500mm Mirror Examples?

I have heard from most of you that you hate the results of the 500mm

mirror. Does anyone have any examples of the results? I am curious

what the out-of-focus donuts look like. I am curious how bad the

depth of field is.

 

Thanks.

Heres one taken from sidewalk of the

<P>

<A HREF="http://home.earthlink.net/~swensonstudio1/1-527-34.htm"> Crysler Building </A>

<P>

in New York.

It's the only 500mm mirror that I've saved. So it's the only example that I have.

I remeber trying to take pictures of the full moon and they were terrible. Thoses are the types of examples that you are probably looking for, ones with a bright light.

If you are lucky, you can avoid the funny donut shapes altogether by having no background at all!</p>

<a href="http://www3.sympatico.ca/marbing/Pictures/Harvard5.jpg" >Flight of WWII Harvard trainers</a></p>

This is with a Yashica 500mm/f8 WITH a Yashica 2x TC.

You can find a number of examples if you plug "500mm mirror" (without the quotes) into the Google Image search. You get a lot of images /of/ the various lenses, but you can also find examples taken with the lens.

Used properly, the 500mm F8 Reflex-Nikkor does the job well: <a href="http://www.jaypix.com/pix/villb01.jpg"> Example 1 </a> , <a href="http://www.jaypix.com/pix/stomm.jpg"> Example 2 </a> . No AD ever complained about donuts.

Go to photosig.com There you can search pictures by equipment used. I am sure there will be examples from 500mm mirror lenses.

<a href="http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=84193&forward=browse">Here</a> is an example of horrible donuts.

 

You need to be a member to view the picture in large size

You want donuts... you get donuts. I've left the file at the larger size so that you can experience the donuts :)

<img src="http://www.dslrexchange.com/dslrxphotopost/data/505/4280broadwing2-med.jpg" />

Query

 

I have a question. I own a Sigma 600mm f8 mirror lense. It does pretty well if you know how to use it; bright clear day, tripod and lens hood. Since contrast is one of the complaints levied against CATS, would pushing slide firm a stop or two improve contrast?

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/433523-lg.jpg">

I don't find the donuts objectionable most times,but nearly allways so when there are thin bright lines out of focus (as in alan's example)

<BR>I would recommend you get a good brand-this was taken with a brand new vivitar cheapie!

<BR>http://www.heidgerken.org/gfx/500mm/IMG_3033.JPG

<p>I must say that i think this particular lens is faulty but still-the good examples (of cheap mirror lenses as i've used) are not much better

Here is a sample from a Vivitar Series 1 Solid CAT 800mm f11. I think the donuts actually adds to the picture in this case.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/3120159

Have a look here at my review of the Minolta 500mm f/8 Rokkor-RF, a very nice mirror lens which actually delivers (in terms of light transmission) the f8 it promises. This is unlike some cheaper mirror lenses that are a theoretical f8, but with falloff or simply less light transmission are actually more like f11. <a href="http://www.rokkorfiles.com/500mm.htm">The Rokkor Files - 500mm</a><p>Regards, Antony

<P>This is off topic but re Antony's post, I have the RF Rokkor 250mm f5.6 mirror and this is also a very nice lens. Its close focus point is only 8 feet which makes it handy in some situations. The donut effect is inescapable but you have to choose your compositions so it doesn't intrude - or make a feature of it!</P><P>Certainly the resolution and contrast of this lens is on a par with a refractive lens of the same focal length and aperture - and the depth of field is exactly the same. </P>

How much of the donut backgrounds can be corrected (softened?) with Photoshop Elements?

"How much of the donut backgrounds can be corrected (softened?) with Photoshop Elements?"

 

You can completely make the donuts go away with a gaussian blur applied selectively, but it's not a "one-click" process. Save my pic above and give it a try.

You can find samples of the Rubinar 1000mm f10 on my portfolio, I have presentations by lens of my specials lenses.

A nest with an Olympus Zuiko 500mm f/8 mirror lens.

I'll try that again.

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<img src="http://www.pbase.com/lightsculpter/image/22402520.jpg">

<p>

<img src="http://www.pbase.com/lightsculpter/image/29912594.jpg">

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Both were taken with an Olympus Zuiko 500mm f/8 mirror lens. The nest shows funny bokeh (in background), the transit of Venus is fine...

Here's another shot taken at the same time as the one I posted previously, also with the mirror lens. This one has had the background selectively softened using Gaussian blur. Note that in the foreground, and in the middle distance, there are some grass stalks that appear doubled; one of the more endearing aspects of mirror lenses, is that straight lines that are out of focus can be doubled due to reinforcement of the blurry donuts. <P>

 

<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~w7apd/public/greatblueheron.jpg">

Alan, the heron example looks great with the blur...how long did it take you to do that?

<P>I've posted a shot made with my 250/5.6 mirror <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/3128939">here</a>. The intent here was to get nice big donuts.</P>

Brian: Thanks! It's been a while since I made that image, but not too difficult. The slowest part was selecting the BG around the heron's head and neck. After selecting, the heron was moved to another layer (and deleted from the first layer.) Then apply Gaussian blur to the BG layer until I could live with it. BTW, it was edited in PaintShop Pro. I may have also applied a slight amount of blur to the near background but don't recall. Poor record keeping; my bad.

 

This image and some others similar to it, were the final nail in the coffin of my mirror lens. I was so disheartened by the on-film results in this type of situation, that I saved for 300mm f/2.8. I'll admit, there are times that I miss the light weight and small size of the mirror lens, and in most cases the background isn't that bad.