Any opinions on Mirror lens's appreciated

[Danudin]

Does any member have an opinion on the following type of Lens?

Brand New 500mm Multi Coated Mirror Lens with Macro Focusing
Will mount to any Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Minolta, Olympus and Sony, Auto Focus Film or Digital SLR Camera. Please let us know your camera model and we will include the correct T-Adapter for your camera

http://www.oniva.com/upload/492/500mm_mirror_lens01.jpg
Description
This 500mm ultra-telephoto multi-coated mirror lens is incredibly compact and lightweight. Using an advanced reflex design, this lens is ideally suited for astronomy, wildlife and sports photography. It has a fixed aperture of f/8 and it comes with a set of ND-2X, ND-4X and Skylight filters to control the aperture. Get the power of a 500mm zoom in a 360 gram lens!




I am not even sure what the work like, never having seen them ;


Thank You
Ron

[lowbone]

Years ago lensmakers developed a way to make long mm lenses in a compact design. These are mirror lenses. They are usually a fixed aperture of about f8. Some of them link to a cameras AF system, some are fully manual. The mirror lenses made by Nikon, Canon etc were pretty good although some people objected to the circles they produced in the background under certain conditions. The cheaper versions now available under brand names like Phoenix are pretty bad and I would advise you to stay away from them. Like just about everything else in photography, you get what you pay for.

[nu2scene]

I have never actually used one. But from I have heard and understand they are not worth it. First off they usually have a limited aperture usually f/8 I think. So that limits you a lot. Then the rendering of the background is usually not great. If you have any highlights, they come out looking like flying donuts. Finally they are not supposed to be very sharp.

There is a reason why they are so cheap compared to other lenses of the same focal length.

[ljameso1]

Someone gave me one years ago. I didn't keep it long. Don't waste your money.

[Not4wood]

I've never had the pleasure but to just think about a piece of Glass that has a Fixed f:/8 Aperture wow. I would have real problems shooting into the trees with this. Way too low a light level and geeeeeee, I cant even move it they have a good grace of giving us a ND Filter so I can use that to cover up the lens so I can make a fake change.

Duh.......... To me, thats a big N--- O Brainer.

My long Glass is slow, a 4.5-5.6 when I'm out to the farthest reaches I cant open it up more then the 5.6 but I can still use it in Low Light Situations. BTW, its the Nikon 70-300 VR 4.5-5.6 and has great Bokeh. Example below:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/TIA2077/Birds%20and%20Small%20Animals/th_DSC_2954_BW_Warbler_framed.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/TIA2077/Birds%20and%20Small%20Animals/DSC_2954_BW_Warbler_framed.jpg)


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/TIA2077/Birds%20and%20Small%20Animals/th_DSC_2947_flying_Himmerframed.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/TIA2077/Birds%20and%20Small%20Animals/DSC_2947_flying_Himmerframed.jpg)

[Danudin]

I thought that would be the case but could find little about these except from the vendors so I came to the "NOWperts" nothing "EX" about you lot, so I will keep on looking at ways of coupling the Nikon to my Newtonian telescope that will enable the use of my tripod, remote shutter release and try to benefit from the extended focal length the telescope provides. Thank you for letting me pick your minds and extending my knowledgebase.

Ron

[GaryK]

Ron

I did a google search with these keywords

camera telescope adapters

came up with some hits in the 200 dollar range.

I know nothing about telescopes and have no experiance at all with those adapters but might be worth lookng into.

You also may want to poke around www.photcamel.com (http://www.photcamel.com) (free) and see if they have section on astro/astral??? photography.

Hope this helps.:)

[Not4wood]

Do a Search for "Digiscope" this is the term from the Bird Watchers side of things when there hooking up a Digital Camera to a Spotting Scope. Brackets, Eye pieces and everything else under the sun.

[Danudin]

Thanks Gary, I have done a fair amount of research and contemplated all the adapters advertised but have not had any good feelings or feedback about them, and don't feel like canabalizing my D70s into a CCT camera (I like it too much). Tried the "poke around www.photcamel.com (http://www.photcamel.com/) (free)" link you provided but the site wasn't found so may not be available down-under.

Love the effects of some of your images in your gallery and wondered what prompts you to frame some rather than all, is ther a formula?

Not4wood
Thanks mate that was an interesting site and although it seems specific to you ?twitchers?, I will have to think hard before going in that direction. Have caught a few good bird shots and tomorrow will post a photo of a Blue Wren I snapped when it attacked me as I invaded it's territory. I call the shot Courage because he got right in my face and MADE me move on.

Thanks for the good ideas guys.

[GaryK]

Ron

sorry....typo... photocamel.com (http://www.photocamel.com) :o

Thanks for the kudos. RE the framing...lol...more of a "do I feel like finishing this off" sort of method.

[Not4wood]

Gary,
Funny I thought he was talking about my images as well.

I have been back into Photography for two years now, and I have just been to the point of skill level that I now frame all (or most of all) of my images that are posted on the net. Not only I did I not know how, I had no knowledge of why I should either. So, I now have images that are older, do I want to go back and edit every single image I have that is on the net or do I just ignore them and continue to frame and mark my new pictures with the © before posting?

As far as Photocamel goes, it was just a typo no big deal and the Camel is not only world wide its the largest fastest growing, calmest and friendliest Photo Forum in the world. We here are probably second but not anywhere near as large. :D

[Danudin]

Not4wood

Sorry for confusion, but I don't recall your photos as being anything but framed, so assumed that was Your way of doing things, and only asked Gary as he had both in the gallery. I was going to ask about your copyright sign and name, in your shots, is that just a professional photographer thing or something else I should learn. Some of your bird shots have really impressed so what is your opinion of my Blue Wren
Ron

[Not4wood]

Not4wood

Sorry for confusion, but I don't recall your photos as being anything but framed, so assumed that was Your way of doing things, and only asked Gary as he had both in the gallery. I was going to ask about your copyright sign and name, in your shots, is that just a professional photographer thing or something else I should learn. Some of your bird shots have really impressed so what is your opinion of my Blue Wren
Ron

Great shot, I like the colors and also the softness of the background. This Glass has great Bokeh.

As far as the name or anything else from the frame. I got these frames free listed in Photocamel. Photocamel is a great place to learn and get stuff.

The Copyright Symbol is (Hold the Alt key till your done) Hold the Alt Key and hit + 0 (thats a zero) + 1 + 6 + 9 and these are all done on the number keypad on your right not the top numbers on your keyboard. © I just change the font in Photography and my name Mark G

So even though my fonts aren't available here in these Forums, I was able to change them to look like below. When you post images on the net, there are people out there who will steal them if they like them and call them there own. If you put them out there, you should always lower the quality and do something to put your name on them so the thief they will have a harder time to post them and possible get some money off of your hard work.

So it looks like this:
Photography by Mark G
© 2008


PS: Thanks for the comments about my Bird Photogarphy, I just started getting in to them and flowers. I was never able to make flowers look good till I spent a good amount of time practicing on them in my friends wifes garden before our trip to the UK.

[Danudin]

Mark

Thanks for the comment, I was moving around a lake at the Dubbo Zoo to get some great shots of a white handed Gibbon, (Who soon tired of posing) when I must have encroached on the Wren, Just lifted the camera (In Auto) and got a shot I love.

Query what is Bokeh? New to me, and how do you do a partial quote of someones post, for me it has been all or nothing?

I am very new to this and try to post as good a photo as restrictions allow, so that I can benefit from the critique, but if I read you right then I should only use maximum saves for things that I am going to retain and and minimum for posts etc, is that your suggestion?

A million things going on with my learning at present, and the colour and nuance of flowers has captured my attention for the first time in my life, the Missus thinks I have turned odd, but I just never looked before, can't wait for this all to gel so that I can confidently produce "Keepers"

Will look into using your © advice (I followed your instructions here) and thank you for your interests again in helping a plodder through the mist and the mire.

Ron

P.S.
Do you add that photography by Mark G logo using a macro or like action within elements etc.???

[Not4wood]

Mark

1: Query what is Bokeh? New to me, and how do you do a partial quote of someones post, for me it has been all or nothing?

2: I should only use maximum saves for things that I am going to retain and minimum for posts etc, is that your suggestion?

3: Will look into using your © advice (I followed your instructions here) and thank you for your interests again in helping a plodder through the mist and the mire.

Ron
P.S.
Do you add that photography by Mark G logo using a macro or like action within elements etc.???

To answer your questions, first things first. I go and hit the Quote button then I go in and play with all of the things inside the (Quote) (/Quote) and just do a little bit of editing so it makes some sense to what I have to say.

1: Question: what is Bokeh? New to me.
Answer: ぼけ
1: Bokeh (derived from Japanese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language) boke ぼけ, a noun form of bokeru ぼける, "become blurred or fuzzy") is a photographic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic) term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera) lens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_lens) using a shallow depth of field (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field).[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh#cite_note-0) Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_(optics)) backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

The above quote is taken from this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh
Pronounced I believe Boku


2: Question: I should only use maximum saves for things that I am going to retain and minimum for posts etc, is that your suggestion?

Yes, more detail for you to print to get a better quality. For most Forums and hosting sites they will limit you to image size so it doesn't get out of hand. Usually like a 500x500 or slightly less. I keep my original finished work and I store it in a Complete Directory. Once its complete then I will make it useable for uploading to either a Forum Gallery and I will insert a frame with my Logo and adjust for size and pixel quantity. The Frame Action lowers the size and I can adjust it there as well. After I make my changes I save this in another directory called Web Sharing or something like that so I can know that these images are already edited and this is the end results.

3: Question: First your very Welcome. Anything to help make someones life a bit easier makes me feel like I finally learned something and was able to share it.

Do you add that photography by Mark G logo using a macro or like action within elements etc.??

3: Answer: Neither at the moment. I want to create a Brush for it but haven't had the time or the strength. The Frames themselves are Actions directly downloaded with permission from One of the Experts at Photocamel. So after I finish with the Action I go in and create it manually depending on the image and where I have room to stick my name.

[Danudin]

Thanks Mark good to see that I hadn't misunderstood the quote set up (Just Lazy is all).
So I take it that Bokeh is a positive effect (Good -adds to my vocab and photosavvy).

I am not going to delve into brushes just yet I am sticking to learning about the camera for a while, and just the basics of PSE5. (I don't plan to upgrade until I read something, stupendous on this forum to suggest otherwise.
However I did read a post on how to save border types as a template that would require only hue, saturation etc changes to give individuality and I think I will have a go at that.

On your and Marks suggestion I will join Photocamel tout suite, as I need access to all that the internet has to offer as long as it is vouched by people like yourselves, I will try to emulate you and advise others when I know something Thank You (Have a rest)
Ron