Will It Work ???

[JohnRA]

Back in the days of film I bought a 500mm mirror lens, not because I needed it but because it was cheap & seemed to be a good idea at the time.
I was using Nikon F801's at the time & only tried the lens on a couple of occasions with varying results.

I got to wondering if it would work on my 50D if I got a Nikon to Canon adapter.
Being a fixed focal length & aperture the only manual adjustment would be the focus.

I am aware of the shortcomings with this type of lens & am prepared to put up with them as I cannot see my way clear to spend a squillion bucks on a conventional 500mm tele lens.

Do I give it a go or return the lens to the junk box in the garage?

[Kerro]

John,
I have an Opteka 650-1300 1:8-16 tele lens with a 2x convertor which I bought on ebay for about $300. It is not good quality glass but I get it out every now and then as it has the longest reach of any of my current lenses. The pics are better if I use it at the short end without the convertor. Just need to see if I can fix the pics in PS. I too, bought it as it seemed like a good idea and my inexperience made me assume, wow, 1300, x2 = 2600. should be a good lens. Wrong. I now know better glass is the way to go not just how far I can see. I'd say keep it and play with it, you never know. I have a few, to Canon adaptors and they are cheap enough and they work.
Hope this helps.

[crafty1tutu]

I would give it a go until you can afford to buy a more up market lens. Before I bought my Canon 100-400 L series lens I bought a Vivitar Series 1 100-400 lens for $350. I had so much fun with the lens and after I bought the Canon L series, I sold the Vivitar on Ebay for $400, so I got to play with the lens for 18 months and make $50 at the end.