Mirror Lenses - newbie question

Mystery57

Mystery57

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Andrew
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I was thinking about a Mirror Lens for my Canon 550D, and read that the aperture etc has to be manually set.

Presumably this will apply to the shutter speed as well ?

What is the best way therefore of working out the settings to use.

Are Mirror Lens any good or more hassle than they are worth ?


thanks
Andrew
 
I know with Nikon cameras you can have non CPU lens data so exposure and stuff is worked out a lot easier

Mirror lenses are not too bad to get the longer range but normally have a high f number so shutter speeds have to be lower or up the ISO, all depending on the lighting.

I know a few people who still use them as very compact and good to get that long distance shot!
 
I've never used one but from what I understand the advantages include being compact and relatively cheap, downsides include, as far as I know, relatively poor contrast and doughnut bokeh.

It might be worth Googling them.
 
It's not so much that you need to set the aperture manually, more that the aperture of mirror lenses are fixed and can't be changed.
 
If you put the camera into aperture priority mode (Av in Canon's terminology) the camera will set the shutter speed for you.

Generally mirror lens were a cheap and cheerful way to get a long lens. They were popular in the the 70s. Some, such as the Vivitar Series 1, Tamron SP and Sigma mirror lens swere good, others were poor.

They fell out of favour when autofocus SLRs were introduced and zooms that reached 500mm and retained autofocus became more available.

The word bokeh is a word from Japanese, and is used to describe the quality of the out of focus areas of an image.

Good bokeh is a pleasing lack of definition; bad bokeh is a harsh or unpleasant lack of definition.

Mirror lenses produce a donut type of out of focus areas which can be distracting.
 
Hi, I used to have a mirror lens when i had a Canon film camera, i took a very long break from photography and unfortunately sold it. It was a Centon 500mm mirror lens that came with a few filters, hard carry case and strap. I found it really good value for money and used to use it for lunar photography and general use when out hill walking. it was relatively lighweight and felt nicely balanced on my canon film body, i imagine it owould feel ok on my 550d. but like others have said it has to be manually focused, something that was ok to do and didnt seem to much of a chore! aperture started at f8 and the photos where reasonable (operator rather than lens ;) )

I have been looking for another 500mm mirror like that one to have in my bag until i can afford an EF long tele lens; i have seen them on ebay for about £50 in good condition, which isnt bad for all that zoom.

My first reply here so i hope it helps; if only a little lol, regards
 
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