Comments about Pro Optic Pro-Optic 500mm f/8 Manual Focus, T-Mount Mirror Lens:

It's great to work with this at distances. It gives you a great shallow depth of field.

Comments about Pro Optic Pro-Optic 500mm f/8 Manual Focus, T-Mount Mirror Lens:

This lens is essentially a small reflector telescope.that's why I got it, and in that capacity, it's great. it's much easier to deal with than trying to mount the camera to a similar sized telescope, it's much more compact, and the focusing, while tricky, is a lot easier than trying to focus a telescope with a camera body attached.so: it's a telescope, but it's almost as easy to use, and almost the same size as, the kit lens. Actually, it is almost the same size/weight as my canon 55-250 ef zoom lens. to compare it to that lens, in this intended application: it has twice the focal length (500 vs 250), its aperture is about 70mm vs about 45mm for the canon (meaning it gathers twice the light, in a telescope sense).downsides: no autofocus, no image stabilization (which would be nice for this lens), the focal plane is razor thin, making focusing on anything moving a tricky thing, and in fact: the photographer breathing can tend to drift things in and out of focus, even at fairly long distances.my impressions of it are: that it is really high quality for the price. that, for what it intends to do, it performs amazingly well. and that it does something that really can't be done by anything but a multi-thousand dollar lens in terms of its focal length and light gathering. and comparing it physically to those long canons and sigmas and such: this one is small enough that you can actually keep it with you.really really happy with this. thinking about trying one of the larger similar lenses.I have a set of images up at flickr, [@]

Comments about Pro Optic Pro-Optic 500mm f/8 Manual Focus, T-Mount Mirror Lens:

Still getting used to the lens, but think it will
be a real asset as I learn what it can do.

Comments about Pro Optic Pro-Optic 500mm f/8 Manual Focus, T-Mount Mirror Lens:

These lenses are light, affordable, free of chromatic aberration and enable photographs that would otherwise be impossible.

It is always adviseable to use a tripod with such a long lens, but I have been very successful handheld at 1/1000s and less. With in body stabilization this might come down much further.

Well worth trying.

Comments about Pro Optic Pro-Optic 500mm f/8 Manual Focus, T-Mount Mirror Lens:

If you can put a 500mm lens in your bag that's no bigger than a can of soup (Progresso-not Campbell's) for [$], why not? More people ask to borrow this lens than any other in my bag, and because of the price-I let them.This is not a lens to take photos that will be critically judged, but if you're out hiking and you see Bigfoot 200 yards away, you'll be glad you have it. And if you practice a bit, you can hand-hold it.It's manual focus...So was every lens I owned prior to 1996. My best glass still is.The Bokkeh is bad. NO, there's a mirror in the center of the front element, so the bokkeh looks like little donuts everywhere there's a light spot that's not in focus, but you can sit in the center field bleachers and get a full frame shot of your kid at bat and see the expression on his face...for [$]. Take pics of the other kids and email them to their parents, who will love them! Will it be as good as a shot taken with a $6000 500mm f4? No. Will anyone care? No. Will most of us ever own one of these lenses? Probably not. Even if I did, I'd still own one of these.

Comments about Pro Optic Pro-Optic 500mm f/8 Manual Focus, T-Mount Mirror Lens:

This is a very good buy if you are a student.
I have pretty much the exact same lens that I payed about 2 1/2 times the price a few years ago.
My students love it. It has been used on six different Canon bodies with great results.
Of course you are going back to old slr technique,
but the b+w film results are worth it alone.
Great lens for teaching and experimenting with.

Comments about Pro Optic Pro-Optic 500mm f/8 Manual Focus, T-Mount Mirror Lens:

Ok guys,

I know the cheap price looks really, really tempting. CONTROL YOURSELF.

What might be good for a astronomer is NOT good for you. These things are horrible. Aside from having a fixed f-stop, the bokeh (that's the creamy blurry background behind your subject that makes all the difference) is really, really horrible on these things. REALLY bad.

If you have money to burn and are looking to play with really interesting lenses, then sure, go for it. otherwise, i HIGHLY reccomend that you bite the bullet and go with a high quality, traditional telephoto.