Super Telephoto Lenses

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
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I've been looking at lenses since I bought my D80 and saved hundreds of dollars on my AC replacement. I was checking out the Opteka 650-2600mm High Definition Telephoto Lens. It's around $250 which seems pretty darned cheap.

I was wondering if any of you have ever used lenses like this and if they're worth it. I would like to do some super zoom and macro shots and this thing sounds pretty nice.
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
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Aug 23, 2003
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Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

What is your budget and what kind of photos do you want to take? The best telephoto in the $250 range is the Nikon 55-200mm VR (it goes for ~$200).
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
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wow...2600mm?

i had trouble finding shots, but i found some ~800x600 that looked okay.

2600mm for 250 seems like you are definitely getting what you pay for. I might get one just to play with it (and see what kind of moon photos i could pull off), but there i no way it would be a lens i'd use.

btw that thing is HUGE...and you'll absolutely need a tripod to use it
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
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Originally posted by: jpeyton
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

What is your budget and what kind of photos do you want to take? The best telephoto in the $250 range is the Nikon 55-200mm VR (it goes for ~$200).

Heh, thanks, that's what I thought. :p

Right now I have a Tamron 80-300mm which is nice, but I live on a bay/swamp. There are some interesting things across the swamp and out in the water (see my sig), but 300mm just doesn't get as far as I'd like.

I figured that good 500+ lenses were thousands of dollars, I just thought I'd see if anyone had any luck with this.

Thanks guys.

 

Kirby64

Golden Member
Apr 24, 2006
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For $250, you're going to get exactly what you're paying for there. Might as well take that $250 and throw it into the swamp. You don't pay $250 and get decent quality or even mediocre quality for that focal range.

As ZOXXO recommends, you could try a telescope/spotting scope which might offer satisfactory quality. Otherwise, don't bother.
 

QuixoticOne

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Nov 4, 2005
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I have no experience with the proposed lens though my jaw dropped to see 2600mm for $250 thinking "wow it would sure be nice if that was really a decent lens, complete with functional AF and nikon mount and a tripod mount that actually worked and enough shake-damping that it would be useful....."

As it is, I doubt that most of those criteria are satisfied. Often even if the lens is AF there are problems focusing at low light levels (which are almost always low at that FL even in noon-day sun) or high FL settings due to the design issues with the camera / lens. Shake and mounting rigidity are serious issues. Ruggedness and resistance to dust / dirt / humidity / misalignment / torque & flexure are others.

The telescope + t-mount + camera is in theory a very commendable solution with the exception of one huge problem -- lack of auto-focus and difficulty of using the viewfinder to focus acceptably well. If you can get it focused properly you can take some very lovely pictures through a good spotting scope (somewhat rare) or especially a good moderate sized telescope.

Avoid schmidt cassegranian mirror + lens designs and lenses with F/ratios less than F8. Having a high F8 or longer F ratio makes focusing MUCH easier and reduces your severity of coma / abberrations and focus distortions across the field of view (it could be somewhat sharp at the center, and very fuzzy near the edges).

The absolute best situation would be a quality refractor telescope with as big of an aperture (3", 4", 5", whatever you can afford) as possible and the typically long FL and high F/ratio those have when they're good.

The next best would be a newtonian reflector at F/8 or longer, maybe a 4.5" or 6" or 8" aperture instrument (it doesn't sound like you needed portability if it is right in your back door so to speak), and a tube length in the 3'-6' range depending on aperture (i.e. F/8 or longer).

Avoid the Maksutov-Cassegrain C90 and similar scopes with relatively short tube lengths, and a combination mirror + lens optical system. They can be OK for visual observations, and the waterproof / lightweight aspect is nice for hiking, but as a telephoto you'll find sharpness lacking and focus problematic.

The problem with many DSLR cameras is that they don't offer particularly big / bright viewfinders, don't offer sufficient viewfinder zoom-in attachments for precise focusing, and don't offer a good manual focusing target such as some of the nice split ring type focus systems on high quality old flim based SLRs. It is often impossible to get the focus sufficiently close to right with many such DSLRs in manual mode, especially if an awkward angle (telescope mount) and low light (high FL) situation with lots of vibration (small tripod, wind, you touching the thing at high magnification) situation prevails.

It is possible to use the AF indicator even in MF mode on many DSLRs, so sometimes if your focus point has some kind of high contrast well defined pattern to it you can just look for the green dot, though shake and such factors can still hinder this, and having a low contrast target field ruins the scheme.

If you have a laptop / computer that can control the camera to do exposures via remote capture over a USB link and get immediate PC based previews / reviews of the shots, that can help tremendously since you can dynamically (manually) adjust the focus while getting a fully usable feedback image within a couple of seconds to indicate the quality of shot you're getting.

If you just need moderately better telephoto, you can always buy a decent 1.4x or 2x teleconverter adapter for your favorite quality 200mm or 300mm lens if that lens is more than satisfactorily sharp at that FL to begin with since of course it'll only get worse as you pile on the zoom. AF / light level / vibration related limitations will increase of course.

I'd go with a good full on telescope and a good sturdy telescopic tripod and t-mount for the best results for the least cost, and plan to use a laptop to control / review / optimize the shots in real-time.
 

QuixoticOne

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2005
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I've no personal experience with these models, nor am I specifically commending them, I just cite them as the general sort of refractor type scopes that I would think would be moderately suitable for photographic use assuming you can get manual focus working on one's camera. For the price vs. image quality I'd assume they'd give you more light collection and magnification than a typical telephoto camera lens.

http://www.telescope.com/contr...ors/~product_id=09012;
Orion Premium 102mm F/7 ED Refractor

http://www.telescope.com/contr...ors/~product_id=09927;
EON 80mm ED Apochromatic Refractor
* Fast f/6.25 optics and all-machined, premium mechanics make for an awesome imaging telescope.

I'd probably place my bets more heavily on something more similar to the top model (F/7, ~= 700 mm FL, 102mm aperture).

 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
35,248
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Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
I've no personal experience with these models, nor am I specifically commending them, I just cite them as the general sort of refractor type scopes that I would think would be moderately suitable for photographic use assuming you can get manual focus working on one's camera. For the price vs. image quality I'd assume they'd give you more light collection and magnification than a typical telephoto camera lens.

http://www.telescope.com/contr...ors/~product_id=09012;
Orion Premium 102mm F/7 ED Refractor

http://www.telescope.com/contr...ors/~product_id=09927;
EON 80mm ED Apochromatic Refractor
* Fast f/6.25 optics and all-machined, premium mechanics make for an awesome imaging telescope.

I'd probably place my bets more heavily on something more similar to the top model (F/7, ~= 700 mm FL, 102mm aperture).

Sorry for a newbie question, but how would I use those things? Is there some adapter that attaches to the scope and then to the camera?