Great detail, Mark. What do you mean by slow shutter flash synch? I use high speed synch with the AF540FGZ and the A 400/5.6. Works great. Paul On Mar 28, 2007, at 8:56 PM, Mark Cassino wrote:
> The robins are back and just for fun I setup the birding rig (K10D, > A*400 f2.8, AF 1.7x Converter, and AF360FGZ for fill) and took a few > shots in the yard. Probably the first time in a couple of years > that I > broke out the birding stuff. > > No great shots - I just wanted to see how well the lens / camera combo > worked. I also wanted to see how well the anti-shake worked. > > So - just for the technical exercise, here's a little jpg of a robin: > > http://markcassino.com/b2evolution/media/_IGP4349.jpg > > And here's an 'actual pixels' shot of the bird's head: > > http://markcassino.com/b2evolution/media/_IGP4349ap1.jpg > > And shoulder: > > http://markcassino.com/b2evolution/media/_IGP4349ap2.jpg > > Those were shot at ISO 400 in RAW DNG mode, adjustment in ACR in the > form of minor tweaks to the color temp and levels. I boosted detail / > sharpness to 60 in ACR as well. The image was opened as an > un-interpolated 10 megapixel shot (no upsampling or downsampling of > the > actual pixels shots.) > > My only complaint - the slow shutter flash sync does not work with the > A* 400 lens. Checking the manual - it's not intended to. That feature > (for whatever reason) is reserved for F, FA, FAJ, DA, etc lenses. So > working with fill flash, which is pretty essential for birding, still > requires shooting in manual mode to get the slow shutter sync for > pre-F > lenses. > > As it worked out in this case, the shot was taken at 1/180th > anyhow. The > effective aperture was f8 (f 4.5 on the lens, with the 1.7x multiplier > effect taking it to f8.) Flash was a -0.5 compensation for fill. The > lens / camera was on a ball head, left in free floating position (i.e. > not clamped down) so it could be moved quickly. > > I hadn't noticed the in-camera flash compensation adjustment > before, so > that was a nice discovery - much more convenient than fussing with the > dial on the flash. > > Overall I'm pretty happy with the level of detail and sharpness, > though > I still have some reservations about how bird feathers are > "rendered" by > digital cameras, not just the K10D. > > As for anti-shake - well - DUH! - I input the lens and teleconverter > focal length as 550mm, not close to the 680mm it really is (which, I > guess, would of called for a 700mm setting on the camera.) So A/S > set to > the wrong focal length looked like crap. Next time I'll try to do the > arithmetic right and see how A/S works when correctly setup. While the > camera is loosely mounted on the tripod, the whole intent is to > hold it > steady so the A/S may not be applicable. > > - MCC > > > -- > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > Mark Cassino Photography > Kalamazoo, Michigan > www.markcassino.com > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
