High-Power 500mm/1000mm f/8 Manual Telephoto Lens for Canon EOS 80D, 90D, Rebel T3, T3i, T5, T5i, T6i, T6s, T7, T7I, T8I, SL3, 60D, 70D, 5D, EOS5D IV, 6D II, 7D II SLR Cameras

Bought a Canon EOS Rebel T7 and ordered the lens, and it worked perfectly. It was well worth the money and works fantastic. Lens quality was very good and the zoom range was just what I needed. It was bought for an upcoming trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. It is manual focus and for best results you should have a tripod for long distance ( it is long and since you have a heartbeat it will shake without support ). My opinion….. for the money…… awesome

Not sure exactly what I was expecting...something between a useless toy and cheap-n-good. Mostly, something to get a better idea of how long a lens I'll want when it comes time to buy a 'real' supertelephoto (I.E.: mortgage my life for a Canon "L"). I've been shooting with SLRs and now DSLRs for a half-century, but somehow I've never used anything longer than 200mm. I figured that 500mm would be another world--and it is. None of the review examples posted here gave me more than hint at what this lens would do, but I bought one anyway. Mine came branded Vivitar, but that doesn't mean much of anything these days. It's reasonably pretty and the T-mount-to-EF adapter mated nicely. It focuses past infinity. Focus is smooth if a bit stiff, and the f-stop detents are positive. The stop-down ring is much too stiff for my taste. I have no interest in the 2x teleconverter. It has a minimally effective AR coating, but I wasn't expecting any. I thought that it might be a simple telescope at this price. But being physically shorter than it's effective focal length, it is a real telephoto lens. After a much less than successful attempt at taking shots of the moon, I was convinced that I wouldn't learn much from it. So I requested a return. The night that I was packing it up to ship back, I decided to give it another chance. Just an informal quickie. Printed up part of the standard ISO 12233 target and taped it to a toolbox 3 rooms with open doors away, for about 32 feet. An ancient Canon 1D MkII N was all that was handy, but it's 8.2M pixels were fine for this test. (APS-H sensor, so 500mm x 1.3 = 650mm equivalent.) f/16 (two stops down) for more sharpness and depth of field, indoors at 1/5 second and ISO100. The three pix I've posted are the same photo, full frame resized to the maximum width of a review photo, plus two crops at 100% (400x420). Otherwise, straight from the camera. As printed, the finest pitch of the lines on the target measured 1/32". So this lens is resolving a surprising 32 lines per inch at 32 feet, with decent contrast and only moderate chromatic aberration. If you've stared at many resolution targets, you'll appreciate at how good that is for any lens in this price range. (Check out reviews of the Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM to see how much sharpness $9k will buy,) Now, cheap lenses like this generally have a lot of unit-to-unit variation in quality, and I wasn't getting that kind of resolution throughout the frame (at least partly because the paper target wasn't lying completely flat). YMMV. Some other caveats: There aren't many tripods that are solid enough (mine wasn't) for a resolution test at this slow shutter speed and I was in too much of a hurry to figure out how to lock up the mirror. Plus, this lens is physically very light adding little mass for stability. So I put the camera on a heavy table, shimmed the lens up to a useful angle, and used the self-timer. The rule-of-thumb for hand held without image stabilization is a maximum exposure time that is the reciprocal of the focal length. So 1/500 second for a 500mm lens. But that’s the maximum for reasonable sharpness with a reasonably stead hand. To show off this lens' sharpness, maybe an extra stop or two faster shutter when out and about. Sunny16 would suggest full daylight at f/16, 1/1000 second and ISO1000. At f/8 wide open, this is a mighty slow (dim) lens. I wasn't able to get an accurate focus indoors without a 2.5x viewfinder attachment, and even that was a challenge with 20-20 and OK night vision. Conclusions? 500mm is probably somewhat more than I want on a full-frame body and about half what I'd like from a telescope. I really will need to rent an expensive lens before popping the cash to purchase, but this gives me a rough starting point. All said and done, I'm glad that I bought it, and will definitely keep it to fool around with.

Good lens, was nice that it came with a UV filter, the downside is that the UV filter doesn't fit the lens at all, mine came with a 58mm filter and the lens is 67mm, it is a strictly manual focus lens and it comes with the adapter to go on the camera

I bought this lens since I wanted to take it on Safari with me. However, it was ridiculously huge and it would not lock with my camera. I ended up returning it a Magnifier or converter would be a much better purchase. I did have auto focus

I was a bit skeptical about purchasing this lens but I figured that since I wanted a higher powered zoom lens than what I currently own, and since I don't have the money right now to purchase one with image stabilization and autofocus, I figured I might as well make this purchase. I'm impressed with it and I'm glad I got it. First thing's first: it is completely manual. However, don't let that frighten anyone who's considering buying this. While there are zoom lenses that are 500+mm that have image stabilization, autofocus, etc, they are very expensive. So, if anyone would like a lens with a zoom of 500mm or above spending the 100 dollars or so on this lens is well worth it. Second, with it being manual a tripod or monopod is needed to prevent blur caused by camera shake. I would also suggest to either use the 2-second timer trick to keeping the camera and lens steady or to use a shutter remote to prevent any camera shake caused by pressing the shutter button. Conclusion: This lens is worth the money spent, and if you use a tripod or monopod it can take nice photos. Even hand holding it can take some decent photos. Also, to minimize the chance of camera shake from pressing the shutter button I suggest using a 2 second timer or remote shutter trigger (which is good to have anyway) Below are three pictures I took with it. The squirrel picture is taken by just hand holding it. The two birds sitting are taken using a monopod, one picture is without the 2x converter and the other is with it.

I googled what to purchase to use for sporting events and didn't know what to expect. It is heavy and should probably be used with a stand for stability. I don't know if I can capture football plays with this product like I was hoping because it is such a small focal point. However, it is powerful enough to zoom in on tree bark and butterflies 100 yards away! The clarity is nice and I couldn't believe what I was able to capture in the distance.

Nothing to complain of. I tested it against my canon 75-300 mm telephoto zoom on a Canon 3 Ti camera at 300 mm versus 500 mm . Of course a totally manual lens (focus and aperture). Even just comparing the Canon against this Vivitar, the Vivitar sharpness was much better. I saw little or no chromatic aberration and no edge of field distortions. It's a simple four element lens so it's no surprise it performs well at a fixed focus. It doesn't have all the complexity of a multi element zoom. The focusing is a little stiff but I am sure it will loosen up with use. Pleasantly surprised and happy with this purchase at the price point. It's going to be good for birds (when they come back!) Image at 800 ISO 1/125 sec. Object at about 150 ft .