How to work a Telephoto lens for DSLR cameras?

I own a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera and recently just bought a 650-1300mm Telephoto Lens for the Nikon. I've done everything the book said and then I went to use it and all pictures came out black… I can't adjust the exposure or anything, does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

And before someone asks, yes the lens cap was off and yes the camera was on, yes the lens was attatched to the camera properly, yes I had it on the M setting (as the book said) and my pictures still came out dark. What am I doing wrong?

If you have it on M, then you should be able to manually adjust the exposure. Thats what the M stands for.

Sounds like your exposure is too fast, try slowing it down, and opening up the aperture more(The lower the f number the better), or turning the ISO up.

If your camera isn't letting you adjust your exposure, then something is seriously wrong with your camera.

M is manual, you have to meter to get the correct settings to dial in, far easier to use aperture priority you set the aperture on the lens and the camera will work out the correct(ish) shutter speed.

These pages explain how Exposure works, the relationship between ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed, you can't just put shutter speeds and apertures into your camera you would like to use. Manual mode is for people that know what they are doing.

http://www.westfield-photo.org/exposure.html

Just going into the "M" setting isn't enough. You'll need to manually (that's what the "M" is for) adjust the shutter speed so that you get the proper exposure.
These inexpensive telephotos like yours have a fixed aperture, so you can't vary the aperture to adjust the exposure… Just the ISO and shutter speed.
So set your camera to ISO 800, go outside on a sunny day, and set your shutter speed to about 1/1000th sec. Adjust it up or down from there to get the right exposure. Your camera has indicators in the viewfinder to let you know when the exposure is correct -- watch them as you adjust the shutter speed, and center the indicator.

What you did wrong is not read the fine print or if you did, you did not understand what it meant in relationship to your specific camera.

* that lens is a stop-down metering, manual focus lens and it has NO CPU
* your camera is an entry level dSLR and uses Nikkor AF-S lenses if you want to use the auto-focus feature of your fine camera or Nikkor AF lenses if you don't mind manually focusing the lenses. In both cases, the meter on the camera will work just fine. BUT other lenses, especially very inexpensive, low technology lenses like the one you purchased can't use the meter in your camera. You will have to use an external light meter and then manually set the cameras shutter speed, set the preset lens aperture to that indicated by the light meter, focus the lens and then move the lens aperture ring to the preset aperture setting. As you can see this is a very slow process, so patience is important

I suggest you return the lens and save your money toward a lens that will work with your camera.

The longest lenses made for current dSLR camera which are auto-focus are either lenses like the Nikkor 200-400 mm f/4 ($7, 000) or Nikkor 600 mm f/4 ($10, 300) As you can see there's a vast difference in the cost of a precision lens vs.a poorly constructed lens using decades old technology.

The best low cost telephoto zoom for your camera would be the Nikkor AF-S 70-300 mm lens ($590)