Lenses

Hey what do you guys think about this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/500-1000mm-Lens...ryZ48552QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Is that a good deal, is it a decent lens or is it just crap? I don't know Phoenix so I wondered. Apparently its new. Perhaps someone can check this out.

-Kevin

Kevin

I've seen these in the past in OM mount and been tempted but apparently the lens is only of medium quality and it is certainly slow, it reaches 1000mm with a teleconverter which would lower quality further and reduce the speed by a stop I believe

Hope this helps

Marcus

I have one of these, sans the converter. Under the right conditions it can make nice negatives. The contrast is not great; it is reasonably sharp. At these focal lengths technique is all important- a long, slow lens=really good tripod, perfect technique to get acceptable results.
If you like to mess around with such things, the rear tube of the lens unscrews. I was able to clobber together an adaptor and use it on rollei sl 66. It actually covered the negative reasonably well.

Save your money. Crap.

It's slow,large & inexpensive but light.
Not necessarily crap but you get what you pay for. It's not going to compare to a lens costing 10X the price but for once a month/year use so what?
I believe it's a pre-set lens which means you're going to have to stop the lens down to the working aperture before exposure yourself.

Hi Kevin, and welcome to APUG.

When I look at that lens, my first thought is - "how much space would I need to store it?"

Marcus mentions above that when you use the teleconvertor, you lose one stop. Actually, I think you lose two stops with that teleconvertor.

By the way, I have a suggestion about starting threads here. It is a very good idea to use a slightly more informative thread title. For this thread, I might consider something like "Pheonix 500mm pre-set telephoto lens". That way when we look at the list of active threads, we will know something about the subject, and if anyone in the future does a relevant search, the thread may show up in the search results.

Hope this helps.

Matt

P.S. I dont know whether or not you are familiar with the term "pre-set lens", but if not, it would be a good idea to understand it before you decide whether or not to make your purchase.

Never had or used one, but a friend did. He made mention once that he'd been better off buying a football bat.

Lens

I wasn't seriously considering it but I've just seen these and wondered. One thing I wonder and forgot to ask is I thought there weren't anymore manufacturer's of lenses with FD mounts?

kevinbell said:

Hey what do you guys think about this?

Is that a good deal, is it a decent lens or is it just crap? I don't know Phoenix so I wondered. Apparently its new. Perhaps someone can check this out.

-Kevin

Click to expand...

You get what you pay for. Cameta Camera is a reputable eBay seller. That said, they don't sell any items at a great bargain.

ehparis said:

You get what you pay for. Cameta Camera is a reputable eBay seller. That said, they don't sell any items at a great bargain.

Click to expand...

Phoenix is an Asian company. Lord knows who made the lens??
The lens appears to be a simple, preset T Mount lens. Reminds me of the old Spiratone lenses of yore.

I wouldn't call it crap, but a great big white Canon wonder tele it is not. You get what you pay for.
Shooting really long lenses, no matter how good the lens, will really show any flaws in your technique. Tripods that you swore were rock solid turn out not to be; you get a whole new respect for wind; heat waves become an issue. In short, any flaw in the system becomes magnified in ways you would never imagine.
Now, with a slow, dubious quality lens, you throw in other factors. Focusing at f8 can be a real challenge in all but bright light, and some camera screens just don't do well with long lenses to boot. The lens coatings are not the best in the world, so you need a really good shade, which you will probably have to make yourself. The tripod mount on the lens is rather shaky, so you will need to deal with that. The lens is so slow that it fools the meter in my old pentax, as more light gets in the viewfinder around my eye than comes through the lens.
Once you learn to deal with those sorts of things you can get decent photos from it. Within its limits it will perform, but you really have to do your part.