It's Got To Be A Horrible Piece of Junk...

magkelly · Joined: 06 Jul 2010 Posts: 182

Seems nobody wanted it but me, but it's mine for $12.11 plus a couple of bucks to ship. This can't be good. I was watching it all week, but I really expected it to go well out of my range. I've never seen a 500MM lens of any sort go for so little. It's got to be BAD, right?

Sunagor 1:8 f=500mm #6574972

Looks okay, except for some obvious finger prints, no fungus that I can see. I think it has an M42 screw mount or might be a T-mount so either way I think I can use it and for a mere $12 I'm going to try it out regardless.

I did some reading earlier and I thought at first this was an old mirror lens, but I'm not really sure. I read something about not being able to change the aperture on those and this one you can do that.

It's got this thing that looks like O-C on it (Open, close, I think?) but it goes from F8-F22 and back again both ways. It definitely looks like a T-mount kind of thing to me. I don't know if the other M42 T-mount from my other one would work on it or not? Maybe?

Anyone got one of these? Is it really horrid? Is it a mirror lens or not? It would be fun if it was semi-decent. This one's going to make my 300MM look tiny by comparison. I wonder how heavy it is? I figure it can't be too heavy, if so the shipping was just incredibly cheap for what it was.

Pics here...

http://images.shopgoodwill.com/57/8-5-2010/sa387608785-ch.jpg

http://images.shopgoodwill.com/57/8-5-2010/sa153789785-ch.jpg

http://images.shopgoodwill.com/57/8-5-2010/sa387608785-ch.jpg

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Its not a mirror, its a long telephoto of a simple design.

Quite a common lens, these types are still in production.

Image quality can be very good, but this seems to depend mostly on the individual lens. Some are OK, some are useless. Quality control was quite spotty I think.

magkelly · Joined: 06 Jul 2010 Posts: 182

So likely no donuts in the background with this one then? Well then maybe I didn't just totally waste that $12! Honestly I didn't "need" it but at that price I just couldn't say "no" to it. This is the biggest lens I can ever see me having a practical use for really. If anyone has one I'd love to see some pics. I'm really looking forward to taking this one out on the tripod for birding. I'm hoping it's halfway decent anyway.

Boomer Depp · Expire: 2011-12-04

Hard to go wrong for $12...if it doesn't work out,take some decent pix with it cleaned up and probably sell for more then you paid including shipping on ebay...on the other hand if it produces decent images,you got a deal....usually these lens are quite light in weight....you may have to buy a T-mount adapter on ebay,but they are relatively cheap as well....http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkparms=65%253A15%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1&rt=nc&_nkw=T+mount+adapter&_dmpt=Lens_Accessories&_ipg=200&_sc=1&_sop=15&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1514

magkelly · Joined: 06 Jul 2010 Posts: 182

I might have one already, M42. That Vivitar I bought had some sort of T-mount. I can't remember exactly which at the moment but I think it was a T-2 also. If not they have them on Amazon for like $9. I looked. There were 3 people who bid on this one apparently besides me. I'm actually surprised it didn't go for much, much more. Usually you see a 500MM lens and they're going for quite a tidy sum. I'm probably going to be happy even if it's only mediocre. With my budget I never thought I'd even have a 500MM so if it turns out it's decent I'll be positively thrilled!

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

T, T2, same thing.

Using a long tele like this takes some practice. Motion and focus problems can make a good lens look awful, and on a 500mm these are both magnified.

First rule is to use as fast a shutter speed as you can manage, which means wide-open shooting most of the time. Which leads to problem #1, accurate focus, as depth of field for a 500mm even at f/8 is very shallow.

If you are using a DSLR its a bit of a challenge to get focus perfectly on, certainly the focus confirm feature is almost never accurate enough. We all have our ways of attacking this problem. I bracket focus mostly.

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4060 Location: Charleston

magkelly · Joined: 06 Jul 2010 Posts: 182

I'm not, yet. No DSLR here. I haven't been able to swing one as yet. I'm still shooting analog with the SLR lenses. This lens will be going on my SPII and I will definitely be using it with a tripod. This is my first lens above 300MM and I haven't had all that much experience with my 300MM as yet. So I am a total novice at this extra long lens thing. I mainly got them because I really like watching birds and we have such a large population of different kinds here. Even if the pictures aren't perfect at least I can still get some of them on film and hopefully later digital. My Fuji P&S is upscale, but it still just isn't up to it taking pics of the feathered ones.

We have tons of song birds, corvis birds, ducks, geese, herons, hawks, owls, buzzards, eagles, even wild parrots sometimes. Also squirrel, rabbits, deer, raccoons, possum, weasels, medium to large sized wild cats, even bear, locally. This place is a nature trail in the middle of suburbia and I'm missing a lot of it just by virtue of the non-capacity of my old digital. This lens may be old, but it just might level the playing field and give me a bit more reach.

nemesis101 · Expire: 2015-01-22

I like my Panny L-1 with live view and x 10 magnification of any slected area.. very very accurate if a bit time consuming?

But then mostly I use lenses like this to capture distant objects that I cannot approach (like the top of a mountain) which are not really of the fast-moving variety? lol Smile

Doug

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

Hopefully you've got a good copy and an enormous lens! The only problem I've found with this style of lens (mostly the 300mm model) is a cloudy rear element which cannot be cured = less contrast than normal.

Fingers crossed you've got a good one Smile

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

I've got this design as a "Beroflex 8/500".
This lens is sharper than my Tamron SP 8/500 mirror lens.
(And still I like the Tammy more.)

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4060 Location: Charleston

Scheimpflug · Expire: 2011-11-18

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

To be fair, I'm sure a lens of this length will handle better on a full frame film camera than a crop sensor DSLR! But then again, the DSLR has high ISO...

Boomer Depp · Expire: 2011-12-04

I've used lenses like these on the Canon 40D,50D and the 5D,and have been more then pleased with the results.I also have a Nikon D300 that I used a few of these lenses on with fine results.On my old Nikon D40 it was still OK,but not enough for large prints like the other cameras.The 5D gave the best results for large prints,followed by the D300 and 50D being about equal.I've also used lenses of this type on my old Nikon SLR's with surprisingly good results as well.

xjjohnno · Expire: 2011-11-18

Mag with bird pics I get the best results if I concentrate on getting the eyes sharp. The rest falls into place then. With f8 the viewfinder is going to be very gloomy so you might find using the lens on brighter days a better option.

Boomer Depp · Expire: 2011-12-04

I do the same making sure the eye of the bird is spot on...I would also recommend a high ISO film to keep your shutter speed up,and allowing you to stop the lens down to f11 or if possible f16 for sharper image after initially focusing at f8.

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

Hi xjjohnno
Sorry for jumping in but what camera do you use?I just picked up the K200D and I am working through all this myself Very Happy

I know how hard it is with a slr Sad

Joosep · Joined: 25 Jan 2010 Posts: 305 Location: Estonia, Tallinn

xjjohnno · Expire: 2011-11-18

Mo, K20D Pentax for me. I have no experience with your K200D but it's worth investigating the different ISOs to see how much you can use without ugly levels of noise kicking in. The anti shake/ image stabilisation is a must for hand helds too and will give you more tolerance in shutter speeds as long as you time those pics for when the little sods are less likely tro move too much. When the birds are doing there usual write their own script and moving around a lot you need to predict those times the might keep still long enough for a decent pic.
Here's one from last weekend when the good lady was playing magpie tamer, Bigma was the lens in use but you can see the predictive coming in for the pic.

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

Awesome...I need the longer lens.I think magkellys lens size would do Very Happy

Big Dawg · Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 2530 Location: Thach Alabama

magkelly · Joined: 06 Jul 2010 Posts: 182

I'm hoping to go there soon. I want to get a Pentax *ist at least or maybe a K10/K100. They're running about $200-300 now depending upon what lens comes with. Ideally I'd like to be able to swing a K-x or a K-7 but I don't know if I am going to be able to go there.

I'm trying to sell off a few nice things to pay for it, but so far not much luck there. I have some nice jewelry, but I can't seem to sell it for much right now. Maybe around the holidays they'll go. About the only other thing I have that I know would sell right off is my 3 Takumars. Of course if I sell those I've got nothing decent to put on my DSLR so that would be rather counter productive.

I'm actually hoping that Santa might bring me a used one. I've got a wallpaper of the K-x on the computer desktop in several different colors, pics of the *ist, K100 and the K-7 on the cork board right above my desk. I'm not exactly being subtle about it, grin. I do doubt the K-x or K-7 would end up under the tree, That is a lot of money for us right now, but an *ist or a K10/K100 used just maybe....

magkelly · Joined: 06 Jul 2010 Posts: 182

Sun's not a problem here. We usually have a fair amount of it for most of the year. I never did get though how some people manage to get pics of birds where they don't look like they are stuffed. I can get the bodies okay, but unless they're moving any bird I take a pic of just standing tends to look like it's quite dead. I love taking pics of the crows and herons, but 90% of the pics I've done so far, the bird looks all glassy eyed like a taxidermist has been at it.

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

A problem with these slower long lenses is the light weight; too easy to vibrate. A heavier lens doesn't vibrate as easily.

More stabilization suggestions:

Tie a bag full of rocks to bottom end of tripod post.

Not practical for birding, for long exposures drape a 1lb/0.5kg leg weight over the front part of lens barrel to help dampen swing vibrations.