For some reason as a kid I was always intrigued by the "back-of-the-book" ads in photo mags. That is where you usually found the less expensive equipment and the oddball stuff that came from the smaller importers.

There were spy lenses that allowed you to shoot around corners, auto winders that cost 1/3 of the name brand version and lots of cheap lenses that promised extreme power. The Phoenix 650 to 1,300mm Zoom would have fit nicely with this group of products.

The first thing anyone needs to understand about lenses of this type is that they are T-Mount type lens mounts. The lens has a 42mm threaded connection that requires a T-Mount adapter for your specific camera brand. The adapters are NOT included with any of these lenses.

A T-Mount lens has no mechanical linkages or electrical connections to your camera. This means manual focus and manual apertures (if they even have a variable aperture). The 650-1,300 has no variable aperture diaphragm, the aperture varies as you extend the zoom range.

Using a hand held meter is the correct way to determine exposure with these lenses. On the other hand, I put my Canon in Program mode, shot a frame to see how it looked on the LCD, and adjusted my exposure compensation to minus 1/3 stop. Any time I'm shooting with Canon this seems to work just fine.

The Phoenix 650-1,300mm zoom actually looks very nice when you take it out of the box. The beige to white finish gives the lens good shelf appeal. It's when you pick it up that you know this isn't going to be a typical lens.

In your hands straight from the package this is one lightweight lens. Each section of the lens is a simple screw together connection. In trying to unthread the lens cap I removed the lens hood extension too. Oops.

The tripod mount is a flat plate just behind the focusing barrel. Once my camera was attached and the outfit mounted to a tripod it was quickly evident that the tripod mount plate is way too far forward of the balance point. This became more pronounced as the lens was lengthened. My advice is to strip everything off of your camera you don't need - extension grips, straps, everything.

Once the lens was on the tripod and the exposure was set I was ready to shoot. The focus barrel is well forward but the focus action was nicely damped and could be precisely controlled with one finger. (This is important because I need the other nine fingers to make sure the outfit didn't bounce around on the tripod too much.)

One odd thing I noticed is that the lens focused beyond infinity, so it was possible to outfocus your horizon. We can leave the metaphysical discussion of what lies beyond infinity for another time.

After trying to track moving cars on a road 200 yards away it became clear that 200 yards is entirely too close for this lens and a moving subject. And I only had the lens at 650mm!

It was time to zoom the lens. Now on a modern zoom lens there is a smooth push / pull action or a barrel twist to move the elements through the zoom range. Not so on the 650-1,300. On this lens the user must loosen a tensioning ring, slide the lens barrel in and out and re-tension the ring in order to change focal length. You aren't going to do this with your eye at the viewfinder.

All along the length of travel on the zoom barrel are etched marks for focal length and aperture. Beginning at 650mm and an aperture of f8.0 the lens ends at 1,300mm and aperture f16.0.

For as simplistic as the zoom adjustment is, I have to say it does the job. I'd change the lens name to be more accurate though. This isn't a zoom lens, it's a variable focal length lens. But taking the time to explain that term would just muddy the marketing waters.

With the lens fully extended I stepped back from the tripod and looked at the rig. That was the last time I did that. Without me there to lend some support the back end of the lens had flexed downward about 10 to 15 degrees due to the camera's weight!

I shot several series of images and you know what? The images were pretty darn good. Focus was fairly sharp, exposure was even across the image frame, contrast was a little on the low side but a quick fix in Photoshop.

Below is a series that starts with a 50mm setting on a Tamron 28-75. The yellow circle almost dead center in the top left image indicates where the FedEx drop box is in relation to my shooting position. Then the Phoenix was mounted and the lens length settings were 650, 900 and finally 1,300.

There is no way this lens will appeal to the serious nature photographer. It just isn't fast, durable or accurate enough. But for those who want a super telephoto at a budget price this lens actually works. You just have to be aware that to get the best out of it, you have to work a little too.

Phoenix 650mm to 1,300mm Zoom $339.99

Part of the Blog reaching one year in age is reviewing some of the statistics. Google has this neat tool that allows you to see where your website hits come from, and over the last twelve months our Blog has had multiple hits from every state in the Union - except Vermont.

Kind of like those big travel trailers with the US map on the back showing where the owners have been, I only have one blank spot to fill: Vermont.

So maybe, just maybe, if I shamelessly use the name Vermont often enough in this entry the Google Spiders will crawl it and offer up a hit so that I may color in my map.

(The good people of Vermont have been by to visit I'll bet, there's just a good chance that their internet connections may originate in a neighboring state.)

By the Google stats:

The Blog has had two more visitors from Sri Lanka than from Vermont.

Four Romanian's have visited and they hung around for a while too - but nobody from Vermont.

212 visits have come from Australia and New Zealand, but not a soul from Mountpelier.

Winnemucca Nevada contributed one blog hit and even they beat out Vermount.

Actually, Porter's has many, many friends and customers in Vermont. I just can't explain why from all corners of the country, this is the one place that we didn't score a hit. And in being true to my nature as a collector I like complete sets.

A year ago today the first entry to the Porter’s Blog was posted. Surviving the first full year isn’t a great feat, I’m not advocating that there should be a commemorative stamp issued, nor will there be any birthday cake. (There are 15 year-old's who have blogged for many more years than we have.)

I was simply struck by the realization that 365 days ago at about this same time I was staring at a blank screen in a completely blank blog.

Over the last year I realized that the blogosphere didn’t need another product review site – there are a lot of those already. If the Porter’s Blog was to look at products it would be because I was looking to make a personal purchase, like the entries concerning carbon fiber tripods last month. The thought is that products represent buying decisions, not just specifications and numbers.

Another reason the blog has reviewed specific products has been when we found some truly unique or overlooked item. These items I have usually categorized as the Weird and Wonderful. Tomorrow continues that tradition when I post comments on the Phoenix 650–1,300mm Super Telephoto lens.

Back when I was a kid it was Fred Spira and his company Spiratone who imported all of those low cost T-Mount lenses. Today, Phoenix follows in those same footsteps by offering super powerful, stop-down aperture, manual focus lenses. 650-1,300mm zoom for under $340.00; is it too good to be true? Oh heck yes, but they are a lot of fun to play with!

A full year has gone by and I still have a job that allows me to work with great people and get hands-on with some of the best (or frequently the oddest) photo equipment available. Life is good…

We all love a good rumor, don't we? Entire websites are dedicated to speculating on what camera manufacturers will do next. Some of the sites are wildly out there, others seem to have an inside track into design team thinking.

A current Nikon rumor is that the next DSLR will be the D3000, a video-less D5000 aimed at replacing (finally) the D40. Then there is speculation of a D300s and a D700X. Each represents an upgrade in resolution and a few internal tweaks which is why they have a version number and not a new model.

What seems to be the most wild rumor is that Nikon is developing a medium format digital camera. This rumor has persisted for years - even back into the 90's about a film version. I'll bet this started because Nikon R&D made a mock up of a medium format camera once upon a time and somebody else mentioned it. I don't put a lot of credence into this one, remember that GM once had a mock up of a flying car too.

Canon rumors right now seem to be a little straight laced and, well, boring. The T1i is rumored to be getting a little brother named T1, and like the Nikon mentioned above it will simply be a video-less version. There are rumors of an EOS 1D mk IV, but again it's kind of a "so what?" rumor. More tweaks and resolution changes but nothing substantially different.

There are rumblings of a Canon 60D to be announced this Fall, but there are few speculations on how it might be a radical departure.

The one rumor that I'm not taking for granted isn't about a specific brand or model. It's the rumor that camera model shelf life is now 12 months, down from 14 to 18 months a short time ago.

While all of the speculation can be fun and it does have it's entertainment value, it more often than not just misses the mark. "My friend's first cousin has an ex-girlfriend who works in the ad distribution center for a major retailer..." seems to be a frequently quoted source. Kind of like the example below.

In August 2008 the big rumor (supported with "photo evidence" to back it up) was of a Canon 7D. The specs were all correct and even the assumed announcement date. But the name and the box art? Not so much a winner:


Even if this box did exist, did anyone notice that the numeral "7" looked to be in a skinnier font and appears more pixelated than the rest of the typeface? Probably they did, but it was still a good rumor!

It's very strange, but certain camera brands and models develop a regional following. As an example, around St. Louis I read that they sell tons of Pentax and Olympus cameras, yet in our hometown those are the two slowest performing brands.

Most of our in-store customers look at Olympus and think "How small, how cute... now show me the Canon and Nikon cameras." As for Pentax, after the KM / K1000 / LX die-hards purchased their new digital systems we could barely give the brand away. That's not hyperbole... at one point in the stores we tried to give away a FREE Pentax M30 with each new Pentax DSLR purchase and we had no takers!

Yet almost every one of the people who did purchase the Olympus or the Pentax DSLR from our stores has become a raving fan. This regional bias has nothing to do with quality because both Olympus and Pentax are of the highest quality.

Thankfully our catalog sales even out the bumps. Pentax and Olympus do quite well with our catalog and web customers. But it makes me wonder, if the folks in St. Louis sell so much Pentax and Oly, are Canon and Nikon sales soft in that part of the country? I'm betting not.

Maybe it’s the fact that my dinner time has come and gone without any food, but I’m thinking that Nikon and Canon are a lot like Whopper and Big Mac – each has its fans, each has a significant (and huge) market share. But there’s always that one little joint in most towns that achieves cult status.

“Oh, man, the Starlight has the best burger you can get! You’ll swear off Big Macs after you have one.” or “Yeah, I eat a Whopper from time to time but a Runza beats it any day!” So in St. Louis do we hear the photo world equivalent “I kind of like Canon, but around here that new Olympus is what everyone is buying!”

OK, maybe that’s not the best marketing comparison, $3 burgers versus $500 to $800 cameras. (I’m still blaming the food digression on a delayed dinner). But is reality any less absurd? Let’s look at an example.

The Nikon D40 at $449.99 is small 6MP camera with an 18-55 zoom lens. That's about all it has going for it. The Olympus E520 at $499.99 is a 10 MP camera with Live View, Image Stabilization, Face Detection, Dust Removal and 14-42 zoom lens (same angle of view as the Nikon). So, for $50 more with the Olympus you get 66% more resolution and all those other features in an equally diminutive body size…

So why is the Nikon D40 out selling Olympus E520? Is it because Ashton Kutcher promoted the Nikon D40? I hope not, because both the camera and the actor share something in common… The D40 was introduced way back in 2006 and that was also the last year Ashton was seen on a movie screen.

Obviously we all tend to dance with the one who brought us. If we grew up with Canon, we shoot Canon. If our school had lots of Pentax, we look for Pentax cameras for ourselves. There is no way to pin down the watershed moment when one avid user of a brand influenced 10 others into buying the same brand, thus starting a localized market trend.

The outcome remains the same. Canon and Nikon own 70% or 80% of the total world camera market between them, but thank God for Pentax, Olympus and the rest.

Lots of innovation comes from these small market share companies. DSLR Live View was first on Olympus E-10 cameras. Built-in Image Stabilization and Dust Removal – look to Pentax and Olympus again. Exposure programs beyond Portrait and Sports? Thanks go to Casio. We may not be able to explain why Chicago loves Canon and St. Louis loves Olympus, but I like the fact that each brand finds someplace to flourish.