Old Tele-Astranar 500mm f8 preset lens

[bakubo]

This is unusual. Usually photographers on the beach shooting surfers have big tripods with a 600mm f4 or 500mm f4 mounted. She is using a Nikon D70 with an old Tele-Astranar 500mm f8 preset lens with T-mount on the beach. Actually, I don't think the brand is Tele-Astranar. Back in the 1970s lots of companies sold basically the same lens with the main difference being the focusing ring. Spiratone sold them and others. Packed away somewhere I have both a Tele-Astranar 500mm f8 and a Tele-Astranar 400mm f6.3 that I bought 37 years ago. I paid $80 for the 500mm in 1974 so that is about $360 in 2011 dollars. Somewhere I have T-mounts for M42, Minolta MF, Canon FD, and Minolta A-mount, but the last time I mounted one of these lenses on a camera was probably in about 1977. You sure don't see these lenses much anymore, or at least I don't.

[bakubo]

Here you can see an actual Tele-Astranar 500mm f8:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/sho ... p?t=367835

This is what I have. The one she has is some other brand, but the same.

[Birma]

An interesting bit of kit Henry - you see a lot of these types of lenses on eBay.

A good monopod stance - I will have to try it out .

[David Kilpatrick]

I have the Photax variant in my office. It is very dusty, because it is rubbish and they all were

David

[bakubo]

I have the Photax variant in my office. It is very dusty, because it is rubbish and they all were

Yes, the Canon/Nikon 500mm f4 is much better!

[Dr. Harout]

I have the Photax variant in my office. It is very dusty, because it is rubbish and they all were

Yes, the Canon/Nikon 500mm f4 is much better!

Wait and see the Alpha 500/4

[bakubo]

Wait and see the Alpha 500/4

Oh yeah! I am sure that it will be better than an $80 lens too!

[bakubo]

I don't think I ever took a photo with the 400mm f6.3 (someone gave this used lens to me) and probably in total only took about 15-20 with the 500mm f8 -- all back when I was in high school. Maybe the next time I am in Austin I will try to find the A-mount T-mount and if I still have the A700 I will take a shot or two just to see what it looks like. I suspect that even if it sucks I can still get a worthwhile image from it, but we'll see. It will be a few months at the earliest though before I can do this. Oh, wait, can the A700 shoot without a lens attached (the T-mount would look to the camera as no lens)? Seems like have seen posts in the past about Sony bodies, or at least some of them, not working with no lens.

[UrsaMajor]

Oh, wait, can the A700 shoot without a lens attached (the T-mount would look to the camera as no lens)? Seems like have seen posts in the past about Sony bodies, or at least some of them, not working with no lens.

The A700 will work quite well without a recognized lens, as long as you change the default settings in the menu to do so. You should be able to get properly exposed images using either the Aperture Priority mode or the Manual mode - although you will have to stop down the lens manually.

If my memory is correct, I think that it is the A900 that does not give you the option to shoot without a recognized lens - although it may be that you could do so if you use full Manual mode. (I don't have an A900, so I am going from what I think I remember some people posting - and I did not pay close attention since I don't have the camera myself.)

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Dusty]

I have Spiratone versions in both 400 and 500mm, with adapters for my old MD cameras. Never used them too much, but one in a while they came in handy.

Dusty

[bakubo]

I have Spiratone versions in both 400 and 500mm, with adapters for my old MD cameras. Never used them too much, but one in a while they came in handy.

Yeah, Spiratone, Cambron, Tele-Astranar, and probably a bunch more brand names. They were all pretty much the same and maybe all made by the same company.

[bakubo]

Speaking of Spiratone, I wonder if they still exist? I remember back in the 1970s they always had a multi-page ad in the back of Modern Photography and Popular Photography with lots of interesting and sort of strange camera products. I bought a set of 4 extension tubes for M42 from them in early 1974 and a thyristor flash the same year. I still have the flash and 2-3 years ago I saw it in a box, hooked up the AC adaptor, and it still worked.

[Dusty]

Closed in 1990. I bought from them in the 80's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiratone

Dusty

[InTheSky]

Mine little bit different was a Samyang for about 30$ on Ebay in 2007... (the lens was coming with a 2x t-mount tube attached to it, to make 1600mm F16...). but the result was total doggie-doo, probably this is not the same a your lenses.







Regards,

Frank

[bakubo]

Mine little bit different was a Samyang for about 30$ on Ebay in 2007... (the lens was coming with a 2x t-mount tube attached to it, to make 1600mm F16...). but the result was total doggie-doo, probably this is not the same a your lenses.

I bet it is basically the same. The rings are different, each brand had different ones, but the very simple optics are probably the same and the overall design of all I have seen were pretty much the same. Yeah, image quality is not good, but I bet you could make an interesting photo. Although a lot of people think one can only make good photos with top of the line gear you would be surprised what can be done with lower level, even much lower level, gear. I think it will surprise some, but there are people who only use cell phone cameras, Holga and Diana "toy" cameras, etc. and do some amazing stuff.