Minolta X370 - Lense

[jay_emerson]

I am new to photography. I recently acquired a used Minolta X370

with a Minolta MD 50mm 1:1.4, a Vivitar 2X macro teleconverter, and a

Spiratone 1:5.6 f=300mm Mirror Lens. I would like to take wildlife

photos of large and small game animals for my own enjoyment. Is the

Spiratone a decent quality lense? Will it preform well with the

Vivitar 2x teleconverter? If I should up grade with a higher quality

long lense, what would be good choice?

[gary_watson]

The converter will give you a longer and much slower lens, so much slower that roadkill will be your prime game animal subjects. Minolta MC/MD lenses are plentiful and cheap: a 135/2.8 or 200/3.5 might be good for starters. Longer prime(i.e., non-zoom)lenses will cost considerably more.I'd stick to Minolta(or Minolta Rokkor X)glass and avoid long, slow, off-brand MD zooms.

[jay_emerson]

Gary, thanks for the help. If I go with the 200mm, would I be able to use it with the 2X teleconverter? From what I have read, I assume I would loose some speed with the 200mm and the 2X teleconverter, however, would I loose any sharpness?

[art_haykin]

Most mirrors are pretty dreadful, and Spiritone lenses werepretty low end to begin with. The above advice is good. The 2x will only magnify all the faults of the lens, and close you down 2 stops to f/11. Buy a good, long prime, and a good converter. BTW, the 370 is a neat little camera.

[Brian]

If the Vivitar teleconverter is the 7-element one, it's not too bad, and you'd pay an awful lot to do better. There are Minolta TCs around, but they are rare and expensive. For best results with the converter, you need to put it behind a prime lens of 200mm or longer. I agree with the others that the mirror lens is not going to be very good, and a conventional prime lens, prefereably no slower than f4, should be your target. Minolta would be best, but Tamron, Tokina and Sigma also made decent lenses in the MD mount (With Tamron, it would be an Adaptall lens with an MD adaptor.)