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Contact your Opteka dealer for parts. Whoever sold it to you should have them.
My opteka zoom lens is not recognized by my Nikon d300
First, make sure that you have the right adapter to couple this lens to your Nikon. A universal adapter may actually fit and properly click into place but the electrical contacts may not match your Nikon. Make sure the electrical contacts on the adapter match the contacts on the camera body.
If they don't match, get an adapter specifically for Nikon and perhaps, specifically for your camera.
Once you have verified that it is a Nikon adapter, you need to make sure the electrical contacts between the adapter and the camera body are clean. Many people clean the contacts by holding the lens release button down and twisting the lens or in this case, the adapter, on and off ten or more times.
If neither of these options work you may need to contact Opteka, Nikon or both.
What are the best settings
These big lenses are very slow and cannot deliver much light to your camera. Obviously, you can't open the aperture any wider than f8 as specified by the lens itself. In the old days, most inexpensive cameras were fixed focus at f8 with a shutter speed of 1/100 sec. That's a good place to start with this lens without the doubler.
If the pictures are too dark, you can't open the lens any wider so your only option is to reduce the shutter speed.
That means that motion of the shooter or the subject will be more inclined to cause blurring so you need to be shooting from a tripod with a remote shutter release and/or a delayed shutter release setting.
If the test picture is too light, I would first reduce the lens opening to the next stop, f9 or f11, then shoot another test shot. You could also increase shutter speed, or both o reduce the light reaching the camera sensor. Keep shooting test shots until you get the exposure you want.
Once you add the doubler, you compound this situation because it will further reduce the lens speed by about 2 f-stops, meaning that you have to start your tests at f-11 at 1/100 sec. or f-11 at 1/50 sec. This gives you far less flexibility to properly adjust exposure.
Further, you will have increased the magnification so much that a slight breeze or a fly landing on the lens can cause vibration and blur the picture.
Before you shoot any serious pictures, you need to experiment with this lens so that you know exactly what its capability is.
After 6 months of perfect
It would appear that the moisture seal around the lens, itself, has deteriorated and moisture laden air has entered the lens. It likely will get progressively worse since the lens is exposed regularly to dramatic changes in atmospheric pressure and temperature which causes expansion and contraction of the lens and surrounding materials. I would suggest that you find a competent lens repair shop or ship it back to the manufacturer for refurbishing.
It is possible that you might do a "quick-fix" by placing a tiny bead of silicone around the edge of the lens where it makes contact with the housing. This actually may not help because moisture laden air is already inside the lens and unless you have some way of drying it out, that air is the cause of the moisture ring and eventually full fogging of the lens.
Professional lens repair is likely the only real option you have.
I did not get any instructions with my Opteka.
You did not provide enough information to determine what your problem is. For example, were the pictures all light or all dark. Knowing this lens, I will assume that they were all dark. So...
1) This is a very, very slow manual-focus lens. It will not auto focus. It must be manually focused very precisely because it has virtually no depth of field.
2) Depending on your camera, your internal light meter may not work. On my camera (Nikon D-90), it does. If it does not on yours and I suspect that may be your problem, you're going to have to shoot everything manually, i.e. setting the shutter speed and lens opening yourself. You can use your internal light meter to help you get started by taking your light reading before you install the lens...preferably using the aperture only setting where you set the aperture at f8 which I think is the speed of the Opteka and let the camera set the shutter speed. Make a note of the shutter speed then attach the Opteka to the camera and mount the lens on a tripod with the camera attached.
Then set your camera mode to manual and set the aperture to match the lens (f8, I think). Set the shutter speed at the speed you noted earlier. Shoot a picture using a remote shutter release or the self timer. This lens is so slow that unless you're in exceptionally bright conditions you will get fuzzy pictures due to camera movement at full zoom of 1200m and above if you're using the 2X doubler. I would start shooting at minimum zoom of 650 without the 2X doubler. Shoot a picture. and check the result.
You should have an image but it may be too light or too dark.
If its too light you'll need to increase the shutter speed or stop down the aperture to, say, f11...or both. Make the adjustment and shoot another picture. Remember that if you increase the aperture, you increase your depth of field, making focus less critical. If you increase the shutter speed you make camera or subject movement less critical.
If it's too dark, you can only increase the shutter speed because you can't open the lens any wider than f8. Make the adjustment and shoot the picture.
Keep doing this until the pictures are the way you want them.
This is a decent lens for the price and worth the little money they cost if you can't afford $10,000 plus for a high quality telephoto lens of this size. I would forget about the 2X doubler because as others have said, it further reduces the speed of an already very slow lens with such a high rate of magnification that a knat landing on the lens could cause the picture to blur from movement.
7/28/2014 11:31:44 PM •
Opteka...
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Answered
on Jul 28, 2014
I have seen a add
It is an inexpensive lens. It's actually a 650-1300mm lens with a 2x tele-extender to take it out to 2600mm. It's slow, manual focus, without any form of image stabilization, and with no electronics so setting the exposure is also manual. It won't be as sharp as a Canon 600mm lens, for example, but it is a lot cheaper. Also bear in mind that the 2x tele-extender will cost an additional 2 stops of exposure, so with it attached the the already slow lens becomes a very slow lens, giving a very dark view through the viewfinder.
7/28/2014 10:36:39 PM •
Opteka...
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Answered
on Jul 28, 2014
What is T Mount Telephoto Zoom Lens with 2x Teleconverter
The T-mount is a universal thread developed by Tamron which allows various adapters to couple a lens to a wide variety of camera brands. If a lens is listed as having a T-mount, it means that the lens can be coupled to your camera if you have a T-mount adapter for your camera.
A 2X teleconverter (often called a doubler) enables a lens of a specific to be doubled. For example, the lens referenced above actually is a 650-1300 lens but with the 2X teleconverter the focal length can be doubled to a maximum focal length of 2600.
I have an Opteka 600-1200 telephoto lens which I consider to be a decent lens for its very low price. I also have a doubler which came with my camera kit. That means I can increase the focal length of my lens to 2400 but I cannot imagine any reason to do so. At it's full zoom 1200mm focal length, this lens is very difficult to handle and must be used on a tripod with a remote shutter release.
It is extremely time consuming to focus and must be focused very accurately because it has almost no depth of field. At 1200 mm, the slightest breeze or vibration will cause the picture to go fuzzy from movement.
The lens is also large and does not fit conveniently in a camera bag so it rarely goes with me unless I know for sure that I will need it. It is not particularly good for sports action shots because the action will be over before you are ready to shoot the picture. With very bright light (such as the mid-day sun) and pre-planning and pre-focusing you might be able to get some interesting sports action shots. Say you're at an automobile race and you know a car will be coming into view at a certain spot, you can set up for that spot then trip the shutter when the car pops into view.
All that being said, I think this is a good lens to have in my bag without spending $10,000 plus for a really good lens of this size.
7/28/2014 10:07:14 PM •
Opteka...
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Answered
on Jul 28, 2014
Opteka manual
here is the manual: http://machineprocopy.blogspot.com/2012/11/opteka-hd-slide-copier-for-canon.html
Will a opteka 500mm mirror lens fit onto a nikon d3100?
When you go to the Opteka page here
http://opteka.com/500m.aspx
You can select "options" for the camera company (there are 6) which you have. It may mean that the lens uses an adapter for the different pin and thread patterns, so the lens if bought new will fit with the selected option, a used one, you may need to get an adapter.
Best bet is to try before you buy.
Sony 4.1 what do i do to delete all the pctures
The best option is just format the card. It will not only delete your pictures, but also all "hidden" stuff, like folders or system files.
There is a menu in your camera that allows you to format the card.
Which is better to get - manual focus or AF extention tubes for Nikon D3100
AF tubes will let you focus manually, so you don't lose anything by getting AF tubes (except for additional money, perhaps). However, most close-up work requires manual focus anyway due it the very limited depth of field, so you won't gain much by getting AF tubes.Personally, I've never missed the AF capability when using my manual tubes with my Nikons.
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