Burtzy Loc: Bronx N.Y. & Simi Valley, CA

I couldn't pass up the bargain. Yesterday my wife and I were passing a local antique shop and it was going out of business. They had a cabinet with a bunch of old cameras and accessories. I started browsing through gear...most of which held no interest for me...and came across an old Spiratone 400mm, f6.3 lens in pristine condition. It was marked $35.00. At 50% off, I bought it for $17.50. It was a T-mount and fully manual, including the iris which, once selected needed to be stopped down by moving a ring on the lens body. It also had a tripod mount collar. Well, I have a M4/3 adapter. So last night I put the whole thing together and tried it out. It shows promise. Not super sharp, but I wasn't working under the best conditions and was shooting a half-moon at a very high ISO. I'm anxious to see how it performs in daylight. I'll post something if it turns out to be as good a lens as the price.

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

Good for you, you never know when an opportunity will pop up! Look forward to seeing the results.

Bigmike1 Loc: I am from Gaffney, S.C. but live in Utah.

Congrats! I am always open to bargains. I have been fortunate enough to pick up a few over the years.

melismus Loc: Chesapeake Bay Country

I had that lens back in the 1960s. Pretty good for its time and its price.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

GOOD LUCK. You will need it. That lens is not know for sharpness, post may help. I would rather use something that will give me a sharp image. Wouldn't you?

waegwan Loc: Mae Won Li

Congratulations! Send us some photos. :-)

Archiefamous Loc: Manhattan

I had that lens back in the day. Worked pretty well at Mets games. I loved visiting the Spiratone store. Just a half block away from original Willoughby’s

Fotomacher Loc: Toronto

Not always. It depends on the “look” you’re going for in the final image. Landscapes with farmhouses and colour can lend themselves to a soft focus and look fantastic. Try it with your new modern fancy lenses for a dreamy image.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

Still have mine. Sits in its case as I have since gotten other lenses covering that focal length that offer variable aperture & some are autofocus as well. That said, it is a sunny day lens that will plug a hole in the focal length if you have no others in that range until that point in time that you do get more advanced lenses.

Archiefamous Loc: Manhattan

Stop down metering as well

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Get us some shots on a good sunny day, I love old lenses. Have been collecting Pentax Takumars for over 10 years, sadly however as my collection of EF lenses for my Canons has become large I am selling much of my Takumar collection keeping only what I consider to be the most interesting lenses from 17mm through 300mm all primes with the exception of the Vivitar Series 1 70-210 Macro. Have a few Minolta and Olympus lenses thrown in as well, the collection is maybe 40 pcs, too many want to drop back down to fewer than 20.

editorsteve

I had the spiratone 400. Used it with (contrasty) TriX on Miranda and Pentax. My copy was terrific, but some people complained of internal flare. Non coated glass and shiny metal areas inside, sometimes.

Burtzy Loc: Bronx N.Y. & Simi Valley, CA

I have other, better lenses but since I shoot M 4/3, there is nothing on the market at 400mm. Olympus has a zoom that goes out to 300, but the price is ridiculous.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Oh, gawd! I had one of those, briefly! It was one of the biggest false promises in photography back in the 1970s. Here's the skinny:

That lens was made for full frame 35mm cameras. It uses a preset diaphragm (open up to focus, stop down to expose). It has stops from f/6.3 to f/32. On 35mm film, it was an "okay performer for the price" at f/11 and f/16. That meant using a tripod or monopod, and fast film, in broad daylight. Tens of thousands of these were sold under many names, including Soligor and Galaxy in addition to Spiratone.

f/6.3 is past the diffraction limiting aperture of Micro 4/3 sensors (16MP and 20MP). If you were to stop down to f/11, hoping to get better sharpness, you would probably have an offset tradeoff between more diffraction and more sharpness. But it's worth a try.

I'm not saying you wasted your money. At $17.50, it was a steal! Just go into testing it with realistic expectations. It may or may not suit your needs. The contrast is a bit low, resolution is probably not up to your Micro 4/3 capability, and you will need a tripod and good manual focusing techniques. If you have an Olympus or Panasonic with IBIS, try to use IBIS on a monopod. (The only drawback of IBIS is that it works best at focal lengths under 200mm). Keep your shutter speed at 1/800 or faster (1/(focal length x the crop factor of 2.0). Adjust ISO for decent exposure at f/11, or try manual mode with auto ISO if your camera supports it.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Check out the full range of Micro 4/3 lenses here:

http://hazeghi.org/mft-lenses.html

Panasonic makes a 100-300mm f/4-f/5.6 and a 100-400mm f/4-f/6.3.