Patoka Lake, IN Eagle Watch this Saturday

Okay, this is sort of about the topic, but not quite. I am going to try and go to this, but I'm not sure how close we are able to get to the eagles and my lens is only to 300mm. I have been looking on Amazon.com and there is this Vivitar Lens: it is 650-1300mm f/8-16 Series 1 Telephoto Zoom lens for the price of $299.95, my question is if anyone has seen this lens in action and what do they think of it? Also, because I don't know if I really need one in the 1300mm range just yet, there is a Vivitar 800mm f/8.0 Series 1 Multi-Coated Mirror Lens for $279.98 but it has a Vivitar tripod, Vivitar cleaning kit with it which I don't exactly need, again my questions is if anyone has seen this lens in action and what do they think of it. Or at least what are the reviews on Vivitar brands? I'm not in so much of a hurry that I want this before Saturday, it would be nice but once I see where the eagles hang out, I could go there myself once I have a telephoto lens. Anyways, I really do appreciate any advice.

Andrea,

I think you would be disappointed in the quality images you get from both of those lenses. In the case of longer lenses you really do get the best value from quality lenses.

I would agree with Mia. I think you would be disappointed. There is a reason 300mm+ lenses are $5000-$10000. If these lenses were even moderately ok, I think people would give them a try for that price. And for trying to capture eagles in flight, your going to want a pretty fast shutter speed, in the neighborhood of 1/1000 or better. At f/8 or greater your going to be pushing the ISO's pretty high would would even make the image worse.

Also most camera's are not going to be able to auto focus at the aperture, so manual focus on a moving object like a eagle would be a pretty good challenge if you are not experienced in manual focusing.

Andrea,

Why not check into renting a longer lens for the weekend from a local photography shop? Most times they would be less that what these cheaper lenses would cost. Then you would have experience with a high quality longer lens and get images you would be happy with.

Andrea,

The old addage is never wrong: You get what you pay for. Aside from renting a lens, the next best option is a Sigma (BIGma) 150-500mm (about $1000) lens which is a pretty good lens and I've seen some very nice results.

- Luke

Thank you all for your advice, I did find it odd that they were that cheap and they didn't look like good quality lenses either. But unfortunately I do not have the money to be spending on real quality lenses at this moment, but hopefully by summer it will be a different story. Thanks again.

I have rented prime lenses from LensRentals.com for special occasions. They are very professional and relatively reasonable, Renting is my only option, as I am retired, on a fixed income.

I have rented prime lenses from LensRentals.com for special occasions. They are very professional and relatively reasonable, Renting is my only option, as I am retired, on a fixed income.

I'd recommend this place as well. You could rent a pretty good lens for several days for less then the ~$250 you were looking to spend.

Thank you both, do you rent online and they send the lens to you? Sorry if I sound ignorant about this, but I've never heard of it before.

Andrea:

www.lensprotogo.com

They are very nice to work with.

I went on there and all they really had was Nikon, Cannon, but no Sony. Or maybe I just was looking in the wrong place