"You cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus." - 365 Project, Day 256

Last time I talked about huge lenses with huge price tags.  I'm going to go the opposite way this time.  How cheap can a lens be? With pro lenses from any major company being about $1200 a pop, not everybody can have a closetful of optical goodness.  In step companies like Tamron, Tokina, Opteka and Bower, with varying levels of quality, to help out non-millionaires to fill out their lensual desires.

Canon's 500mm f4 lens is a simple $9000.  Opteka's 500mm f8 lens a wallet-tearing $100.  Though this Opteka glass (if it actually is glass) may seem like a bargain, I seriously question the image quality coming out of it.  Shooting video it may not be too much of an issue, but for photography, I strongly suspect there is simply no competition over the clarity and detail one can obtain between these two lenses.  I'm sure you can play around with the Opteka and give your pictures a certain grungy look to give your pictures a certain style, but if you're going to want to blow your shots up to anything bigger than an 8x10, I doubt anybody would seriously consider this lens.

Here's what we took today, with gizmos somewhere between the $100 and $9k range.

Frank

His note: For all the ones who gave their lives in times of war.  We thank you for your sacrifice and you will never be forgotten.

Shannon

Her note: And now I have the complete set!

Mine

I was actually trying to do something else but it didn't turn out the way I wanted.  I did enjoy how this one ended up, though.  It's very vague and minimalist but I enjoy the intrigue of it.

I think I'm going to enjoy this weekend.