500 mm mirror lens

A local shop has a Nikon 500 mm mirror MF lens - looks very

interesting - any comments on this lens? It is in excellent

condition - price $500 Canadian or about $320 USD.

Thats about what its worth.The F8 maximum stop and the circular highlights usually scare most away from these.However,Id think that with today's fine grain 400 films you could make this lens work.You have to realize that a 500mm lens is a 10X telescope,and is not for hand holding,plan on a tripod use at all times.For wildlife etc, this could be a cheap way into super teles.Good luck,ask the store to let you try it 1st!

Beware that it is a fixed f/8 aperture which makes it hard to focus without a split image screen which will go black except in bright light. If your background is uniform, say the sky, you will see light fall off vignette in the corners and edges. Choosing the right speed film for the lighting conditions and the shutter speed range of your camera requires some planning.

 

In other words, it has its limitations that you can work around for some subjects/compositions.

John

 

I do believe that Nikon made two different 500mm mirror lenses. I have

the smaller one, bought used for $100. Very fine lens. No problems

with vignetting or focusing.

 

Jerry

Back in 1987, I bought a new Nikkor 500mm/f8 mirror, which is still the current version in production. It is more like a fixed f11 lens that gives you a dim image in the viewfinder. Curitcal focusing is difficult. (I was quite young then and my eyesight is still pretty good today, 15 years later.) Moreover, you must use fast film to avoid any vibration. To sum up, that lens gave me nothing but frustration. In 1992, I bought the 500mm/f4 P lens and was much happier; of course the f4 lens is a lot more expensive. Essentially, you get what you pay for.

I too looked at purchasing one of these. I tried two different models: an older one, and the "new", smaller version. The optical quality of each of them wasn't bad, but focusing critically was a chore, even with a bright viewfinder. I instead went with a 300mm f/4.5 ED-IF lens (very good) that I augmented with a TC-14 converter (good, f/5.6 and above). Better combinations nowadays would be the original 300mm f/4 AF Nikkor, which I've heard works well with the Tamron PRO 1.4x converter (and I know first-hand works very well with the TC-14 or TC-14B converter). If you have the bucks the newer 300mm f/4 AF-S lens with a TC-14E II converter is probably the best lightweight long-tele combination you can get for the Nikon line.

John

 

With a "B" or "E" screen, focusing is no problem at all. In fact,

the small depth of focus makes it easy for the subject to snap into

focus.

 

And the mirror lens is so much easier to handle than a loooong tele.

 

Jerry

The better 500mm f/8, Type2 is lighter and is of significantly different construction than the 500mm f/8, Type 1. Its serial numbers begin with 183201 and were produced after Aug 1984.

 

There was a much earlier Mirror Nikkor of 500mm FL, f/5 that was much larger and heavier. It had a good reputation, though I have never seen one.

 

Alex