craig66

The pictured lens does not have an M42 mount. You can buy M42/Canon adapters cheaply on eBay. If you want focus confirmation get one with a chip that reports the fact that a lens is mounted to the...

Thanks. Having a crack at these birds would mean a bit of trip. The location is Federation Walk Reserve on the Gold Coast in Australia. The reserve is the result of an ongoing re-vegatation project...

Rainbow Bee-eater. A65 and Tamron 200-500. Heavily cropped as these birds are not easy to get close to.

I have a couple of Yongnuo YN-460 II and cheap eBay radio triggers. Power is adjustable on the YN-460-II in 1/64 steps. They fire reliably. The only problem with the radio triggers is that...

While I applaud saving this snake, I think some caution is advisable in handling snakes by the less than expert. I would never handle an Australian snake - even if I thought I recognized the...

These water leaks have been vastly blown out of proportion. The Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority has released measurements of the radioactivity in sea water sampled in the sea off Fukushima,...

There is a Loony 11 rule In my experience this seems to be about right or maybe a little more is better. In general you want to "expose to the right" ie use highest exposure without clipping as...

The radiation level "90 minutes by car" from Fukushima Daiichi is most likely less that that in London or New York. In Tokyo it is about half that in London or New York....

Offensive? That's a wee bit extreme. I can't see any reason why the presence or absence of GPS makes any difference to the camera features you mention. And I doubt that a lot of effort goes into...

I assume you are referring to the 75-300 budget priced lens. The only site I know of that has published 55-300 resolution tests is CameraStuffReview. Personally I don't rate that site as highly as...

Here is a full resolution closeup example with the 55-300 DT on A65. Not as good as a true macro lens of course, but very presentable

At that price grab it. I'm certain you won't get more IQ for the money. As for weight, the 55-300 is light weight for a 300mm zoom. You won't find anything much lighter

I have the 55-300 and don't think it's that bad at all. In fact I think it's quite good. Contrary to a claim made above vignetting is not really an issue (see Kurt Munger's review). There is some...

That's an interesting comment. I have the 200-500 and I'm always interested in what may be better alternatives for a sane price. I suspect the old screw drive AF in A-mount is often undervalued. I...

I find that extremely hard to believe. DOS is way too crude. Why would anybody want to use DOS when the vastly more sophisticated and capable Linux kernel is free? It's possible Sony cameras use a...

Shot today with a lens that cost $23 (+ postage). An M42 mount 200mm f4 SMC Takumar of early 1970s vintage on an A65. Probably at f8. RAW processed with Rawtherapee. No resize - just square cropped...

I'm in Australia so the relative advantages/disadvantages may differ from those in the US. I've bought a number of photographic items from Hong Kong sellers. Mostly it has been smooth with a couple...

I do have the 55-200 DT and I'm not impressed. I also have the 55-300 DT which has better IQ. At 300 mm it is better than the 55-200 at 200 mm, sharper through the whole range, less CA and less...

A lot of these M42 tele primes have quite a long minimum focusing distance. For example the Takumar 135mm  f3.5 has maximum magnification of 0.11x.  You need a LOT of tubes to get near 1:1....

Who can say for sure but it would be a fair bet that it would be significantly more than that of the current Tamron 200-500 f5-f6.3. Incidentally the current lens does f5.6 up to 430mm and then...