Telephoto Mirror Lens

[Devaiah PA]

Is Telephoto Mirror Lens such as
Opteka 500mm f/6.3 High Definition Telephoto Mirror Lens
worth the buy?

They are very cheap!

If anybody using the same kindly share some knowledge and pictures if available.

[KrishnenduKes]

Query Approved

[synn]

Not really. The have a fixed aperture and are optically very poor compared to the refractive lenses. Delta knows more about this, so I'll ask him to post details.

[Deltaone]

Depends on what exactly you're trying to get out of it. Birding? Moonshots? Something else? It all depends. Generally speaking, they do have their limitations, the high aperture being one of the primary ones. And at 6.3 you will have to check whether you can get AF with it. It gives some rather weird donut shaped bokeh as well. What exactly do you need it for?

[Xavier]

And they don't autofocus either.

[Devaiah PA]

I was just exploring it for experimental usage.

Just wanted to know Is the poor picture quality worth $100? :) for a 500mm lens

[Xavier]

I was just exploring it for experimental usage.

Just wanted to know Is the poor picture quality worth $100? :) for a 500mm lens

From what I have seen, picture quality is OK and contrast is pretty good too. However the weird donut shaped bokeh can be an eyesore. But hey, you're getting 500mm @ $100 and that's not bad for some stationary birds with the sky as background.

This is how the bokeh looks like : http://www.popphoto.com/Reviews/Lenses/ProOptic-500mm-f-6.3-Mirror-Lens-Test/Image-Quality-Shot-001
http://www.popphoto.com/Reviews/Lenses/ProOptic-500mm-f-6.3-Mirror-Lens-Test/Image-Quality-Shot-004

[Devaiah PA]

Xavier,

Thanks for the links...

The Opteka 500mm f/6.3 costs $90 on Amazon.

I will get one as soon as possible.

-Dev