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Vivatar SMS 75-300mm 4.5-5.6 - My latest toy, need tons of advise


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Has anyone used the Vivatar SMS 75-300mm . My latest toy arrived today. It was a gamble since couldn't get a lot of reviews on this when I decided to purchase it. Here it is, mounted with an MD adapter and ready for the shoot

 

 

 

Did some shooting on the day before Makar Sankranti, The indian fighting kite festival. It seems like anamazingly sharp piece of the lens. The push and pull mechanism takes a little getting used to and the focussing on the tele end is tough (it takes like afraction of a rotation to take it from focus to out of focus). It also has an extendable lens hood, something i did not count on but am starting to love

 

some pics 

 

Amazingly quick to zoom and focus when you get used to it. It's quite sharp even at the tele end at wide open and f/8

 

 

handles flaring really well, does decently well shooting into the sun 

 

 

Not the best bokeh among my collection of lenses. But does really well on getting the fine detail. 

 

Really need to figure out how to get a mount point bracket so I can put this on a tripod. It's very unbalanced if I mount it on the camera mount

 

Will try to do some more shoots with this. Do share feedback, tips, or your experiencesf5d14a11296d3dfd5395c6d9f0d014f0.jpg0b789e4fe46eb98761ce2194f979a883.jpg4c01b1d27b0cd43d957c6c636e612575.jpgbb74c2081333ac1f7c4659de26f448b1.jpg

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Guest Jaf-Photo

The photos look nice. You may struggle finding a tripod collar. Most of the length is taken up by parts that need to move, i.e. the zoom/focus ring and the aperture ring.

 

your best bet might be to get an adapter with a tripod mount and some sort of arm to extend the attachment to the tripod forward. That way you could get closer to the pivot point. There are aftermarket contraptions, some for macro photography, that you could look for.

 

There are also smaller and lighter manual tele lenses. Minolta has a 135/3.5 which is small and light or a 200/4 which is a bit bigger. Both have great IQ.

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`   

   

The camera itself has a laffable [if it weren't so very sad]   

tripod interface. The idea of an MD adapter with it's own 

built-in tripod mount is your best bet ... about $90. Other 

than that, there's always the bean bag method which for 

many situations can be a most convenient and versatile 

way to steady a one-touch lens. 

    

If you're OK messing with odd miscellaneous hardware, 

other solutions abound ... to wit: 

     

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

    

Not YOUR exact solution, but an example of deploying 

whatever odd bits are available. Altho this lens has its 

own tripod collar, I also use the same rig to allow using 

the feeble tripod socket on a Sony APSC body, cuz the 

rig still provides that support under the lens even when 

using the camera's tripod socket ... or the tripod socket 

built into my lens adapter. A very major aspect of what

you see above is its two-point support, cuz this is used 

for high magnification and long shutter openings where 

killing vibrations is the name of the game.  

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`

 

The camera itself has a laffable [if it weren't so very sad]

tripod interface. The idea of an MD adapter with it's own

built-in tripod mount is your best bet ... about $90. Other

than that, there's always the bean bag method which for

many situations can be a most convenient and versatile

way to steady a one-touch lens.

 

If you're OK messing with odd miscellaneous hardware,

other solutions abound ... to wit:

 

attachicon.gifNik 200M on a6000 E1 WS.jpg

 

Not YOUR exact solution, but an example of deploying

whatever odd bits are available. Altho this lens has its

own tripod collar, I also use the same rig to allow using

the feeble tripod socket on a Sony APSC body, cuz the

rig still provides that support under the lens even when

using the camera's tripod socket ... or the tripod socket

built into my lens adapter. A very major aspect of what

you see above is its two-point support, cuz this is used

for high magnification and long shutter openings where

killing vibrations is the name of the game.

This is amazing
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I have another version made from scratch from 

wood. This version uses that bent heavy gauge 

aluminum panel which was an odd bracket from 

some forgotten device, but had 1/4-20 holes in 

it and so was begging to be adapted. The front 

section shows a cylindrical piece of cushioning 

but I have a small collection of cushioning items 

of different sizes, cuz lenses differ in diameter. 

   

Long ago I was taught that rigidity does not kill 

vibration but friction does. Thaz why only one

point is solidly bolted and the other point is just

"firmly cushioned".

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Jaf-Photo

Did you try cradling the lens in the bend of your arm? Put the lens in the bend of your left arm and grab your right shoulder with your left hand. It's very stable.

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