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Canon Image Challenge | all galleries >> Challenges From The Past >> 2016 Challenges >> CIC 158 Round >> Eligible > Out For An Evening Stroll
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21-OCT-2016 KChristian

Out For An Evening Stroll

A common house fly takes a stroll across the back of a plastic outdoor chair. The mirror lens caused out-of-focus highlights to appear as bright circular "donuts" in the background of the image.

Nikon D7200 ,Reflex-Nikkor 500mm f/8 Mirror Lens
1/200s f/8 iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Canon Image Challenge24-Oct-2016 14:11
It is almost "other worldly" looking. I like it.

Jim
Canon Image Challenge22-Oct-2016 12:17
Thanks, Paul & Traveller, for your comments. This was a Nikon lens, so it wasn't too cheap! :-) But you can get 3rd party mirror lenses at reasonable prices. I don't particularly recommend mirror lenses, though, cheap or not. They have a lot of drawbacks: They have a fixed aperture, usually f/8, like this one, but some are f/5.6 or even f/11. They are also manual focus only. So they're going to be too slow for most wildlife. Trying to focus an f/8 lens manually can be tricky ... especially at f/8 (which would be your only option)! And forget about handholding it ... you're really going to need a tripod. (I used one for this shot.) And those doughnut-shaped highlights can be distracting in many cases ... and there's nothing you can do to prevent them (except change your angle of view). I bought this lens some 10 or more years ago ... and probably haven't used it a dozen times. If you can find a cheap one and just want to play around with it, go for it ... but keep your expectations under control! - Ken
Canon Image Challenge22-Oct-2016 08:18
Well. this is pretty damned nice! A cheap lens you say? I am half way there, (after following you, Paul). Traveller
Canon Image Challenge22-Oct-2016 01:26
I've often wondered about those mirror lenses that you can get dirt cheap. I had my suspicions and thus never invested the 150.00 or so for a 800mm mirror lens. Paul