Five Star 500mm f/8 (non-Mirror)

altitude604 · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:56 pm Post subject: Five Star 500mm f/8 (non-Mirror)

Just won an auction for one of these but haven't found too much information online or in the way of sample images. The copy I'm getting looks to be in great condition.

I've been enjoying my Tele-Tak 300/6.3 a lot so this 500/8 I'm hoping will be just as good.

Anyone have one of these or any time using it?

(landed it for about CDN$60 including shipping to my remote part of the country)

Himself · Expire: 2013-05-30

Probably it`s a crap. Correction, most probably.
No offense buddy, but you would`ve been better with a vivitar or spiratone in that range.

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

Any pics of the lens? These are usually one a few designs but with a unique brand name.

Lens will likely be OK, but with colour fringing.

Laurentiu Cristofor · Joined: 23 Oct 2010 Posts: 524 Location: WA, USA

I am curious about this lens too.

There's some information on such lenses here.

Here's an interesting quote:

"Widely imported under the Spiratone ("Sharpshooter") and Cambron (Cambridge Camera Exchange) brand, these lenses were made by a variety of manufacturers including Five-Star (TOU) in Japan and Samyang/Phoenix in Korea more recently."

And here's some samples and comments.

Sounds like an interesting buy. Please post some shots when you get it.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9098 Location: Houston, Texas

If your 500/8 is a preset T-mount telephoto, then if you are willing to operate within its limits, chances are it will provide very good photos. Just be prepared for working with a fairly dark image at f/8 and a minimum focusing distance of about 30 feet or so.

These lenses were sold under many brand names during the 1970s and 1980s for about $70-80. Modern Photography magazine tested one -- I believe it was a Cambron brand model, and it got a good write-up. And of course, every ad Cambridge Camera ran in Modern and Popular Photography after that included an excerpt of Modern's resolution test. There was also a 400mm f/6.3 made that was just about identical to the 500mm, just a bit shorter.

altitude604 · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 2:24 pm Post subject:

Mambo Man · Joined: 07 Aug 2023 Posts: 2 Location: Australia

I bought a used Five Star 500mm late last year, and have used it on a Pentax K-3 and Gigapan unit.
It gave acceptable results except for visible vignetting.
I even made a video about the shoot, begins at the 2minute 18 second mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCYqKZZSYgQ&t=43s

actual zoomable gigapan can be viewed here:
https://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/231695