TokinaSZ-Pro 900mm F11 MF catadioptric Tele-Lens for Sony E Mount

This lens Is a beast but with a little practice can me manageable.Pros:The reach, 900mm is not joke, I'm taking pictures of birds in yards across the street, the internal anti shake is working full steamThe Cost, comparable lenses are thousands moreColor, color comes through very well and very low CACons:The reach, an operating focal width of 1.8 arc is so narrow it can be difficult to find your subjectDOF, for such a long lens it has a remarkably short depth of field which can be challengingSharpness, while you can find sharpness, its not what you would get from a non-mirror lens.I picked this lens up because i wanted to do more bird and bug photography in my back yard but I dont have a huge budget. All the photos attached are uncropped except for the on of the eye which is a zoom in of the cat showing the sharpness of the reflection.I shoot on a Sony A6500, and love the Manual AF assist lights, but they can be problematic with this lens, as is zooming in while focusing, just because the DOF is so short and the view travels so much with every tiny movement.I cant get over the reach this thing has. the cat was 30' out in the yard. Tiny yellow bird, maybe 3" in length was 20' up in a tree. The dove was 30' up in a tree ands you can clearly see its eyeball.Details on the moon are not great but there is a lot of humidity right now that hurts with visibility.Focus moves slow, which helps because of the shallow DOF, but can be bothersome when you are trying to take pictures of moving birds or wildlife.So far Im happy wth the results Im getting and looking forward to shooting some astrophotography later this month

For the price you cant get more zoom but the lens comes with no lens collar thus very hard to take stable shots. I have tried so many different positions to hold the camera and lens steady but none of the pictures came out very sharp. It works great but be aware of the limitations.