Spiratone Minitel-M 500mm Mirror lens

Screamin Scott

Picked up one of these off of eBay for $35...I already had a Korean made Kalimar 500mm F8 mirror that I was disappointed with the results of. This Spiratone was made in Japan, 72mm filter size. I'm pleased with the initial results. Here are 2 samples. The dog is a 50% crop with slight sharpening & the soccer ball has no PP...Both shat @ 1/125th sec handheld. These mirrors are a bear to focus & need plenty of light (which I didn't have as it was overcast. I think that with better light & a tripod things will improve...

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

I think with PS sharpening , contrast etc it will be a good tool.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Well, for the price you surely can not complain... but I think that you probably would get better result than this using a good regular 200mm lens + a good 2x teleconverter. With the added advantage of being able to stop down if needed.

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

hey scott

i have one of these as well and i have come to really like mine alot, especially for the price i dont think it can be beat. yes, it does need light, but if you check out any other 500mm, they all need similar light at a cost of up to 10times what we paid! plus, this lens is so light certainly compared to other non mirrired 500s, but also to really good 200mm's, which helps the handholding tremendously.

now it is true that i use mine on a 5d which shoots great at iso800, and that helps alot. keep shooting, i think you will come to happily rely on this one for all your extreme telephoto needs.