TO ANSWER IF IT SUCKS OR NOT: It doesn't suck for the price. I was impressed with the sharpness that could be achieved. New $87 link: amzn.to/2p3Sbgn (the last one went up to $120)

Finally found a good vlogging lens. Thanks

I think your lens has a camera attached to it..

The perfect portrait lens for COVID-19 social distancing!

Looks like i dont even have to show up to the photo location now

lol "whoa there's a sniper on the roof"

Don't use youtubes stabilization when posting. It makes the video look like jello

going on a roof with a Sniper's Optic looking lens on a tripod, good idea xD

*Perfect! I can secretly film my crush without him calling the cops now. I hate it when he pranks me like that smh. We're actually married; he just doesn't know it yet! Wish me luck guys!*

dang. that turned out way better than I would have thought.

Finally some good lens for selfie’s

Actually at 500mm it didn't look to bad at all. 1000 was pushing it; though I think the heat in air had a huge part to play. It reminded me of what its like to look at the moon through a large dobsonian telescope, where the atmosphere creates a moving fluid like distortion.

For the price, that's a pretty good lens! I had been using a Schmidt cassegrain 500mm lens on a Nikon Ftn some time ago, and it was just about as good as the lens you used in this video at 500mm. The 2X magnification reduces the quality of the photos. The interesting thing about these long lenses is that in hot weather, the heat distortion becomes very obvious. Very well presented, and a pretty good deal for $81!!

I wish that lens was somehow even bigger

Crazy. On that close-up shot of the AT&T logo, you can tell the faint markings of an older logo that used to be there next to it! lol

When you’re really shy but still want to get footage

Kinda surprised how well it actually came out. I just recently ordered another more expensive lens but kinda regret not watching this one first lol

That's actually way sharper than would have expected. The vet seen a few reviews for these kinds of lenses and none of them looked that good.

Ideal for horizon shots for Flat Earth research

It's 80 bucks, it works for that price.

Various companies have been selling this same lens for probably at least 20-30 years. I have one from the 90's and used it for several shoots and always impressed by the lens for the price I bought it for like 25 years ago it more than paid for itself probably 100 times over. I wish all lenses were like this one.

Thanks for the video. One of the things that never fails to disappoint is: When someone tests a zoom lens, they never tell us how far the camera is from the subject. Seeing 500mm and 1,000mm means nothing to the viewer because we can't tell how far you were from the AT&T sign to appreciate how clear it looks at 1,000mm.... If you test zoom lenses, it would be greatly appreciated if you could add the distance between you and the object. Thanks again for discovering unique items for the Sony A6x00.

As a professional photographer, I was expecting horrid things, LOL! The big drawback is starting at an f/8, that's where more expensive lenses exceed. But other than that, it was really impressive! I figured barrel distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting would be really bad. But for an $80 zoom lens, this really surprised me! I have a 500mm lens that cost me $500+, and while I can see the limitations of this lens, it wasn't a $500 Olympus lens, LOL! The one that really impresses me is the lack of barrel distortion. I figured the 1,000mm views would really show this flaw, but the lens did very well! If you didn't tell a professional photographer, they would be hard pressed to judge this lens badly. Although chromatic aberration is present, it isn't that bad. In fact, most wouldn't even notice it. And vignetting is almost non-present! One has to look at the really bright scenes to see it, and only when one looks close can it be noticed. This lens really blew me away! And I'm hard to please, LOL! P.S. The CCD needs cleaning. Telephoto lenses really bring out the flaws in a CCD's cleanliness, LOL!

Nice review! Glad Grace Church downtown made an appearance, I go to TR campus now. Crazy how much it pulled in the towers on Paris Mtn!

Spiratone was selling these back in the 60s and 70s. I had a 400mm for my Miranda. They are called "pre-set" aperture where you have to use the second ring to actually stop down. When you remember. And the T mount lives on!

Pretty dang good at 80 bux for cheapoin around town! Nice video.

People bash cheap lenses, But if you compare a $100 lens to a $1500 lens, you'll see minor improvements all across the board. at the cost of another fourteen lens's. it's just not worth it unless you're a full time professional.

at 500mm is was pretty good, the 2x converter ruined it.

Good video. Getting back into the hobby after a 25 year absence. Fighting GAS already. Had to subscribe after seeing the parking garage and downtown you went to. Good to find a local on here. Thanks.

6:44 A cigar and a cap. That's all the protection you need.

Wow, great lens! I could read Grace Church, Downtown, 101 W McBee Ave, Greenville SC, and Greenville County on the ambulance.

Worth mentioning, in case no one else has: this lens has a preset aperture, two rings. One ring "sets" the aperture, and the other must be closed down just before taking a still exposure, or while doing video to actually closed the aperture to the F-stop you have chosen. Leave it open so you can more accurately focus, but remember to work up (on Manual) your exposure settings with the pre-set ring closed, then re-open to frame, and focus and close ring just before exposure or filming. Added problem is every time the lens is touched it creates vibration. For a still photo wait 10-30 seconds for jitters to stop. For video plan to shoot 10 seconds of "waste" footage before action. I see your camera has in-body image stabilization, sensor-shift. Does that help?

i'm wanting to buy one like this..the same one! was nice to watch this to have a preview idea

For 80 Bucks thats awesome.

Did you by any chance manage to take a photo of the moon? Someone I know wants a cheap way to be able to take picture of the moon.

When you get to really long lenses over distance, your single shot quality is often limited by the atmosphere, not the lens. Up closer, though, the cheaper ones probably have a super long minimum focus range, and show their weaknesses.

Whats the moon and saturn look like with that thing - that's a good benchmark test.

Actually impressed! Thanks for sharing.

You should take pahoto of Full Moon by using this lens

Thank you. This is what I need for bird and astronomy photography

I got one thats similar for my Canon T7 and it does pretty good. I havent used it for anything other than moon shots and those come out very well for what it is! Mine came with a X2 converter and the T adapter.

Chromatic aberration control is terrible. Every high contrast area is magenta. Then again, 80 bucks.

Awesome video man!

I bought that same exact lens about 25yrs ago for my film camera of the day. It was great for outside football photos. I was impressed for how cheap it was.

Dude! Wicked lens for the price! You can clearly see the strands of hair in the shots... I might buy this!!!

looks pretty decent. impressed, considering it's 80 bucks. people, keep in mind that some of the softness is ineviteably linked to atmospheric refraction. 1000mm lens+tele cropped by the sensor to 1500mm, is going to pick up serious air turbulence.

“this might have been a bad idea [...]” what? he’s a genius, he just turned these 80 bucks into a 1000$+ video

That's much better than i was expecting for $80. Makes me wish my 40D had optical stabilization in the camera. I think you would need it with 1000mm

Nice review @ChristopherBurress. I'd agree that it does NOT suck for that price and is surprisingly sharp. I might have to check it out and see how it performs with my Nikon 1 series cameras.

Perfect stadium graduation lens

What is it with this warp-y video? It's like the whole world warps around you.

Not nearly as bad as I expected! It was kinda surreal once I recognized the buildings (the ambulance gave it away) plus, I thought I recognized that vintage Honda - I see it parked downtown all the time!

Thanks for the video man.That's pretty satisfying 😍

You deserve wayyyyy more subs for these kinda vids! Keep it up bro it's Really interesting! 👍👍

I have the Sigma Sport 150-600mm. Its a $2000 lens. The image quality of this $80 looks darn good!

it looks impressive. I did not take this lens seriously before, but now that you have shown what it can do, I think I going to get one for me👍

That's cool! I thought that seeing the heat wave distortion was wild!

summary.... it does a great job as long as you dont drink redbulls

Is it normal for photographers to slam their stuff on the table so brutally?

When you said parking garage I though of the same one in GVL. Nice!

Love how the "@500mm" and 1000mm text wobbles as well, the little things lol

Dude just threw a whole telescope on his camera

There must be a factory somewhere in Asia that churns these lenses out, and it's been doing it since the days of film cameras and wet processing. I've seen them with a dozen different brand names but the performance was always the same... slightly muddy image with less than ideal contrast, which was not ideal with film. Digital however makes these lenses great value for money as any shortcomings can be corrected somewhat in post. Another advantage of these lenses is you'll get to see how much use you'll have for a long lens without spending, and possibly wasting, a lot of money.

Precise to the point review.

I did a photo shoot on that parking garage right where you are standing in Greenville! Good vid. Very interesting!

very impressive for the price. Nice review

Do you still have this lens? I'd be interested in seeing pictures of the moon.

great video bro. just what i was looking for

I love off brand whacky lenses like this. Good video!

Minus the fact that it's not automatic, the image quality is actually really decent. I'm half tempted to make the purchase now, this video gave me some confidence in this lens.

Dude, your Channel is great!

Thank you Christopher

The little thin gear ⚙️ cicle on the lens hood is meant to be put on with the hood and then tightened to secure the lens hood in an upright way

Gee I could imagine walking round with this lens on my camera

I was looking for a street photography lens. Thanks for the video 😊

thats a really nice lens for vlogging thank you

I own this lens for my Nikon d800 and it’s the cream/white version. It’s absolutely worth it for the price. The images are more than useful and it just looks so damn cool when you’re shooting with it.

Can you make a video with pictures of the moon or Jupiter? I’ve seen the quality of other lenses and would like to see a comparison.

Looks good for my needs

Thank you for this video. I had been debating whether to get this lens or not. After watching this video, I think I will purchase it after all.

That LENS needs it's own tripod

For that price it achieves pretty damn good results!

This 500mm prime preset manual focus lenses comes from many generic brands. I got one under a "Five Star" brand for around 28 USD (PhP1500 Philippine peso) bought surplus from a thrift shop. For the cheap price I paid, I got sharp photos of birds at f11 straight from my Nikon D90 or D300. The 1.3x area crop mode on my Nikon D7100 turns it into a 650mm lens. I was able to follow seagulls and heron in flight, but not the quicker swifts and sparrows - which I use another technique for those shy birds such as pre-focusing and framing while at rest and waiting for it to flap it's wings and fly. It's a bit tricky to use when using full manual, luckily the Nikon D300 and D7100 offers metering for full manual lenses that I use auto ISO and exposure compensation so the exposure is always good under sunny conditions outdoors (shooting in shade or cloudy skies requires to raise ISO at around 1600 to 2500 or so). A bit bulky to travel with a 500mm that big and a heavy D300 so I just bought today a used but good old Panasonic DMC-FZ70 with a hefty 60x zoom (equivalent to 1200mm) which I'm about to try on a light travel. With a superzoom from 20-1200mm you can have all that bulky lenses in one small package, as long as you limit the ISO under 1600 in low light.

Thanks for sharing, very cool!

Funny that I saw a Dish Network dish on the AT&T building. It's pretty telling when the company that owns DirecTV doesn't use DirecTV. I guess they would know best.

This lens FINALLY helped me find my pecker ! I couldn't afford the microscope !

Nice bit of kit for discreet shooting. Amazing all the extras they threw in. If it was a big brand those add ons would cost more than $80 alone.

First time watching one of your videos. Shocked to see someone else from Greenville South Carolina. Thanks for posting this video.

Very helpful

I have heard that above 50mm or so is great for capturing peoples faces, do you think there is enough compression at 1000mm to compliment people’s appearance? ;)

I want to get into nature photography, and this looks like a great, inexpensive way of getting started.

What a surprise, Hey Chris, I'm Erik from Otavalo, Ecuador. Good video!

Wow, watched most of the video thinking “that looks familiar” before I realized it was 30 minutes from my house. Good review though, maybe fun to look at the moon with the kids if we can avoid breathing on the tripod.

I nearly peed myself lauighing at the silly petal shaped lens hood,probably off some 24mm lens !

You could use it for some fun or interesting effects if you are making an amateur or low budget movie and you want to add a binocular or sniper scope effect to your film. You can always put on an overlay to make it look like a scope in editing/PP. That's at least the most likely use for this thing as I see it, as such shots should often deliberately be a little shaky and a little lo-fi.

I have one of those cheap 500mm lenses. It's pretty good; doesn't focus very close and wide open it is f8. Completely manual of course and some cameras handle it better than others.

So, overall what did you think of it yourself Chris? Worth a punt? Its looks so.

"Im gonna show you a few of the things im planning on shooting at" Man, that sounds wrong when you are sitting on top of a parking garage.

I bought this for my Canon, as long as I'm using a remote trigger it works pretty well

Much sharper than I expected... NOT real photo award winning glass, BUT pretty good. I could see it as a reasonable movie lens for hobbiests. Of course you are limited by atmospheric conditions. Thanks for testing it. I liked it best at the 500mm range mostly cuz it’s less susceptible to vibration.