frank theriault wrote:
On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 8:44 PM, P. J. Alling <[email protected]> wrote:
Just a few quick shots with El Cheepo Kalimar 500mm mirror lens.
All shot with the K20D ISO 1600 RAW
If you do everything right and the Gods smile it's a pretty good lens. It
lacks a little bit in contrast, but you can easily dial that back in with
the raw converter.
<http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1604247/PESO/PESO%20--%20500mm-lens-test-0.html>
Examining the center in focus portion of the image we see when you get the
focus right it's pretty damn sharp, you just have to bump the contrast a
bit.
<http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1604247/PESO/PESO%20--%20500mm-lens-test-0-100percent.html>
So I tried it out on a less cooperative subject...
Well the highlights were close to blown but not too bad. Difficult subject
bright white bird.
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1604247/PESO/PESO%20--%20500mm-lens-test-1.html
So I tried again.
Well this time I defiantly missed focus, not by much but there's not a lot
of DOF to begin with. Still not bad, I'd never have gotten this close
without this lens.
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1604247/PESO/PESO%20--%20500mm-lens-test-2.html
Last but not least there's this.
<RANT> Now this was just maddening. I've been shooting digital for at least
four years and I've never had a file write failure in the camera, but this
one is obviously is subtly corrupted, Pentax Photo Browser opens it fine but
Photo Lab fails. Irfanview opens it but creates an intermediate tiff from
the embedded JPEG, it's heavily compress, so there are limited adjustments I
can make without artifacts becoming very evident, but it was the /Best/
Egret photo so I'm going to show it anyway. </rant>
I still missed the focus by a bit or the bird moved...
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1604247/PESO/PESO%20--%20500mm-lens-test-3.html
Still if the Raw file wasn't bad, (and yes I tried to download it from the
card a second time and it was damaged in exactly the same way), I'm pretty
sure this would make a more than acceptable 8x10, maybe even 11x14.
My conclusion. This isn't a bad little lens. Based on my test shots, when
I do everything right, I wouldn't be embarrassed to show 8x10 and maybe
larger prints from images made with it. It does have the typical donut
shaped out of focus highlights, but they're not objectionable if you're
careful using it.. It's very lightweight, lighter than the F 70-210 and not
a lot larger. Unlike most of the cast off photo gear people seem to think I
can give a good home to it's actually useful.
Post Script: Yes I can be an idiot. This little mirror lens probably would
benefit from a lens hood, and I decided to take one along while tramping
through the swamp. So I grabbed the original Vivitar Series 1 all metal
hood for the 90-180mm Flat Field zoom, and I managed to lose it. Damn, I
found that hood in a junk box in a Camera store that went out of business,
and I'll likely never find another that matches that lens. Damn, Damn,
Damn...
Not bad for the money, in fact not bad period, except that's some
pretty nasty bokeh.
Still, a mirror lens is always a compromise, isn't it?
cheers,
frank
Not many 500mm lenses you can toss into an almost full bag, "just in case".
--
The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or
drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn
fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a
free man any more than a dog.
--G. K. Chesterton
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