Sigma 600mm Mirror

I bought one of these off ebay last week and am very impressed with the results (for the money).
OK I admit the shots could be much better but please bear in mind that they were taken in not great light and hand held and yes if I had bought a Bigma they may be better but this cost me 1/9th of the bigma and I don't think it is a ninth of the quality. What do you think?

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I'd reserve judgement with the bird pictures, as the conditions were not ideal. The jetski rider is the more promising and I look forward to seeing further images.

Not a lot wrong with them.
Looks as if mirror lens have come a long way.


Take care.

Chris R.

I've had one of these lenses for some years. I was given one as a memento of 10 years service with the joinery co. I was with in London before moving to Wiltshire in the early nineties.

I've never really tried it with any serious intent since getting my K7. I used to use it on my MX with, I thought at the time, stisfactory results.
Will pop it back on some time & "test" it further.

Very interesting to see these, Steve.
Agree the jet-ski one is the pick otb but I'm sure the others could be lifted with judicious post-processing.....

Please let us see, should you decide so to do.


Roger.

A few more with this lens, more favorable light this time.
And I love the catch in focus function, it enabled me to get a lot more shots than I originally thought I would get. Simply set to AF.S, hold the shutter button down then slowly focus the lens and try to keep up. Worked a treat

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4.Undignified boarding



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It's the finals tomorrow 12 ish so come on down, you can borrow my 55-300 if you like.

That deffo needs rectifying

That second set are a step up Steve. All super. I'd crop the sky out of 1 and 7. The humble mirror lens, and not a doughnut in sight.

The boat ones are very nice, especially 10 which is a great action shot. in the bird ones the light was not your friend, and these mirror lenses seem to have very strange bokeh, which is not apparent in the boat shots.

Big improvement on the first set. I like the first for the added interest of the buoy and the last for the action.

Some more from today, the conditions were too bright (can't win). It does seem that there is an optimum distance with this lens too close and the picture quality is not so hot and too far the same, but in the right range I am more than happy with the results. On a K-5 it should be even better as I could bring the extended ISO into play and keep the shutter speed up nice and high.

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4. This one was a long way out to sea (cropped)



5. This one too was a long way out



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7. In the hot seat

Some good shots there, (second set) what camera body are you using?

Looks like the weather has to be perfect to get the best out of the lens, but that can be said of a lot of lenses.

Or in my case operator error

Cheers Colin, all on a K-7 and yes I am finding that unless the light is perfect I will struggle, but i think that's half the fun, I seem to get more satisfaction from using a difficult lens and getting a good shot.

Some great shots in that last set although the third one is sadly suffering from excessive doughnuts!

K.

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You can see the lens is soft, but those pics are great and a uber-sharp isn't everything. It's the equivalent of 900mm on full frame.Great value for money!!

I love #1 and #7