The Anti Leica – The Phoenix 650-1300 Lens

June 11, 2010 Just for fun 34

My son saved up some money and was dying to buy this lens. I told him it would be large. I told him it would be nearly impossible to handhold. I told him his images would be soft, and I told him he would need a steady tripod. In the end he still wanted it but I do not think he was prepared for the size and weight. This is one of those cheap mega zooms, The Phoenix 650-1300 – F8-16 and it costs about $280. I guess it’s good for taking shots of the moon, or birds. We have yet to see the quality of this sucker but he plans to shoot it tomorrow. Should be interesting 🙂

Nikon D3000 with a 4lb monster.

34 Comments

  1. I know this is way to late for anyone to see it ans i usually always stay away from negative comments but…… booooooooooo boooooo like veteran stadium boooooooooo to any and all negative comments about the lens or the rad kid who decided he wanted it. He’s a rock star and I hope he shot the heck out of that thing!

  3. Thanks for all of the comments guys. Ill post samples soon. To all of the grumps, chill out man! My son is 14 and wanted a mega zoom, just like many of you did when first starting out 🙂 The main thing is for him to have fun with it and his only complaint so far is the 4.4lb weight. Other than that he is having a blast shooting it. He already has lenses covering 24-200.

  4. I cracked up when I saw this!

    It reminds me that ALL kids have to rebel and do the opposite of what their parents say and do in some way shape or form. Yours has found the most appropriate way!

    Ha!

  5. I have to tell the myself had plans to buy something like that, I think that is fun because the big zoom, I suggest to your son, if he want to have fun with manual lenses, to buy some old 135mm F2.8 m42 lenses, is cheap, will be a good telephoto on D3000 and will be easier to handle than that one.

  6. f/8 is not so awful, I was shooting yesterday with a 15mm lens, had it in f/8 pretty much all the time. In daylight, it’s not a problem, I was getting shutter speeds of 1/250 to 1/1000 on 400 ISO film. Obviously with such a long lens, image shake is more of a problem, but in daylight, he’ll be fine.

    People can criticize or mock all they want, but it’s the photos he gets which will matter, and as much as I like short primes, if you want to take a photo of a bird or something, then my range finder is next to useless, whereas Brandon will come home with lots of photos.

  7. A Zenit FS3 Photosniper (available fro next to nothing on fleabay) which has a rifle grip would also be interesting; and it uses film… which, I’ve heard whisper, is making a huge comeback 🙂

  8. @Brian
    What do you mean you don’t say that in hostility? Saying something hostile is always said in hostility.

    Let the kid learn and experiment. Good on him for trying new things.

  10. This made me laugh. And I could see why ‘designed’ said what he said. lmao. But still. You can basically only shoot this at the sun…ƒ/8-16 is ridiculous. The D3000’s high ISO capabilities are crap too. This lens is a joke and a waste of money in my opinion…

    Plus, it’s not like a Nikon/Canon fast-glass super zoom that will make you look cool! This just screams skinny little fellow hah. Whatever, I’m sure he will get decent images out of it…

    And for flame war mongers, again, I don’t write in hostility… leave me alone:/

    Good luck trying to sell it;D

  11. Why does it remind me of The Sky at Night? Well I have bought worse so good luck to him and his back!

  13. A bunch of old grouches are no fun on this site. Buying for fun leads to happy photographers.

  14. that’s a lot of money for a POS. he could have bought that nice new 35 from nikon
    or saved up for a long focal prime

  15. Looks like an alarming bend at the join of the first section of the Extremely Large Lens Array with the rest… does that matter or does the light get ‘straightened out’ by the last section before it hits the sensor?

  17. I think he’s got his starter kit for “Young Paparazzi Photographer of the Year”…. 😉

  18. Vlad says:
    June 11, 2010 at 1:56 pm
    My guess would be that it’s rubbish.

    DOESN’T MATTER AS LONG AS THE YOUNG MAN IS HAPPY

  22. I hate to be that guy but…… you realize your son has a bigger lens then you now ?

  27. I really would like to see some samples of what he does with a good tripod. Maybe he could write a guest post for the website?

  28. You did tell him Steve that size doesn’t matter if you know exactly what to do with a smaller one, yes?

  29. I like it. There’s something fun about having a lens that absolutely ridiculous. And not only will it be fun to use but you can bet it will draw PLENTY of attention in public. 🙂

  30. Well, with such great ISO “powers” like of the Nikon D3s in the market, f/8 – f/16 is very workable!!

    Can’t wait for the results to come out!!

  31. I think saying it is rubbish is subjective. I have seen some very compelling photographs using inexpensive lenses. The sharpest shot is not always the one that moves you. 🙂

  33. That thing looks fierce! It needs an orange tip on the end, especially with how photogs have been treated like terrorists recently.

    Make sure you post the results!

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