Good pictures,, good expanation, good concepts and good sugestions...👏👏👏

A modern take on the Minolta Rokkor RF 250mm f5.6 mirror lens. I own the Minolta and it is my daily carry. Be lucky stay safe.

@tomscameras

18 күн бұрын

Yes it’s a new incarnation of the same idea. A bit more heavy but with fantastic optics! Thanks for your comment!

Spot on review ! I've got the Minolta, bought cheaper than the TTA back then. The TTA seems easily as good if not better but is heavier.These lens breathe better on Full Frame @250mm imho. Very powerful ratio/size on crop sensor but, yes, don't ever think about wildlife!. The Tamron 350mm is also very good, but forget "small & light" ;) Keep on the good work !

@tomscameras

Ай бұрын

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience with the mighty Minolta 250/5.6 lens! I do have the Tamron 500/8 55BB and yes it is very good for a mirror lens ... the 350/5.6 06B is still missing in my collection. :)

@jcphenix1

Ай бұрын

@@tomscameras the 350 is really better (low prices currently) ;)

I shot an outdoor event with this lens, mounted on a Fuji X-Pro2 with a focal reducer, on the weekend. Hand held, no IBIS, at shutter speeds of 1/80 to 1/500. No problems (but I have been shooting manual focus lenses for 50 years). Use your feet to get the OOF working to good effect. I really like it.

@tomscameras

29 күн бұрын

Thanks a lot for your comment! You shot an outdoor event with the TT Artisan 250mm mirror lens? Wow ... that's unusual! It's a really long focal length for an event!

@mikrokosmfotos

29 күн бұрын

​@@tomscameras At an outdoor event spread out over a large area I typically have two cameras. One with a long lens (generally a 70-300mm zoom rather than this mirror lens) and one with something shorter, around 50mm. APS-C. The mirror lens was great with it's shallow DOF and funky OOF to get some striking long distance shots of individual scenes in the crowd. I'll use it again like that for sure.

Very useful, excellent review. Thanks Tom!

@tomscameras

Ай бұрын

Many thanks and you're welcome, of course! :)

great review! and i love the shot at 05:48! you used that donut ring bokeh fully to your advantage

@tomscameras

Ай бұрын

Many thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it and I'm glad you like that shot!

I have a Soligor 300mm f/5.6 that I love, but I'm tempted to test the Ttartisan to compare it to the Soligor...

@tomscameras

7 күн бұрын

I never tried the old Soligor 300/5.6. I do have some other 300/5.6 mirror lenses and once also did a KZread review of one … it was clearly inferior to the new TT Artisan though.

interesting and pretty sharp indeed. Thanks for showing. I only tried once an old 500mm and was quite disappointed (of my skills I guess) :D

@tomscameras

13 күн бұрын

It takes some practice to get good shots with any mirror lens. And it is really much easier to focus if using a mirrorless camera and the screen magnifier. Back in the day when I only had SLR cameras I thought all mirror lenses just suck. 😅 well some really do, but as you can see some are pretty good!

Using this lens on a crop sensor without IBIS is certainly a "lens challenge."

@tomscameras

8 күн бұрын

😅 … I would recommend using a camera body with IBIS, yes!

Great review, I like the close-up shots! I have a Bower 300mm f6.3 mirror lens with Fuji X mount (I believe Samyang/Rokinon/Bower produce the same lens), and never tried close-up shots before. I'll try it!

@tomscameras

Ай бұрын

Give it a try! It might be somewhat softer and also hard to focus at close distance ... so prepare for some frustration. But as I said, there might be some really unique keepers in-between! :)

I've got a t2 to M42 adapter for my Tokina 400mm f8 mirror lens, it is the size of a step-up ring. Both mounts use 42mm the difference is on the thread pitch which differ the 2. I also use a speedbooster to recover 1 stop of light which is a big deal especially when using the 2x teleconverter I just lose 1 stop of light instead of 2.

@tomscameras

Ай бұрын

Yes, T2 is different in the threat pitch but also in the register distance ... you can convert a T2 lens to really about EVERY 35mm camera that was ever made, that was the idea of the whole mount back then. The idea with the speed booster sounds great! I didn't think about that but also I don't have a speed booster at hand ;)

@jcphenix1

Ай бұрын

The speedbooster principle has long been used on mirror lens, in particular on the famous Russian Rubinar 1000/10 (and others) making it something more usable like 700mm f/7.1...and sharper ! (AstroPhoto) Yes, a good idea on crop sensor : If you don't have a FF body. (Or perhaps we should try the speedbooster also on FF? etc...)

Great review. Can you compare it with the NiSi?

@tomscameras

7 күн бұрын

Would be interesting and maybe I will get the chance to try out the Nisi. It was announced earlier than the TT Artisan but apparently went on sale later … and for some reason no one seems to review it at all!

MC RUBINAR 4,5/300 MACRO

@tomscameras

26 күн бұрын

Yes that fast 300 Rubinar is definitely a very cool mirror lens!

The title isn't necessarily true, as Rokinon already have a modern day reflex telephoto lens. Why buy a new one when you can second hand 500mm reflex lenses with a T mount for way under £100 or even £50 ?? My 500mm becomes a 1000mm on my M43 Lumix and Olympus bodies.

@tomscameras

Ай бұрын

In my opinion that’s exactly one of the problems with most vintage mirror lenses: what do you want to shoot at 500mm or even 1.000mm … maybe wildlife, but for this any modern lens is much better? 500+ mm is pretty extreme, 250-300mm is much more versatile in my opinion for the type of photography that you want to use a mirror lens for today. And the choice of vintage mirror lenses with 300mm or less is extremely limited … plus they’re definitely not as good as the new TT Artisan in terms of optics. Maybe the Minolta 250/5.6 is … but it’s very expensive today. I have a review of an older 300/5.6 mirror lens on my channel. I much prefer the new TT Artisan over that lens. Sure the old one is fun for 50-70 Euros, but that doesn’t mean it can make sense to spend more on a new lens that is much better overall …