Retired 1sg Loc: Central Ohio

Has anyone used this lens...it is F/8 - f/32....can pick it up for 150.00...is this a decent lens for that price or is it junk?

RocketScientist Loc: Littleton, Colorado

I just googled it and found it for 119 on amazon. Probably not a great lens, but with a little patience it might work.

Is it the long version or the mirror version?

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

it will produce donut shaped bokeh due to the fact it is a cat lens. can not rember the full name just that its nicknamed a cat.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

A catadioptric lens combines optical lenses with reflex mirrors to shorten lens length: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catadioptric_system

A true reflex (mirror) lens does not have an adjustable aperture. OP's description is of an optical lens only, or a catadioptric lens.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

thanks nikonian 72, nikon owners taking care of each other. i can feel the love

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Let's just leave at help until we know each other a little better.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

You know the old saying. "You get what you pay for". It is very true with these low priced lenses. Sigma has a 500mm lens that goes right around $1,000.00. It is an O.K. lens. Not great but not disappointing either.

Last week I bought one of the lower end Sigma DL 300mm lenses. It is not super sharp but it did very well. Just look at my post from yesterday titled, "More Cardinals". I took about 300 pictures with it and the focusing motor shot craps. I think it was a fluke. I took it back to the store for an exchange but they did not have one. They had a Tamron 300mm for about $250.00. I tried it out but Boy, was it ever soft. They refunded my money and said that they would cal me when and if they get another one in.

les_stockton Loc: Eastern Oklahoma

My experience is that these lenses are manual focus lenses. If your eyes are good and you're willing to manual focus, it's probably a good deal. However, if your eyes are good, you're probably going to see the software focus than you would get with a good lens.

My feeling is that if it were in a pawn shop, I'd try it out on my camera first and see if I liked the way I was able to shoot with it.
Otherwise, I'd save the $150 and put that with a few more dollars and maybe get a better quality lens used.

I should add that I have a 500mm mirror lens right now that I never use. I've shot with it a couple of years ago, and have probably taken 3 or 4 shots with it that I actually kept. I paid a similar price at the time. I seemed like a good deal for the money, but considering that I've only been happy with less than half a dozen shots so far, I'd say that it was a waste of money.

Retired 1sg Loc: Central Ohio

Thank you all for your replies and yes you typically do get what you pay for so I was not holding any great expectations from any 150.00 lens...gues I will continue to save my pennies for a good quality lens

PJT Loc: Sarasota,Florida

I own the Phoneix 500 mm f-8 lens. I bought mine some time ago after reading an article in one of the photo magazines. I was inspired by the images this type of lens is capable of yeilding.
Remember this the lens itself is in the universal M-42 / T- mount/ (old pentax screw mount) and will require the seperate use of a lens to camera adapter (Sold Sererately) You should order one at the same time as you order your lens. Make certain to order the T-mount ring that will fit your camera!
The lens is a fixed aperture lens of F-8, and will not allow you to any leeway in DOF adjustment and therefore it will be used in the manual mode only.
The camera adapter allows you to mount the lens to the cameras body but you lose all electronics. Therefore you can only focus manually as well as adjustment with the metering via use of of your shutter speed control.
On the other end you get a 500mm f-8 cat lens which stands 86.5mm(3 3/8 inches) tall and 360 grams(12.7 OZ)in weight making a very hand holdable lens, capable of a 5 degree angle of view.
As with all Cat lenses you have a large mirror as an added element witha large black dot 1 1/8" in diameter right in the middle of the front glass element which gives that magical donut or ring shape to any specular highlights
Don't take my word for it! when you get yours take it to the beach and watch the magic begin.
OBTW
This lens comes with two 30.5mm neutral density filters. This is the only way to control excesive light resuluting in overexposure.
Yeah you could spend more money and perhaps come up with a better performer, however it does it's job and will yeid acceptable results with a little effort.
It's just a fun lens to play around with !
Hope this helps!
:thumbup:

Retired 1sg Loc: Central Ohio

PJT,
You have given me something to really think and ponder over...typically I only shoot with auto focus as my eyes are not great so for me that is a negative but as you said it would just be a fun lens to play with and I have two Owls in my back yard that are very very shy and I can't even get close with my 70-200 Sigma...I will post here again if I do indeed buy it and post a pic (hopefully of said shy owls)...thanks for the info

cgchief Loc: Jarrettsville

If the lense stops down to f 32, it is NOT a cat lense.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

As cgchief said, it can't be a cat.
(I think it's probably a dog.)
But for the price it may be fun for a day.

http://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-500mm-Telephoto-Digital-Cameras/dp/B000NOUGPW/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328761716&sr=1-3