Yesterday's Weapons Forums

old lens, not as old camera

years ago, like maybe 9 or 10 I bought a Nikon D5100,
got a small lens, and a bigger lens (not handy at the moment to tell you what they are) and the standard generic lens that comes with it,

well it seems I now have a Vivitar 400m lens,
fits right on the camera body,
all the auto stuff is not working, but I can dial it back to M and see thru the viewfinder, (no go for the view using the screen on the back of the camera,, )

so now, I tried a few shots just to see what I can see thru the viewfinder,
focus is ok, field of view is narrow, (to be expected??)



400M, 1:5.6
telepnoto,


guessing I need to take a day to figure it out,,,,


and it has a tripod type mount, which I may use with an older tripod I have, just to see if it steady's it up a bit

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What's so funny about Peace Love and Understanding?

Where's a comet when you're ready for one?

The sensor on the D-5100 is APSC/DX.
The actual coverage of that lens will be about equal to 700mm on that format.
Remember that high shutter speeds are going to be required with a telephoto that will at least equal focal length for hand held use- ex 500mm, 1/500 sec.
Expect to use a tripod most of the time for reasonable ISO speeds in a format that small.

The vivitar 400's have some positive on-line reviews.
A photo of the lens showing the aperture ring and mount, and another of the nameplate would help to identify it.
The early variants were made by Tokina, and are high quality glass for their time period.
The camera will work faster with the A/F switch in the "M" position.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

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"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

Thanks Doc


It would not do a thing in auto mode, took me a second to go 'doh' and switch to the M,

still will not work the view screen, but I can focus thru the view finder,

played with a bit last night before dark,

I'll get pics of the markings etc, and mount it to a small tripod I have, this weekend and post up

_________________
What's so funny about Peace Love and Understanding?

I typo'd above- the equivalent coverage "focal length" should actually be about 600mm.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

this igmur link may be easier that cropping etc

https://imgur.com/gallery/Nulc4wc

_________________
What's so funny about Peace Love and Understanding?

Your lens was made by Komine, and was a quality telephoto for it's time.
Most 400's were about a stop slower at the time of it's release.
Yours still has the tripod foot, which will come in handy for most uses.
Probably not much monetary value there, with all the hard use it has seen.

400mm is one of those holes for me- I simply don't have one.
I have a couple of nikkor 300mm variants, and the big Tamron 500mm mirror.
The Tamron see's the most use, due to it's portability.
I still don't have a 35mm focal length lens either, but that's a hole I'm even less concerned about these days.
Most times, I get by with the old stand-by 200mm f4. It packs easily into the camera bag, and doesn't weigh very much.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

so far I have played with the settings a bit and got some pics of neighbors mail boxes, etc,

the laptop I use at home has IRfan on it, and the pics don't play well,, for whatever reason,

I'll , if I can remember, take the camera and card reader to the shop tomorrow and play around a bit outdoors, and see what it will do,

if it is not raining,

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What's so funny about Peace Love and Understanding?

"the laptop I use at home has IRfan on it, and the pics don't play well,, for whatever reason"

Sounds like software designers not playing nice and saying, in effect, "Him or me."
Seems odd though. IrfanView usually gets along with everybody. At least well enough to read most files, perform some basic operations and save them as jpegs.

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What's so funny about Peace Love and Understanding?