Lucky or Not?

[DacrimL]

Not to far in the distant past while I was absent from this great place I was fortunate enough to be gifted with a new lens. At the time it was still wrapped in the paper and plastic and came complete with hood and bag.

The question is is what is the best use for this lens?
The lens in question is a

122473

Sigma Mirror Telephoto
f = 600mm
1:8.......whatever that means.
Macro 1:3 also stamped on it?

It has a filter mounted at the rear of the lens. So any advice would be much appreciated on what the best use for this lens would be, so perhaps I could go out and test it out.

[ameerat42]

Sounds like you are unfamiliar with "mirror lenses", so...
I have a similar, a Tamron f=500mm, f/8. Yours is also f/8 (the 1:8 designation), but it has slightly more focal length at f=600mm.
The "Macro 1:3" means that it gives somewhat close to life-size reproduction: the image is 1/3 actual size. I suspect this lens has
fairly close focus too, like about 1.5m. Almost all such lenses have the filters at the back - simply for cost. You can put filters on
the front, but they are much dearer. (Back ones are about 34 mm, and the lens usually comes with a set of four.)

Now, it is NOT Auto Focus, and at f/8 wide open it may be a bit dim in the viewfinder. If you have Live View, that'd be handy.

Use it for almost anything within its limitations. I used mine for moon, planet, and sun shots. But NOTE that for sun shots you
would need a FRONT lens filter, or you'd fry much of the optical train.

Oh, and... You'll probably find focusing CRITICAL, and there will be LITTLE DOF except for quite distant objects. And also, if you're
used to image stabilisation, be prepared for the looks of earth tremors through the viewfinder.

A good and steady tripod would be handy, or bean bags, etc...

So basically it's a fixed focus (and aperture) reflector telephoto (or small telescope). The technical name is "catadiopric", for a
combined mirror and lenses design.

I expect it would be quite a capable lens and I'd like to see what its IQ is like.

Lastly, I'll put this into the "Others" forum as it's not a Canon lens:D

- - - Updated - - -

PS: I forgot to add: because of their design where there's a hole in the middle of the main mirror, these lenses have
a unique BOKEH that's often described as "doughnut-shaped". You'll soon see:D

[Cage]

Lucky or not ??

Mount it, take some shots, and that question will be answered.