Opteka 500mm f/8 Telephoto Mirror Lens for Canon EOS 1D, 5D, 7D, 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, 60D, 300D, 350D, 400D, 450D, 500D, 550D, 600D, 1000D & 1100D Digital SLR Camera

I bought this to use with my canon 350D. I am an occasional photographer so a canon IQ lens is well outside my affordability. The lens is screw mount so comes with an adaptor to fit to the Canon mount. As such the lens does not communicate with the camera so the camera has no idea what's attached at the front. The result is that the camera does not know that the lens is f8 so will only operate on fully manual mode ( and even then reports f0.0). Metering is through the lens so is fine.

The focussing of the lens is really quite sensitive, and of course since not auto-focus is up to you to get it right. Without a split focus plate as of old this is tricky, also you must carefully set the eyepiece focus adjustment so that the image and eyepiece focus are at the same point. If you usually rely on the autofocus the eyepiece is probably not set correctly, as mine wasn't.

Having taken care of the above, the lens actually gives pretty decent images. For hand held, I set the camera to 1600ASA, which gives enough speed even on an average day. The lens doesn't come with a hood so extraneous light can get in and degrade contrast - either get a lens hood or fashion a simple tube yourself.

Four stars because it seems it's cheapness is due to its simplicity of design (i.e. manual) not dreadful imaging.

Having decided you need a 500mm lens, the next question is do you want to spend the equivalent of a meal out on it, or the equivalent of a second hand car. If you go for the latter, then go and buy yourself a good canon lens like Canon EF 500mm f/4.0 L IS USM Lens and you won't be disappointed. If your budget is a bit more restricted then read on.

This lens is well constructed and is very solidly made. It comes with three filters which are inserted at the back of the lens, between the camera and the lens itself, not at the front. Notice that as a result of that if you want to protect the front face another filter will be required. Your camera will not be able to control the aperture setting which is fixed at f/8 so you will be using predominantly Av mode. With our Canon 400D that largely worked ok but there were occasions where some shots were over exposed and it wasn't clear why that was happening.

The key limitations with this lens that you need to be aware of are as follows:

1. Contrast will never be as good as you might hope, this is as a result of it being a mirror based system. If you are taking shots of the moon this will not be a problem but nature shots (for example) will tend to look a little more washed out.

2. You will see an effect called "bokeh", which is where the out of focus background tends to have lots of circle effects.

3. If photographing nature, the narrow depth of field and manual focus means that you really need to choose an area to focus on then be prepared to shoot when the animal comes into shot. This is a great deal different from the normal point and shoot approach that you may be familiar with, where the auto-focus can be used to good effect.

If you are happy with the above, this is a very cost effective purchase.

Having read the various reviews I was not sure what to expect in terms of quality. I can only say that as an amateur in the world of digital SLR's this lens exceeded my estimation. So far it has produced some excellent wildlife shots and whilst it may take some setting up I cannot fault the results. When I look at the cost of similar 'big name' lenses this will certainly do for my requirements so if you are looking for a reasonably priced lens (a bit more than a full tank of petrol) and you do not expect seriously professional results this is worth every penny.