markwilliam1

The Minolta AF 500mm reflex lens worked perfectly on my Sony a77ii!

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

Mine too. It works even better on the A99II! I believe it's the only reflex (mirror) lens ever made with auto-focus. It's too bad that Sony has discontinued making them.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

I have two of them both are inexpensive Rokinons for Nikon. But since I got my Fujis, I gave away my crop Nikon bodies, and I don't use them any more. They worked very well with my Nikons. If you don't mind the donuts, a cheap 500 mm becomes a 750 on a crop body. but nice and short and lightweight! That is the BIG advantage, (or the smaller advantage, depending how you look at it) !

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

This topic has been debated many times here on UHH. As ALL things photographic, it DEPENDS on who is using it and how they are using it !

You do need a GOOD lenshood with a mirror lens and and you do need good physical stabilization/shutter speed do to the magnification ! Focus peaking on mirrorless cameras helps focusing as does the fact that there is no mirror slap on mirrorless cameras for stabilization ! Contrast tends to be low so boosting with good PP is necessary.

I have and use the Minolta AF mirror on a77II and A99 - GREAT lens.

I also have and use a Russian made ARAX 500 f5.6 lens in Pentacon 6 mount. I have adapters to use on Pentax 645 and Sony/Minolta a-mount. Below is a recent sample on the A77II from a braced monopod. Tho this lens is marked 500 5.6, it acts more like 600mm f6.7 in use ! It is for sale if anyone interested - $200 shipped - PM me if interested.

As mentioned above, the Sigma 600 f8 is well regarded as are the Tamron SP 350 5.6 and 500 f8. Whatever mirror lens you get, make sure if at all possible that it has a tripod collar !
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(Download)

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I've used the Tamron SP 500mm f/8 lens in the past on film cameras... but sold it and replaced it with a standard telephoto some years before "going digital".

That's was my favorite of about a half dozen different mirror lenses I'd used over the years. It was sharp and had great color rendition. It also was extremely close focusing... "near macro".... to about 5 feet, if memory serves. These are some images made with it (on film, which was later scanned):



The image of the egret above, in particular, shows how the Tamron 500mm handles out-of-focus spectral highlights. It has some of the "donut" effect seen with all mirror lenses, but I always felt the Tamron seemed to do a little better with them than most. The shot of the flower gives you some idea how close it can focus, as well as how it renders background blur (there was a fence and wall about 15 feet behind the flower). I'm not entirely certain all three of these images were done with it, but I usually shot Ektachrome 200 film when using the 500mm f/8. That gave me sufficient shutter speed in daylight. These images were all scanned using a Nikon Coolscan 4000.

There were two versions of the Tamron 500mm.... I had the one with the tripod mounting ring. (I wouldn't want the version without that! I used it on a monopod or tripod frequently.) I am pretty sure Tamron made one of the Nikkor 500mm around that time (1980s). I had opportunity to compare them side by side and there only appeared to be minor cosmetic differences. I only sold the Tamron 500mm because of the fixed, f/8 aperture... replaced it with a 300mm f/4.5 lens that worked exceptionally well with a 1.5X teleconverter. (Note: The Tamron 500mm did not work well with teleconverters... at least not any that I tried. Too much loss of image quality.)

The Tamron SP 500mm is an "Adaptall2" lens... That's an interchangeable mount system. Adaptall mounts are widely available for virtually any SLR/DSLR system. In fact, they're still being made in China. I bought one for a Vintage Tamron 90mm macro lens, to be able to use it on Canon EOS cameras (EF mount). It cost about $40 and took four days to ship from China (it's a "chipped" version which allows the cameras' Focus Confirmation to work... there are cheaper un-chipped versions too).

The Tamron SP 500mm f/8 came with a set of 30mm or 32mm filters, including neutral density that could be fitted to the rear element of the lens (req'd removing the Adaptall mount temporarily, to install the filter). The ND filters served to change it to effective f/16 or f/22... though there's no change to Depth of Field (the aperture remains the same). It also can use 82mm filters on the front (which were uncommonly large back in those days, but are easy to find now). It came with a nice, deep, screw-in lens hood, too. If you shop for one of these lenses, which can be picked up used for $200 or less, try to get one with the tripod ring and the lens hood. Those are difficult to find and expensive to replace, if not included. The small filters are pretty easily replaced, if needed.

I can't imagine it would be any different on a digital camera, than it was on film. Not a perfect lens, but pretty darned good for the price, compact and reasonably light weight.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

All these guys who are such purists! How many of them are actually Ansel Adams? Nothing is any good unless it delivers the ultimate in sharpness and contrast WITH autofocus and image stabilization! Well I think even a less than perfect image is better than no image at all! And getting an image, though it be a good one, with 750 mm of long glass is nothing you are going to get strolling through the woods. But a lightweight, inexpensive mirror IS something you can handle a lot easier and get some long shots you would struggle for with 10 pounds of glass.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Minolta AF Reflex 500mm: Originally produced by Minolta, and until recently, produced by Sony, the AF Reflex 500mm f/8 is a catadioptric photographic lens compatible with cameras using the Minolta A-mount and Sony A-mount lens mounts. The Minolta/Sony Reflex 500mm lens is the only production mirror lens designed to auto focus with an SLR camera. An interesting lens, I'd like one, one of these days!!

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Amen.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

I have fun with mine, and I get good results, and lot's of flexibility. Fun is one of the things I like most as a hobby photog, DIY, experimentation, some occasional art, buying old gear and fixing/using, so the old Vivitar will get some action every so often....it lives on a tripod married to one of my Sony's. I do want to pick up a good little 5-600 mirror, if I can find a reasonably sharp one, with the in body stabilization and the CIZ it should get some good shots.

N4646W

Well stated!

Ron

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

If all you're hung up on noticing bokeh, you're looking at the wrong part of the photograph. If you want some opinions regarding bokeh, simply enter

bokeh is overrated

in the youtube search window.
--Bob

no12mo

Great shot. Hey Mark.. yer right about the bokeh from catadioptric lens. I happen to think this particular shot yields an attractive canvass to the subject.

Best bet it to keep both type of lens for artistic sake. I have a Canon 500mm and you can see the vignetting in this shot of a sail boat. I never thought of getting an adapter for it to my D500. I'm currently using a Tamron 100 - 400 f4.5 - 6.3 full frame which converts to 150 - 600 on my D500. I also have a Nikon 55 - 300mm DX format lens. Both the Tamron and Nikon have Image Stabilization (IS) so cool handheld pics can be taken. The Canon 500mm would need to be used with a tripod since there is no IS.

The Tamron is a beast to hold because of the weight and my age of 82+ but it can be done. You may have given me a reason to get a converter for the Canon 500 catadioptric lens. The vignetting would probably go away with the DX format of my D500.

Hmmm

no12mo

None of us are Ansel Adams. There is no reason for this kind of argument. We all are in this with different artistic viewpoints and goals. Consider the points brought forth in this thread and decide what's best for you..

Another point is that we all evolve in our artistic needs. I argue the point that we should have *both* types of lens. Point well taken that for a given focal length, the catadioptric lens offers lighter weight and for some the donut bokeh effect may be desirable.

markwilliam1

What? Bokeh over rated Not! I strive for creamy bokeh that doesn’t distract from the main subject when shooting Macro especially! Bokeh is Very Important!

Salo Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

I also have the Tamron AdaptAll-2 500mm f/8 mirror lens in Nikon F mount. I bought it pre-owned in like-new condition and in the original box with lens hood, 30.5mm "normal" filter (UV), instruction manual and hard carry case. It was a lot of fun to play around with many years ago on my film Nikons, but I was not always thrilled with its images. Sometimes I could get beautiful, sharp images at distance (without the donut bokeh), but I often found it difficult to focus precisely at "close" distances (what Tamron called "macro" mode at about 5 to 15 feet), and with essentially no DOF, focus was absolutely critical. Focus peeking like on today's cameras would have been a great help.

I packed it up over 20 years ago when we last moved so it's in one of the dozens of still unopened boxes, but I might be willing to sell it if I can find it, in case anyone is interested.