zoom lens

could someone tell me why when i take a picture using my 650 to 1300 zoom lens it wont take. my d3100 will accuate but the screen shows black. just as if i didnt take the picture at all.

Did you took off the lens cover?

Firstly, can you tell us what this 650-1300mm lens is ? It sounds a bit unreal

Does it have a Auto Focus motor in it, if not you will have to manual focus it...

650-1300mm Zoom Lens for Nikon | rugift.com - a real bargain! that's like 975mm - 2050mm with the crop factor taken in. I hope it has VR!!!! LOL 4 elements in 2 groups? Something not right there...

Aha.

Looks to me like a converted Astro Scope. Not saying they're crap, because i've DIY converted 3 Astro Scopes in time ( all 600mm FL ) for bird photos, and they worked brilliantly, and had comparable IQ to real big pro DSLR lenses, but you have to be discriminate in which scope you buy. I think that big ol 1300 is a bit suspect.

Also the price is a bit of a give away. There aint many free lunches in the world of lenses, and I doubt very much that scopey looking thing has any Ohara 53 glass in it. 2 of my scopes were twice the price of that one, and only half the FL, but they had the best Japanese glass ( Ohara ) and were configured as airspaced doublets.

Well thanks to everyone for responding. But so far no one has told me anything to help me get the problem resolved.

You've given no info as to what settings you're using.

Also what does " my D3100 will accuate " mean ?

You gotta do better than just dumping the absolute minimum info on us and expecting everyone to rush in with a cure.

If i take my car to the mechanic and tell him " its making a noise , whats wrong " ? he's gonna go back to drinking his coffee like I wasnt there

Because the lens is MF and cannot communicate with the camera body, you will need to set the exposure mode to M, you won't get the meter in the camera to work with this lens, so you will need to work that one out for yourself, set the camera to a certain shutter speed, which using the old rule of thumb, you need to set the camera match the shutter speed with the focal length of the lens to reduce the chance of shutter speed, so using it set to 1,000mm, set the shutter speed to 1,000th of a second, you may get away with less if using it on a tripod, and then adjust the aperture to obtain a correct exposure, but it's going to be a trial and error job to work it out as even using a handheld meter won't be able to work it as it's such a long focal length lens, set the camera to use the Live View LCD screen on the back of the camera, and see what effect you get while trying a few settings, but as your working with digital it's not going to cost you anything to play around with the settings.

randysbenz said:

Well thanks to everyone for responding. But so far no one has told me anything to help me get the problem resolved.

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Give the lens to some one you don't like and save up and get a better lens...

I remember many years ago a guy came into our photo store, and whilst talking to us said he had a 1200mm f1.2 lens for his camera, which he got at a car boot sale for £200. We argued with him it wouldn't be f1.2 nor would he get it for £200 even if it was, but wouldn't admit he was wrong. In the end he brought the lens into us, and we knew instantly it could never be f8 never mind f1.2. It was such a dark piece of glass, that even in bright sunlight, it was possible to only get about 1/60 second, and focusing was an absolute pain in the bum.

My advice? Take Pedroj's advice!

pedroj said:

Give the lens to some one you don't like and save up and get a better lens...

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That's deeply wise man...