Just so I dont buy in the dark.
seen a Soligor Tele-Auto 1:5.5 f =300mm in a local charity shop for £20
Dunno if ifs much cop or not, but for £20 its better to have somthing that can take photos at that range than nothing at all?
Or am I better off spending the £20 on beer?
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.
Quote from: EggtasticoJust so I dont buy in the dark.
seen a Soligor Tele-Auto 1:5.5 f =300mm in a local charity shop for £20
Dunno if ifs much cop or not, but for £20 its better to have somthing that can take photos at that range than nothing at all?
Or am I better off spending the £20 on beer?
from the auto bit id guess its a M42 lens and will need an adapter for use on a modern Dslr there about £5 (not sure about Nikon adapters as there arsy about metering with lenss with out a chip in IIRC), but manual focus only, but £20 isnt a lot to pay for a lens, id buy it and if it never gets put on the camera then I lose £20-£25 not a few hundred on a new one, if you use it quite a bit then at least you have one till you replace it
450-480mm is very long and prob only good for "bird" watching or selecting one item on a landscape
well I was looking to take photos from our cricket pavilion.. so I guess it will do then :0
As I said examine it for scratches to the lens or obvious damage.
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 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1200mm-D90-Telescope-for-Camera-20D-30D-350D-400D-5D-1D_W0QQitemZ220129933114QQihZ012QQcategoryZ30070QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
Quote from: EggtasticoThis 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
Its a goddamn telescope, not a lens. Only real way to use the bloody thing is stick it on a tripod and hope for the best! :lol:
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.
Quote from: SeriousYou 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:
Quote from: EggtasticoQuote from: SeriousYou 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:
I forgot you overlook that school... :P
Really telescope = bad simply because of the equivalent f number that it offers will be very big, meaning very little light into the camera. Its better to go for something shorter to start off with.
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.
Ive got a 400d in the end... well, I will when it gets delivered ;-D
I looked at the Nikon & Pentax, but felt the canon was better supported, especially for someone like me.
Its easy to say buy this lense, buy that lense, but I have a mortgage, 3x loans & a house to run. . . as well as feeding my weekend alcohol addiction , internet access, mobile phone, etc :mrgreen:
So Im stuck on budget lenses atm :lol:
Im looking to take 1/2 decent shots that dont come out grainy/noisy, etc. - Thought If I spend a few pennies on low budget lenses, I can then get a range & feel of what lenses I acually use.
Im looking for zeiss 20mm, so far I have collected :-
The Soliger mentioned above £22
a 6" newtonian style telescope £48
Hanimax 28mm wide angle lens £1
Pentacon auto 1.8/50mm lens £10
HELIOS 44-2 2/58 F2-F16 £10
+ the standard Kit lense that comes with the camera
Think thats a nice range of lenses to try about with for £100
Still wouldnt mind picking up a macro & fisheye.
Would really like one of those vertical ones for taking photos of buildings. . but they are well out of my budget, especially as its a specialist lense
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.
cheers for the reply.
Anywhere online I can find a list of these Cult Lenses?
Ive joined http://photography-on-the.net/forum/ that seems a good resource, especially if I need to look up a lense - theres a good buying guide for Zeiss on there. Somthing thats handy to know is Zeiss done the same lenses, but had to call them somthing different in America, Europe & behind the Iron curtain.
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
Cheers,
I did find http://www.mflenses.com/
which seemed decent enough :-D
Heres the thread about Zeiss I saw earlier
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=70506
QuotePentax 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
Do you get focus confirmation m42 adapters for the Pentax DSLRs as well like you do with Canon?
Local models, antique & 2nd hand shop around here have a :-
Carl Zeiss Jena FLEKTOGON 35mm F2.4 MC - Electric version (whatever the electric version means.. autofocus?)
for £60, is that worth it? Its up for £70, tried knocking him down to £55, but he wont budge on £60
I know its one of the mutts nuts in budget Lenses - Just wanted to confirm its worth me paying that, or are they common enough to pick up for nearer £40-£50??
sorry this is very late, havnt been about much lately due to an excess of work.
Egg, the Jena Flek 35 is a stunning standard lens on a DSLR, I love mine to bits. The electric bits are for an early Practica metering system and make precisely no difference on any DSLR Im aware of, certainly not your Canon or my Pentax. They arent a bad thing, they simply wont work so dont pay extra for the "electric" tag
£60 is a bit high Id say, should be able to get one nearer to £45-50 although I was very lucky with mine (found it in a charity shop) so I dont really know for sure. If you dont mind a bit of work they are pretty easy to repair so a "broken" one with a stuck iris can be a good buy. If you are interested in this route I can give you some advice on what to look for.
Loki, with Pentax there is no need for special adapters to get focus confirmation. Hell my Pentax K10D even gives focus confirmation with an astro telescope operating at F10 (well beyond the F5.6 specified minimum).