Depends, first you have to know if its computable with your camera - even if it fits the cameras from a maker it might not fit the one you have.

Second its going to be limited in use, sports, animal photography and such are about it.

Third it wont have autofocus and may not do a lot of other things, you may be down to full manual.

On a canon 400D you need to multiply the focal length by 1.6 so youre talking about something like 480mm focal length for a 300mm lens. Without stabilisation that is going to be quite a bit to hand hold. You would need a tripod or at least a monopod.

There is also the possibility of damage, check the optics, any scratches or similar then dont bother. Soligor arent known for quality lenses either. If you are going to a wildlife park and are going to be taking photos of animals at long range then its an option. Try it out, have a close look at the output at full pixels on your monitor to see if it looks clean. look for distortion, vignetting, etc. (check websites for how to do this and what the words mean)

Normally I suggest a pair of lenses, one in the 20-100 range and the second in the 50-200. This covers everything from wide angle landscapes to animals and bird watching. Basic holiday snaps are no problem for this sort of setup and there is some cover if you have the wrong lens on.

TBH this is why I went for the Panasonic FZ20, it covers everything in a single lens. I dont have to change lenses for a shot. And why I have been suggesting bridge cameras with superzoom lenses for peeps on here rather than SLRs.

well I was looking to take photos from our cricket pavilion.. so I guess it will do then :0

This any good? Looking to take photos from afar, mostly mountain & costal places, but would be nice to know I can take somthing close up If I see somthing.. maybe like a ship or somthing?

clicky

You would either need a 1200th of a second capable camera or something rock steady and activate the shutter with a release cable. Either way most shots will be still dodgy. Get something a bit more sensible to start off with.

being a telescope is good I thought.. I got some cracking views where I am :-D

I could also shoot the moon  :mrgreen:

Egg, what camera did you get?

Canon DSLRs work fairly well with M42 mount lenses via an adaptor, but you loose the focus confirmation unless you get the adaptor with a chip in it (more expensive, but easily available).

Pentax DSLRs work great with an M42 adaptor since M42 was the mount Pentax used before 1975 and they have a long tradition of backwards compatibility

Nikon DSLRs hate M42 lenses. The metering will refuse to work and the flange to film distance is wrong so the lens wont focus to infinity unless the adaptor includes optics to correct for it. These optics are usually low quality so the image is rubbish, and will also function as a short tele-converter.


Whichever one you have, Id steer clear of M42 mount lenses with adaptors unless they are cult classic items for which either no modern equivalent exists or the modern version is super expensive.

I wouldnt bother with that telescope. If you want long telephoto, buy a long telephoto camera lens. If you want to do astro photography, buy a decent telescope.

yeah the tilt shift jobs are seriously pricey. Best thing to do on a budget if you really want one of those is make one yourself. There are several how-tos about on the net for turning medium format lenses into TS lenses.

Still not particularly cheap, and not very wide either, but a lot cheaper than the camera makers version.

The zeiss 20mm is supposed to be great (comes under the cult classics I mentioned) but they arent common. The Zeiss Flektogon 35 is one of my favourites, and Ive heared good things about the Jupiter 9 85mm F2 if you fancy trying some head-and-shoulders portraits or indoor sports.

The Pentacon 1.8/50 and Helios 58/2 are pretty similar in spec so youll probably be best off figureing out which one you like better and getting rid of one. That £10 might buy something else to play with.

getting a feel for what you like with cheapo Ebay lenses before shelling out the big bucks for decent modern glass is probably a good idea.

Oh and anything with Pentax Super Takumar in the name in M42 mount will probably be a good lens, provided its in good condition.

Im at work at the mo, but later on Ill see what I can dig up for you. There is a forum somewhere which is entirely dedicated to using old glass on DSLRs.

When in doubt I find entering the full name of any lens you are interested in into Google is a good guide. If the lens is generally known to be worth a punt then itll show up somewhere.

PS in case you havent picked up all the variations yet

Carl Zeiss Jena == Aus Jena

Sonnar == S
Tessar == T
Flektogon == F