Trying out an old lens

Hi Guys,

I've rescued my old Tamron 500mm mirror lens (manual focus-fixed aperture)with an adapter of ebay. I'm not sure it focuses fully at infinity but it works locally. This is my first attempt which has been cropped (bird was some 15m away)



The K10D was tripod moounted.

Any comments would be welcomed

regards
Bernard

Now what am I doing wrong?
B

I've done it - hurrar


[IMG]http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff444/Frogherder/IMGP5422b.jpg[/IMG]

Comments on the lens please

regards
Bernard

EXIF says Shutter Priority, I would think you would want to be in at least AV mode, or use Manual with the Green Button to meter correctly.

And you just want 1 set of img /img (in brackets) around your image.

Thats odd the properties of the original on my PC says aperture priority and I used the Green setting on the mode dial.

I wondered why I was getting extra bits below the image (corected now) thanks for that

regards
Bernard

I like the composition but, IMHO, the image would be improved by a little 'tweaking' (increased contrast, noise reduction and sharpening).

The lens is considered to be one of the better (some even say best of the) catadioptrics (check the lens database on the 'other place' if you haven't already done so, and BobAtkins.com link. The general consensus is that buying an used and cherished Tamron 500mm SP is a better option than buying one of the new third-party options.

Regards,

Jon

It is an excellent lens Bernard. And you have chosen a perfect situation for it. One of the negatives of the lens is a messy bokeh unless you have good seperation between the in focus and the out of focus elements of the image. Your background is the sky so no problem there. I have a couple of images taken with the lens in my gallery. I haven't used mine for a while, but still haven't convinced myself to part with it.

Good luck with it

swan

eider

Not sure what you mean by I was intersted to see if the lens still cuts the mustard.

I bought it new, soon after it was introduced and used it happily on a Minolta X300. Due to the cost I was reluctant to sell it if it was still usable as I'd seen some rather derogatory prices on ebay and my local camera shop only offered £20 if I included the X300.

Then I came across an adapter on ebay and whilst I think its a bit too thick (i'm not conviced that it focuses on infinity - for practical purpose - the moon) it does at least work

regards
Bernard
PS I must have been typing when Blythman added his comment. Now theres a coicidence the last lilme I used it was about 4 years ago with the X300 in Byth photographing Shags out on the rocks and a boat trip to photograph puffins - needless to say hand held it didn't like bobbing up and down in an ex fishing boat.
B

If you have bought a Tamron Adaptall mount then there is no reason why it shouldn't focus to infinity. If I recall, the lens actually focuses beyond infinity

And adjust the colour balance a little to brighten the background sky to help it stand out.

As Jon said you have one of the better 2 or 3 mirrors out there, at least without going into the stellar-price range. Like yourself I bought mine new way back in time, fortunately with a PK mount ;-0) (Olympus is the other.) All mirror prices seem to have suffered from the difficulty using them, and being tarnished by the really poor ones out there.

I've considered buying one of the Samyang mirrors before now. Main thing putting me off is the fixed aperture (f5.6 on the one I liked the look of), very shallow depth of field, and the fact that you really need a tripod to get the best from them. That said, I've tried a Bigma and wouldn't fancy that handheld!

I've only taken a few shots so far- subject as above
Its about the same time of day so I'll try handheld so that you can "evaluate"
Bernard

OK assuming I've got the hank of photobucket here's a hand held shot


Its not been cropped at all, only resized in Ps7

Picture taken from some 30m

I must say I'm impressed with the anti-shake

regards
Bernard

It is impressive - the review I saw of the Samyang said that it was a bit too light for the focal length (a bit heavier and it would have been easier to use hand-held).

It seems to be customary on this forum to refer to our trans-Atlantic counterpart as 'the other place' .

Main page: link

User reviews of the Tamron 500mm, and many others, in the 'third-party' section of the 'Lens Database': link

Regards,

Jon