Long term review of the Opteka 500mm lens

About a year ago i purchased one of these lenses to take pictures of wildlife.

I now have enough experience to write a review.

Good points:

• Inexpensive. $140 on Amazon. A “real” Nikon lens can run into the thousands.
• Works. It does what it says. It will bring things into close focus. Including things you don’t want to get too close to.
• Small, light and maneuverable A conventional telephoto lens is much longer and heavier.
• Close focus You can focus on surprisingly close objects. This makes it great for taking pictures of things that don’t appreciate humans getting up close and personal.

Bad points:

• Weakly coupled to the camera. Everything is manual, including exposure.
• No autofocus. This limits its use in rapidly changing situations. Following a moving bird for example.
• Paper-thin focus. Be prepared to take several photos to get the focus right
• Infinity is not set at infinity on the lens. Don’t assume the stars are in focus.
• The 2x extender leads to barrel distortions.

I generally use it with a fast shutter exposure (1/4000 s) to avoid blur and then control the exposure with the camera’s “film speed” setting. In bright light that’s about 2000ASA. In dim light, you may have to play around.

It’s also critical to make sure that the T-mount is firmly screwed into the lens. If it comes loose you won’t be able to focus.
This picture shows what I mean by paper thin focus:

Note that I’ve focused on one wing of the butterfly and the other wing is completely out of focus.

This picture of an alligator and heron show the same effect at a longer distance.

It should look like this:

It can be an advantage to have a thin focus. The bird is clear and the reeds have disappeared.

It’s great for taking pictures of things that aren’t moving too quickly, like this female cardinal.

And you can get some great effects:

In summary, you get what you pay for. It works. There are several things that could be better, but you have to fork over the cash. I wouldn’t use it for rapidly changing things like sports or moving creatures. But if you have the time to focus and remember to take several shots, it’s a great little lens.