out today to do a little wildlife photography. It turned out not to be a good day for photos since we had a low cloud ceiling all day and the dust was blowing with winds in the 10-20 m.p.h. range.

That, combined with the F8 lens made it necessary to use pretty high ISO during shooting (between 2000-3200 ISO).

That would have been fine with my D600, but the Nex 5N isn't near as good at those high ISO settings (although not extremely bad).

With that said, here are a few photos.

I came up on a lone coyote watching over a prairie dog town.

24-Nov-2012-1 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

He stalked up to a prairie dog and got him

24-Nov-2012-2 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

All that hard work made him sleepy (he didn't eat the prairie dog, probably saving him for later )

24-Nov-2012-3 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

Just a view to the west

24-Nov-2012-4 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

Here's a pretty good sized mulie. He was pushing around a tumble weed in the high grass

24-Nov-2012-5 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

Here's another mulie, quite a bit smaller than the first one

24-Nov-2012-6 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

Well, that is it for today. I kind of like the way this mirror lens renders images. They aren't as sharp as my Nikkor 300mm F4, but they have a certain "old" look to the photos that I kind of like. It is definitely a lens you need to use on a bright day because of the F8 set aperture. I'll be bringing it out on the next bright day we have to see how it works at lower ISO's.

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

lovely captures. the one with prey is priceless.
tony

fuzzywuzzy · Expire: 2013-11-30

Nice results, and once again kudos to your stalking abilities.

The ring bokeh is barely noticeable, maybe because the background is only shades of beige.

I've got one of these, as you say it's a sunny day lens. It's a heavy beast, how does it feel using on the photosniper?

IAZA · Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 2587 Location: Indonesia

lovely series, appriciate your effort. Are you living in near such wild animal?

patrickh · Expire: 2011-11-18

Now that's way out in the boonies. Great series

patrickh