Markus,
My Tokina zoom suggestion is more practical than optical.
Its weight is not much different from the Pentax 70-210/4 in
that they're both basically heavy zooms. The brighter finder
is nice to have.
WRT mirror lenses, some people are dissatisfied with the
out-of-focus circles. Hence the 400/5.6.
Personally, I think you'll find 400mm too short for good birding.
A 1.4x, like the Sigma APO, would keep your image quality
high and provide additional magnification. Or a good, but more
expensive, Pentax unit would also be recommended.
Consider a 1.4x on either Tokina and not having to wait for a
really bright day. Shoot even on partly cloudy days.
Collin
At 11:17 PM 3/19/2006, you wrote:
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 03:42:06 +0100
From: "Markus Maurer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Which tele lens for poor mans bird photography
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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charset="us-ascii"
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Hi Collin
While I understand your recommendation for the Tokina 400mm, I question
myself why I should yet get another zoom in the same range I already have.
Beside being one stop faster I don't think that the Tokina 80-200mm would
show better results than the SP Tamron 70-210 3.5-4 zoom or the Pentax A
70-210 zoom I already own, they are both good.
Why should I replace the SP Tamron 500/8 mirror lens, which got very good
test results **for a mirror lens** with a smaller one and a 1.4 converter? I
see no gain in doing that.
I plan to try to add the 1.4 Tamron SP converter to make it an 700mm mirror
lens on occasion and see how it performs on **a very bright day**
Anyway, I will have to test drive all of them and want to see how well the
old and bargain Soligor 350mm 5.6 screwmount lens does as well.
tanks and greetings
Markus
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose"
-- Jim Elliott
