Long Telephotos for Nature Shooting on the BMCC

I tried out some test shot of a 500 mm Rokinon F 6.3 Mirror Lense today, and find that it may work just fine for nature shooters. See test sample clips here:

This is a topic I'm curious about, so thank you very much for sharing. Your footage looks quite good. Although I kept wishing a bird would appear. Cheers.

edited and removed due to inadvertant double post.

In the bright daylight, may be an issue because the lens is fixed aperture, and I have not been able to locate rear NDs for the lens. But I will go to local bird sanctuary this weekend for some shooting, I hope. Will post some results.

The footage does look good overall. But my main gripe with using a mirror lens is the odd ring shaped highlights it produces. When these show up, it makes for a very distracting bokeh.

The footage does look good overall. But my main gripe with using a mirror lens is the odd ring shaped highlights it produces. When these show up, it makes for a very distracting bokeh.

It can be distracting, but it can also look like a painted background. You just have to be careful about how you frame your shots to account for the oddball bokeh and take advantage of its unusual nature.

Here's one example:
http://whitecranephoto.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/North-Creek-Park/G0000q0UM0tkfh3k/I000082AOMCLXBxg/C00005guAwBnfQPc

I shot this on my Nex-7 using a Minolta 500mm f/8 mirror lens. I am hoping to use this lens for similar sorts of photography with my Black Magic cameras

The footage does look good overall. But my main gripe with using a mirror lens is the odd ring shaped highlights it produces. When these show up, it makes for a very distracting bokeh.

It can be distracting, but it can also look like a painted background. You just have to be careful about how you frame your shots to account for the oddball bokeh and take advantage of its unusual nature.

I kinda like the bokeh. May not work in all situations but I agree with you that it has a painterly effect, almost impressionistic.

Thanks

I agree, it doesn't always work, but what else is new in photography?

This is a topic I'm curious about, so thank you very much for sharing. Your footage looks quite good. Although I kept wishing a bird would appear. Cheers.

Per your request Peter. Had some time to go out to local bird preserve and shoot some more footage with the 500 mirror lens to give a better feel. Clips provided are lightly graded. With the bright conditions, had to shoot at 45 degree angle and still had slight zebras in birds white areas. This footage shows some good, but also shows need to sandbag or weight the tripod.

The image quality is promising, especially for an ungraded, unedited series of test shots. My mirror lens is an f/8, so I might look into that Rokinon one

Every little bit of movement feels huge when you're shooting at 500 mm. Even a moderate breeze can jostle a shot quite a bit!

This is a topic I'm curious about, so thank you very much for sharing. Your footage looks quite good. Although I kept wishing a bird would appear. Cheers.

Per your request Peter. Had some time to go out to local bird preserve and shoot some more footage with the 500 mirror lens to give a better feel. Clips provided are lightly graded. With the bright conditions, had to shoot at 45 degree angle and still had slight zebras in birds white areas. This footage shows some good, but also shows need to sandbag or weight the tripod.

Hi Chris: Thanks for that! I sometimes shoot with a GH2 in ETC (sensor crop) mode with a 300mm lens, so I appreciate the "reach" in your clips!

I notice some of the bird's white feathers are over-exposed. You can set zebras to 100%, and then reduce exposure so no zebras are displayed while recording to avoid clipping.

Your video reminds me why I pre-ordered a BMPC-4K: Global shutter = no "jello".

I notice some of the bird's white feathers are over-exposed. You can set zebras to 100%, and then reduce exposure so no zebras are displayed while recording to avoid clipping.

Your video reminds me why I pre-ordered a BMPC-4K: Global shutter = no "jello".

Peter:

First, the mirror lens is fixed aperture. No adjustment of exposure except by ISO/ASA or shutter. In this case I had it set at 45 degree shutter which is minimum shutter exposure, and at 200 ASA which is minimum ISO speed. I did not have an ND for the front side or rear of lens, so that was a low as my exposure would go. I was stuck with that as the best exposure I could get.

As far as jello and other rolling shutter effects, I noticed in the early days of 5D that the so called jello effect would be greatly reduced in most situation by shooting at lower shutter speeds. This is counter intuitive to still photographers because they believe faster shutter speed mean sharper image. Motion blur is part of motion picture technology and shoot at 1/48 (180 degrees) in a 24 fps setting will greatly reduce the jello and stacatto effect.

If you can find a suitable step-down ring, perhaps you can fit a large-diameter, quality vari-ND filter (such as the Genus Eclipse) to the front of your mirror lens.