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Kenko 400mm f8 mirror lens

  • Thread starter Thread starter Henry Richardson
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Mirror lenses are a bit rubbish to be honest. If you really need the reach at a low price they might be worth a look.

You do get really weird ring shaped bokeh though.
 
Keto said:
Mirror lenses are a bit rubbish to be honest. If you really need the reach at a low price they might be worth a look.
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When I asked, "Anyone heard of the Kenko 400mm f8 mirror lens?" what I meant to write was, "Anyone heard of the Kenko 400mm f8 mirror lens?" :) I should have been clearer. :)

Yes, I know all about mirror lenses. They have been around forever. I am not interested in buying this lens. I just had never seen or heard of this one before.
Keto said:
You do get really weird ring shaped bokeh though.
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Yeah, back in the early '70s that donut ring effect in the oof areas was a bit of a rage for awhile. Interesting, but I never bothered to buy a mirror lens.

--
Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com
 
Keto said:
Mirror lenses are a bit rubbish to be honest. If you really need the reach at a low price they might be worth a look.

You do get really weird ring shaped bokeh though.
Click to expand...
But you get 800mm on Micro 4/3 with this lens, and it is not very long in size

--
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

God is the tangential point between zero and infinity.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

God always take the simplest way.
 
Aleo Veuliah said:
But you get 800mm on Micro 4/3 with this lens, and it is not very long in size
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Yeah, that is one reason I posted. I had not heard of this particular lens before until I saw it on kakaku and the price is pretty low. I can't think of much I would do with an 800mm fov, but some might be interested. In Japan 20k yen is pretty cheap.

--
Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com
 
...more compact. I would be happy with one of these at that price. it would mean getting the occasional otherwise totally out of reach shot.

So the quality isn't the very best. So what? it;'s beter than nothing at all … or spending a thousand or two for an item to be rarely used.

Cheers, geoff
--
Geoffrey Heard
http://pngtimetraveller.blogspot.com/2011/10/return-to-karai-komana_31.html
 
Henry Richardson said:
Aleo Veuliah said:
But you get 800mm on Micro 4/3 with this lens, and it is not very long in size
Click to expand...
Yeah, that is one reason I posted. I had not heard of this particular lens before until I saw it on kakaku and the price is pretty low. I can't think of much I would do with an 800mm fov, but some might be interested. In Japan 20k yen is pretty cheap.

--
Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com
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Yes, I also do not need such a long focal

--
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

God is the tangential point between zero and infinity.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

God always take the simplest way.
 
Keto said:
Mirror lenses are a bit rubbish to be honest. If you really need the reach at a low price they might be worth a look.
Click to expand...
If you pick your background carefully you can avoid the doughnuts:












Keto said:
You do get really weird ring shaped bokeh though.
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Those are from a 300mm Spiratone Reflex lens.

Also, the 400mm needs an adapter. Kenco is also making a 300mm reflex that is u 4/3 native.

Tedolph
 
Such as a table top tripod used on/held against something firm, a table top tripod used as a chest pod, a monopod, a little sand/bean/gel bag on a rail or against a post or something...

All would enable you to hold one of these babies pretty still.

But yes, the 5 way IBIS would be very nice indeed.
Chez Wimpy said:
Henry Richardson said:
In Japan 20k yen is pretty cheap.
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Indeed, there are only a few m43 lenses cheaper, and none are telephoto.
http://kakaku.com/camera/camera-lens/ma_0/p1001/s3=34/#Option1_OptionP

Still, since I don't shoot m43 off a tripod, so I would want a EM5 for the IBIS at least! Might be interesting for some nature shots. I wonder when the first (1.4x and 2x) m43 teleconverters will show up...
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Cheers, geoff
--
Geoffrey Heard
http://pngtimetraveller.blogspot.com/2011/10/return-to-karai-komana_31.html
 
Kenko-Tokina has announced a 300mm mirror lens specifically for m43, which will certainly be significantly smaller than the ancient 400 being discussed.
 
Hen3ry said:
So the quality isn't the very best. So what? it;'s beter than nothing at all … or spending a thousand or two for an item to be rarely used.
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or even worse, carrying that super heavy tele prime all day for maybe one lucky shot ;)

I guess one could buy a superzoom compact with a 20-25x image stabilised tele lens instead. Despite the tiny lens, the result might be better than m43 camera with a cheap mirror lens.
 
I wonder how it compares to Samyang/Rokinon 500mm F6.3

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=Rokinon+500mm+F6.3+Mirror+Lens
This costs $165 and also includes 2x teleconverter.

It is something I would consider to use with E-M5 and its stabilized EVF. I understand that handholding won't be a problem.

I am cheap and curious. I recently bought regular 400mm F6.3 lens for $25, some Tele-Astranar. The lens is light, even my 7 year old son can handheld Pen with it attached.

I can use it handheld and focus with LCD but it's not very comfortable and I'm a bit slow to focus. And the lens is not that sharp. I also have Panasonic 45-200mm zoom. I think that for very distant objects, when 200mm zoom image has to be severely cropped, this $25 lens allow to get similar level of detail, may be a tiny bit less. But, I haven't tested it on tripod yet.

So, it probably makes little sense to use it if I have 45-200mm zoom. I will try it on tripod with m42 2x teleconverter but I don't expect much.

But, if this lens was sharper it would make a perfect sense. I think if 400-500mm lens had twice as much resolution as this $25 lens it might beat native 300mm zooms for distant objects.



 
Maybe it's not very relevant for this thread, but just for comparison sake I shot brick wall with 45-200mm zoom at 200mm and regualr (non-mirror) cheap 400mm F6.3 lens.

Used tripod and different apertures. The wall was at about 300 feet. On the picture below it's 1:1 crop for 45-200mm lens at 200mm. 400mm lens image is scaled down 2:1 to match the size. Aperture is about F7.1. 45-200mm shows very little improvement comparing to F5.6. I would use it at F5.6 for real shots. 400mm at F8-F7.1 shows more improvement comparing to F6.3 but not huge difference either.

Sure, $25 lens won't cut it. 200mm native zoom resolves more detail and 100-300mm would be much better.

I hope these 400 or 500mm lenses are way sharper, in this case I wouln't mind dealing with donut bokeh. Otherwise they wouldn't make much sense. I would wait for some tests, the tests that show comparison with native zooms.



 
Count me in for Kenko 400mm. I use a Vivitar 500mm sometimes for fun. It is nopt the greatest thing in the world but I have fun with it. Photoshop does a great job of adding DR to these photos in one click. I like the bloken effect and the short depth of field. I have been shotting some video with it as cars drive into focus then out again. Panasonic G2 here
 
Henry Richardson said:
Anyone heard of the Kenko 400mm f8 mirror lens? I notice that it is for sale here in Japan for 20,600 yen (US$243 at current exchange rate):
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that's just the standard Kenko 400mm f8 mirror lens (for 135-film sensors and other SLR bodies) converted to m43 mount. look at the various versions here. it looks more balanced with the SLR mounts than the mirrorless mounts.

http://www.kenko-tokina.co.jp/imaging/eq/camera-lens/kenko_cameralens/

the 300mm that recently went on sale, on the other hand, is built for mirrorless bodies and doesn't require a long tube at the back.
 
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