My first 500mm lens: Tamron-Popular 8/500

TrueLoveOne · Expire: 2013-12-24

I always wondered what results would be from a long, old telelens. I've had some 400's, but always sold them again before really taking some time to experiment with them. Now my path crossed a 500mm lens, and this time I wanted to know!

I used a tripod, but even then: respect for those who can adjust focus fast and correct!! That is not an easy job, my A300 has no focus help in any way, and I really never had any trouble with that, until now....

What I expected: not much actually, but it surprised me.

Following pictures are NOT processed in ANY way, just converted from RAW to JPG.

Wide open it has some CA: this a 100% crop @f/8:

Tamron 8/500 TESTSHOTS by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

At f/11 it is okay, the fence is like 60mtrs away from me:

Tamron 8/500 TESTSHOTS by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

The ducks are 200mtr away from me, the lens goes to infinty just after 200mtrs. :

Tamron 8/500 TESTSHOTS by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

Infinity shot at f/11, the lighthouse is something like 400mtrs away:

Tamron 8/500 TESTSHOTS by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

TrueLoveOne · Expire: 2013-12-24

By te way: it's this lens, on the pic without the screw-on hood, which makes it even longer:

Tamron Popular 500mm f/8 by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr

Toeteraar · Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 6:34 pm Post subject:

Nice results for an achromat. Once you stop them down a bit, they perform better than one would expect.

The A300 indeed has a small viewfinder image. To make focussing a bit easier, you could add a 1.3x magnifier to your viewfinder. My Oly E-330 also has a very small image like looking in a dark tunnel. A KPS 1.3x magnifier did the trick.

diddy · Joined: 28 Mar 2012 Posts: 288

Interesting lens. I never heard of a Tamron lens that was labeled Tamron-Popular.

TrueLoveOne · Expire: 2013-12-24

That was my first time as well. It has a 15 blade iris, pre-set ring and an "open/ close" ring. Maybe not made by Tamron?

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Not a rare lens but definitely a rare brand for this lens.

Looks very similar to the common 8/500 and 6.3/400 lenses that were sold under many distributors brands, like Spiratone.
This has been sold since the mid-1960's up to today, though probably not from the same source.

The maker of these is still unknown, though Samyang or some other Korean maker seems to have picked up the design, or cloned it.

As for this lens, I see two possibilities -

1. Tamron bought a few of these from another maker and sold them through their distributor network, in order to leverage their distributor network.

2. Tamron is the original maker of this lens, and all the Spiratones, etc. were actually made by Tamron.

I tend to think #1 is more likely.

TrueLoveOne · Expire: 2013-12-24

I had to try, but afterwards I think I made a mistake..... I used the lens with a Kenko 3x teleconverter, thus making it 1500mm.
The mistake: it would have been sharper (I guess and i hope so) if it hadn't been on f/32..... too bad there are clouds again, some other night will give the answer!! but the enlargement is great!

The moon by TrueLoveOne, on Flickr