Pentax K100D and Sigma 600mm Mirror Lens

[airconvent]

Well, thought I will try out my recent purchase on the moon tonight.
Did 2 experiments. The first is handheld with just the SR on while the second I placed on a Manfrotto 410 head + 055 tripod. Obviously the tripod one is better but I was amazed how good the handheld one is also. Only issue was forgot to try one WITHOUT the SR on...sigh...


Handheld :

Tripod :

Tripod Cropped and brightened :

 

[airconvent]

Pictures of the lens used. Its K-mount and not M42...
Have to thank Alvinsclee for offering to give up the bidding to me when it was for sale...heh heh. I think he has a 500mm one, so maybe can check out his photos too!

BTW, the lens is sitting on top of the brand new Epson photo printer I am selling..so check out my ad on this..;p

 

[airconvent]

what the heck...while I was at it, I popped in the 18-55mm kit lens, used my manual release and tried some long exposures as well.
These 2 are of the Constellation Orion, the Hunter.

Thanks for looking!
Do come to www.singastro.org if you are interested in astronomy.

 

[fengwei]

Tripod Cropped and brightened :

This one looks really good :thumbsup:

The lens looks not that big, but I never saw a mirror lens ... Seems a quite good performer. You might give it a try w/ birds

Thanks for sharing these.

 

[airconvent]

Thanks Feng Wei!
Its much bigger than your kit lens but as you can compare with the table top calender next to it, its not that big considering the other "mirror lense" I have for my astronomy hobby is 8" in diameter. I can show it to you if when we next meet. I think dnaxe is also interested to have a look? . Now waiting for Alvinsclee to share his photos from his russian 500mm M42 lens!

 

[alvinsclee]

Actually, I have 4 'mirror' lenses (like Airconvent, I am more used to the astronomy term in referring to these lenses as catadioptic lenses)...

1. Tamron 350mm/f5.6 (Adaptall mount)
2. Tokina 500mm/f8 (this came originally in a Contax-Yashica mount, but I modified it to Pentax K-mount using parts from an old damaged Pentax K-mount lens)
3. Russian Maksutov Tele-Objective (MTO) 1000mm/f10 (M42 screw mount)
4. Custom-made 15cm diameter 2040mm/f13.4 classical cassegrain model R-6 telescope (with custom-made M42 screw mount attachment)... optics design similar to 40cm diameter 5200mm/f13 PENTAX classical cassegrain telescope at Singapore Science Centre

( that's right, folks... the SSC telescope is a PENTAX telescope with optics ground to perfection by the famous Japanese comet discoverer, Mr Kaoru Ikeya... technical info on page 3 of this pdf file... http://assets.cambridge.org/052181/3921/excerpt/0521813921_excerpt.pdf )

Sure, I will post some photos when I get the time to take them.

Airconvent - Your Orion pic is good with the kit lens.... I can even see very faint shades of M42 (not the screw mount but the nebula, Orion's sword... haha)

 

[istDeS]

This one looks really good :thumbsup:

The lens looks not that big, but I never saw a mirror lens ... Seems a quite good performer. You might give it a try w/ birds

Thanks for sharing these.

Yeah, have not seen or know of mirror lens till i saw CY OH using it to shoot the wakeboarding event last year.

 

[airconvent]

Yeah, have not seen or know of mirror lens till i saw CY OH using it to shoot the wakeboarding event last year.

So called "Mirror lenses" are in fact based on Newtonian Telescopes.
Normal telescopes using lens in the old days produces alot of colour due to no correction and no APO/ED lenses available. Newton devised a telescope that achieved the magnification effect using mirrors instead of lenses, hence eliminated the colour problem. These became known as reflecting telescopes. Mirror lenses are based on this principle, albeit a more complex design, housed in a very small package. This allows very long focal lengths in a short body.

I have one which is known as a schmitt cassegrain design that has a mirror 8" in diameter and focal length of 2000mm.

 

[billitone]

can anyone post a picture of K100D with one of these giant lenses? gotta be interesting to see it...am gonna lovin it.

 

[CY_OH]

can anyone post a picture of K100D with one of these giant lenses? gotta be interesting to see it...am gonna lovin it.

Pentax M 50mm f1.7 with Tamron SP 500mm f8

On K10D, without hood.

On K10D, with hood.

 

[CY_OH]

Shots taken in the morning, 80 USM applied ACR, then resized.

Orange peel on window grill, with built-in flash

 

[airconvent]

Here is my K100D with the Sigma 600mm.

 

[airconvent]

 

[dnaxe]

I think dnaxe is also interested to have a look? .

Yes.

 

[direwuff]

how much did u guys spend on these? thinking of getting one to shoot at zoo

 

[airconvent]

how much did u guys spend on these? thinking of getting one to shoot at zoo

Can't remember how much I paid for it now but its definitely under $300. I guess a new one if it exists would probably cost almost twice that?

 

[CY_OH]

I think my father bought Tamron 500mm f8 new for $500-$600+ in the 1980s. Adaptall mount lenses have been discontinued recently.

 

[airconvent]

Hi
Some more moon shots with the Sigma 600mm + Other lenses.

Moon 1 and Moon 3 : K100D + Sigma 600mm

 

[airconvent]

Moon 2 : K100D taken direct from Televue Radian 14mm eyepiece + William Optics Megrez II 80mm F/6.9 (FL : 555mm)

Moon + Venus
K100D + Kit Lens

 

[notone]

hi, airconvent, alvinsclee,CY_OH
wonder whether I can borrow one of above super tele-lens to try out
the moon looks so nice.
I like to set some simple pics as desktop to gaze at it when thinking...
cloudy sky, dark sky with dot star, a piece of leaf and so on, haha
If you do willing to share it, I appreciate it very mych!!!