Albinar 300mm f/6.3 Reflex Mirror Lens test

For some time I have had a Spiratone 300mm f/5.6 Reflex Mirror lens purchased on e-bay for $75.00.

Spiratone 300mm Cadioptric Reflex lens, f/5.6 , F mount

It worked surprisingly well hand held on myE-pl1 but was heavy and somewhat unwieldy needing a Nikon F to u4/3 adpter (the lens itself had a "T" mount to F adapter) so it stuck out quite a bit. The results with IBIS were not too bad:

Spiratone 300mm hand held test w/IBIS

It is a neat lens, particularly for taking photo's of the moon to be later incorporated into double or blended skyline images.

I been thinking for some time about getting the Kenko 300mm Reflex lens as it was much smaller, if a bit slower (f/6.3) but the price was too high. I finally found one at a close out price from the Kenko website but after placing my order was advised that it was out of stock and no longer available. Then I found this Albinar 300mm f/6.3 for $124.00 on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Albinar-Telephoto-Mirror-Manual-Cameras/dp/B00IGG382W

This is what it looks like:

Albinar 300mm f/6.3 Reflex

Hershey's Kiss for scale

As you can see, it is a really tiny lens with a lot of reach.  Filter size is 55mm.  No problems using a 55-58mm step up ring and a polarizer.  The lens comes with a lens bag, an external bayonet hood (having the Open and Close markings reversed) and a rear cap that is loose due to  the bayonet mount flanges being thin.

So how does it compare to the old Spiratone?  The first picture is from the Albinar 300mm, the second is from the Spiratone 300mm:

Albinar 300mm f/6.3, on tripod IBIS off

Spiratone 300mm, f/5.6 on tripod IBIS off

Both photo's were taken on a tripod with anti-shock delay and IBIS off.  Image distance was about 20 feet. As you can see that the Albinar has smaller "doughnuts" due to the smaller ratio of secondary mirror diameter to catoptric front lens diameter, although the sharpness is about the same. The Albinar focuses much closer, to about 3 feet, hence its "Macro" designation.  I do not have any other 300mm lens to compare it too, but it is much sharper (and smaller!) than my 200mm f/4 Yashica M42 mount SLR lens.

It is a much smaller package than the Spiratone/adapter combination, about the size of a half a can of tomato soup.   I like it a lot for the price and hope to post some "action" pictures as soon as the squirrels start looking for their autumn acorns. I suspect that the Albinar lens is the Kenko lens relabeled.

It is an attractive lens with its siver and black livery. Build quality is in line with the price.  The rubber focusing ring is not quite straight.  The Albinar lens is made from aluminum, and the flanges on the lens mount are a little thin.  Thus, the lens mounts very easily but has some lateral play (maybe 1-2mm) when mounted, although this does not seem to effect image quality at all.   Focusing is a little stiff but this may loosen up over time.  Focusing takes some patience as the DOF is very shallow.

For the price, it seems like a very nice compact telephoto lens and a good addition to the u4/3 system.

Tedolph

Looks like a good deal for $125 USD.

The Tokina 300mm features electronics to support the EXIF, so it may be the same optics with a chip, or it may be a different design completely. Having this saves the chore of setting the focal length for IBIS, and it is handy to have the constant f6.3 and the focal length recorded in the EXIF.

The barrel looks like metal, but could be plastic.

Pretty easy to focus and  handle on an EPL1 and the IBIS does help take out the shakes.