Hi Francis thanks for jumping and I saw your photos before but did not realize what kind of equipment you used. As written to others I will make some tests now and post the results, could be interesting to compare them to Tim's bird project starting too now...
Are all of your pictures uncropped, even the closeup of the birds head no. 4 and made with the converter combo? Of course I like fast lenses too, but the price and weight ratio must be considered too, I have a fast Pentax K 1.2 50mm I use very seldom because it is too bulky conmpared to an A 1.7. Still, I love the bright finder of the 1.2 :-) greetings Markus >>-----Original Message----- >>From: Francis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 1:22 AM >>To: [email protected] >>Subject: Re: Which tele lens for poor mans bird photography >> >> >>Hi Markus, >>I'll preface this by saying that I've only had an SLR for less than four >>years and am far from being an expert on the subject. I have taken a lot >>of bird photos in that time though, and none of them were taken with >>lenses longer then 200mm (here are some recent ones >>http://photosynth.ca/photo/f/birds ?/index.html ). When I was starting out >>I really wanted to get one of those cool looking 400mm lenses, but after >>much research I decided to go against most of the advice that I had >>found (that being to get the longest lens that you can afford regardless >>of very limiting maximum aperture), and got a K 200mm f2.5 ($300us) and >>a 2x TC instead. I am very happy that I did so because, though the image >>quality with the TC on may not be quite as good as a real 400mm, this >>setup offers much more versatility, is the same speed and length (with >>the TC) for a comparable price, and most of all, it's fast (without the >>TC). For the kind of light that a lot of wildlife photography is done >>in, a lens's speed can be more important than its length. Plus, if you >>decide that you really want to get into wildlife photography and buy a >>bunch of good glass, it's still an essential piece of kit and will never >>really need to be upgraded. >>Hope this helps, >>Francis >> >>P.S. >>I think lens speed is rather underrated on the PDML. Though it seems >>like one stop is fairly insignificant, it actually doubles the amount of >>light getting to the sensor and thereby reduces motion blur by 50%. >> >> >> >>Markus Maurer wrote: >> >>>Hi Pentaxians >>> >>>I do not have a "real" tele lens for bird photography but would >>like to try >>>to get some cormorant shots soon and therefore seek for your advice: >>> >>>I understand that around 400-600mm on film would be a good start for such >>>big birds, do you agree? >>>Anyway, all I have at the moment is listed below, the flashes I >>own will not >>>be powerful enough for more than 12-20 meters fill flash. I'm prepared to >>>invest in a better lens when I like that kind of photography but for a >>>start: >>> >>> >>>Which lens or combination would be the best for that task, I >>know that all >>>of the combinations will be rather slow? >>> >>> >>>a very old Soligor 350mm F 5.6 M42 tele >>>Tamron SP 70-210 3.5-4 + Tamron SP 1.4 >>>or Tamron SP 2x converter >>>Pentax M 200mm + Pentax A 2xS converter >>>Pentax A70-210mm + Pentax A2xS converter >>> >>>or still the Tamron SP 500/8 mirror lens despite it's shortcomings? >>> >>>Or just forget about bird photography with that poor equipment? >>> >>> >>>thanks for any recommendations >>> >>>greetings >>>Markus >>> >>> >>> >>
