Pentacon 500mm Review

This lens a big gun, I only owned it for a couple of weeks before I sold it. Why? Because its heavy, 3.3 kg means impossible to use in hand. Sample pictures are all taken by hand except one. If you are ready to use a massive tripod all the time, its probably a good choice, but optical quality is far from that of other East German lenses. I changed to a 500 mm Russian mirror lens, mirror lens is small, easy to carry and very sharp. Ok, bokeh is ugly but if your target fills the entire screen , bokeh doesn't appear at all. So my conclusion, for a cheap budget I recommend you buy a mirror lens rather than old big glasses like any Pentacon, Praktica etc above 300 mm

Vendor name	Body mount	Product year
Pentacon/Praktica/Meyer	M42\|Praktica-B\|P6\|EXA
Focal min (mm)	Focal max (mm)	Focus min(cm)
500	500	600
Aperture max	Aperture min	BaRREL LENGTH (mm)
5.6	22	395
Elements	Diaphragm action	Weight (g)
4 in 4 groups	Pre-set	3500
Filter size (mm)	PUsh on diameter(mm)	Angular field
118	125	5