a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

This is just for information for anyone who is interested.

I originally bought this (used) lens thinking it would be AF with my LA-EA3 adapter but that was my mistake. So after getting very frustrated with MF I accepted the compromises and got the "4" adapter so that the lens would do AF on my camera. The lens was originally designed for the A mount and has no internal AF motor.

I tried it out quickly this afternoon in reasonably good late PM light, clear sky. I won't bore you with any of my test shots which I've already deleted from the SD card but I'm happy with the result in terms of accuracy and sharpness. This lens is very good for what it is.

A reflex lens is not a perfect solution and that's a subject for other threads. But this is the only AF reflect lens known to me and is among the very best for IQ (IMHO).

The AF is audible and makes little chunking sounds and although much faster than I am it would not compete with the lenses made for this camera. I haven't been able to find a bird yet but my inanimate targets came out well and a couple of stray cats looked very sharp but quite grainy because the were in shadow.

So for the very, very few who might be considering this 3 piece combo, It will do what it is supposed to do. I ended up with a short, very lightweight 500 mm prime (750 mm "equivalent") that can auto focus fast enough for static objects but probably not fast enough for BFF's. It is not silent and that may be an issue for birds and even more so for other wildlife. I use the silent shutter for that reason and it was one of the reasons I upgraded from the a6000. My RX10m4 is also completely silent. Total weight of the three pieces is 1278 grams or 45 oz. or 2.8 pounds. That's heavier than my RX10m4 by a noticeable amount.

The attached pic is cropped from one I took with this lens and camera but with the LA-EA3 and MF. It shows how well that lens can do.

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AlohaJim Loc: Retired. Hawaii >> N. Arizona.

Wow. I would have never thought of a reflex lens on a Sony A6500.
I would have suspected the slower autofocus. Even the slower native Sony E lenses are not all that swift to focus either.
Cute lil' fella.
Thanks for sharing.
Aloha
jim

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Nice image.

Ltgk20 Loc: Salisbury, NC

I've used the 500mm f8 mirror lens on my two a mount cameras. At about 5in long and just over a pound, it's tiny for what it is. Mine has always been sharp although you do have to watch out for a long of contest (due to the very short lens his) and the don't bokeh which can crop up. Overall it's an amazing lens for what it is and what it's designed to do.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Here is one using the A6300 along with the LA_EA4 and the Minolta 500mm reflex lens. As for birds in flight, I can do the slower moving birds such as Turkey Buzzards and Pelicans. Here are some perched Comorants at about 700 feet using Wikimapia.com in which I could stretch a ruler from the spot I was at to where the birds were. This was on a tripod and I used Auto Focus. Being that the A6300 does not have IBIS, shooting handheld is probably not a good idea. But I do shoot it hand held on my Sony A99 and A77ii bodies. But this was a try to see if it would work on the A6300. And it did.

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