I was looking for something completely different but this lens caught my eye on Amazon.

It's a "Opteka 500-1000mm High Definition Mirror Telephoto Lens for Nikon D700, D300, D200, D100, D90, D80, D70, D60, D50, D40, D40X, D2HS, D2XS, & D3 Digital SLR Camera's " and is prices at £139.

Am I missing something, or does this seem too good to be true...?

Amazon Link

ƒ/8 is slllllllloooooooooowwwwwww.

You'd need to be in bright light most of the time to be able to use it effectively, I'd have thought. Not sure I'd want to risk my money, to be honest.

Mirror reflector lenses can also suffer from a slightly softer area in the centre of the image. Don't expect it to be comparable in quality to the Nikon lenses either.
Might be fun on those really sunny days, if you don't mind the limitations of the design.

It starts at f/8, John, and it's mirror, which means the light's bouncing about the inside before it hits the sensor (which probably explains the aperture).
Personally I'd not touch it, but that's just me.

Mark

f8 at 500mm and I guess f16 at 1000mm if using the converter. As is mentioned you will need a tripod, be using manual settings etc.

However with mirror lenses you get annular (think doughnuts) bokeh.

Mmm. Donuts and bokeh...

American English?!?!

I was going to add </Homer> but I felt the reference was obvious already.

Being honest I wasn't giving any serious consideration to buying it, as I had noticed the speed and that set some alarm bells ringing. I didn't know anything much about mirrored lenses, but I figured that asking the opinions of people I actually trust rather than searching the net seemed like a good idea... and it was!

I've done some test shots with my manual 2x teleconverter, (which I will post when I get a chance!) but those shots, (which for a first test I am actually quite pleased with, although they will improve with practice) have made me think about getting... Teleconverter from Jessops Link

Does anybody have any teleconverter experience?

Thanks again.



PS. Having read the posts which were submitted before I finished this one all i can say is... DOH!

A few months ago I connected a camera to a 600mm reflector telescope. Same principle as this lens but the camera was attached side on, and much more difficult to line up as a result. It could be useful as a cheap way of trying some astronomical stuff, with a tripod of course.

Well, now you say that... I got a telescope for my birthday a few years ago, and that is something else I'd always wanted to try, (even with the F65) but never got around to, so that sounds like a good excuse to get it. the price is £79.00 but I'm taking the manual lens back, so that'll be £30 saved.