K-x + FA*300/4.5 + PM 1.7X (4 imgs)

I posted this in another thread (buried deep) and I thought that a couple of folks would want to see this so I made it's own thread.

OK, it's not a great day for shootin' but here is an outside test with the Pentax FA*300mm f4.5 with the Promaster 1.7X teleconverter on the K-x. No problem autofocusing.

First my standard lock shot test to check the sharpness. If I can read the letters ASSA then I consider the lens or the combo under test sharp. Subject is about 65 feet away.
Image #1 - 100% crop



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Image #2 - Bird Shot. Subject is about 25 feet away.



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Image #3 - Bird Shot Crop (that's right crop....not crap. )



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Image #4 - Bird Shot, 100% crop



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Cheers.

--
Ron - 'We don't have time to go take pics this afternoon Carl.'
Carl - 'What do you mean? It will only take 1/1000s.'

'Keep your eyes looking forward. However, glance back now and then to see where you've come from. It will put a smile on your face.' ~ brandrx

Ron ~ Retired.

Looking good Ron do you think it is better than the Pentax 1.7x ?
--
Regards Dean - Capturing Creation

ozdean said:

Looking good Ron do you think it is better than the Pentax 1.7x ?

Click to expand...

I think the Pentax-F 1.7X AFA would show a bit of CA's. Pentax-F 1.7X AFA encourages you to enter 500mm for SR. Pentax-F 1.7X AFA will also allow for manual focusing without having to put the lens into MF.

Promaster 1.7X will still show 300mm in the EXIF and the SR will act as if it is 300mm instead of 500mm. PM 1.7X will allow for the use of AF point selection.

It is not a good time of year for me to try, but I would hope that the Promaster 1.7X in combo with the FA*300/4.5 would be OK for BIF shooting, using AF-C and 11 point or 5 point focusing. I will hope that someone who reads this thread and has the same equipment and has a BIF to shoot at will check it out.

If the Promaster 1.7X works for BIF's (see above) then I would have to pick the Promaster 1.7X as "the better of the two".

BTW: It kinda looks like a bit of backfocus on that bird. Do you agree?

Cheers.

--
Ron - 'We don't have time to go take pics this afternoon Carl.'
Carl - 'What do you mean? It will only take 1/1000s.'

'Keep your eyes looking forward. However, glance back now and then to see where you've come from. It will put a smile on your face.' ~ brandrx

Ron ~ Retired.

Hi there, love this way of shooting bird pictures, but yet I have not the lens needed for this.

First I want to try the DA 55-300mm (lower budget) + K7 and shoot out of the hand. If not sufficient, I'am going to use a converter 1.4x or 1.7x?

For the expierenced, is this a good start?

Brandx had placed the shooting distance to his pictures, which I appreciate much to get a real feeling for the shooting capabilities.

BTW what bird are we talking about here?

Some advice I would appreciate.

seemoss said:

Hi there, love this way of shooting bird pictures, but yet I have not the lens needed for this.

First I want to try the DA 55-300mm (lower budget) + K7 and shoot out of the hand. If not sufficient, I'am going to use a converter 1.4x or 1.7x?

For the expierenced, is this a good start?

Click to expand...

Most of us have started with one of these kinds of lenses....Pentax, Tamron, Sigma 50/70-300mm. We didn't have SR when we started but we plugged away and sometimes got some pretty good images of birds at rest and birds in flight. Two or three of the best birds in flight images I ever got were taken with a Pentax *istDS and a Tamron 70-300mm. Those were the days.

seemoss said:

Brandx had placed the shooting distance to his pictures, which I appreciate much to get a real feeling for the shooting capabilities.

Click to expand...

With a 55-300mm lens, if you can keep the subject about 10 feet (3 meters) to 20 feet (6 meters) then you should be able to get some good keeper smaller bird at rest shots.

You will most likely find that in the very near future you will want to have at least 500mm to shoot at the birds. That means either a teleconverter for your 300mm or a Sigma 50-500mm (also known as (aka) Bigma), Sigma 150-500mm, or one of the very expensive primes of 500mm f4.5 or 600mm f4.

If you have the skills of stealth then you can probably get by with 300mm to 400mm.

seemoss said:

BTW what bird are we talking about here?

Click to expand...

The bird I shot in the OP is the common House Finch (male).

seemoss said:

Some advice I would appreciate.

Click to expand...

See above.

Cheers.

--
Ron - 'We don't have time to go take pics this afternoon Carl.'
Carl - 'What do you mean? It will only take 1/1000s.'

'Keep your eyes looking forward. However, glance back now and then to see where you've come from. It will put a smile on your face.' ~ brandrx

Ron ~ Retired.

Looking good Ron!

You're right about lens choice,if your budget permit get one of the longer Sigma zoom lens,your lens will never be long enough!

I use a 400mm lens and sometimes with a TC 1,4x and wish i had a longer lens at times,especially for the small birds.

Bird photography is hard but so much fun and rewarding when you get a good one
--
Leopold
Pentax forever
http://smarcoux.zenfolio.com/

Thanks for advice, I'll follow it.

Now I have just another question about lenses;
Better telezoom than tele? How works this in practice?
I know that telezoom has less light troughput than tele, so?

Hi,

Telephoto zooms (like Sigma 120-400mm) are not as fast at the long end F/5.6 or f/6.3 depending on the Zoom,where a fixedTelephoto is f/2.8 or f/4 or f/5.6 depending on the model,so you can have a faster shutter speed and shoot in lower light level.

Zoom have the advantage that you can change focal length when you need it.

There is fast zooms like the Sigma 100-300/4.0 or the DA* 60-250mm/4.0!
--
Leopold
Pentax forever
http://smarcoux.zenfolio.com/

Some more test images taken with the K-x + Pentax-FA*300mm f4.5 + Promaster 1.7X PZ_Af teleconverter. All images were handheld.

Image #1 - 100% crop



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Image #2 - 100% crop



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Image #3 - The old wagon across the street.



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Image #4 - My Mountain pano from my Sittin' Place.



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Cheers.

--
Ron - 'We don't have time to go take pics this afternoon Carl.'
Carl - 'What do you mean? It will only take 1/1000s.'

'Keep your eyes looking forward. However, glance back now and then to see where you've come from. It will put a smile on your face.' ~ brandrx

Ron ~ Retired.