Another outing for a heritage lens

As we had brilliant sunshine yesterday, it seemed the ideal time to take the 400-600 reflex zoom out of the bag. No sooner had I switched on the K5 than all of the bird life fled, apart from this chap - and he only hung around for one snatch shot. C'est la vie!!!

Nice capture....and I have always wanted that lens

Certainly at 600 it's a sod to focus but when you do nail it it's brilliant. It does produce donuts but as you can see above they don't intrude.
What a shame all the birdies fled. I'd like to see some more of these.

Thanks for the comments. Hopefully the opportunity for more shots with the lens will present themselves, so watch this space!!!

Another very bright day and a selection of images taken with the 400-600 zoom. The aerials are on top of a tower block approximately 400 metres from the allotments where I was

I wonder if its reputation for not being very good is down to people not persisting with it? From its build quality Pentax clearly thought it was the business - and that set of filters that comes with it - (useless for any other purpose!) - is second to none.

Mirror lenses had a heyday in the 1980s then faded away again. Donuts are probably part of the story, but also people trying to handhold a long telephoto and getting rubbish results. Like all long lenses, though, good technique makes all the difference as clearly shown here.

The 400-600 was unusual and I'd love to try one. Teenage me always wanted the Tamron 500...