Mark wrote:
>You need to add two things to your lens to obtain really sharp pictures, >however: A solid tripod and good technique. Here's a nice article that >describes long lens technique: >http://www.naturephotographers.net/bh0201-1.html Sorry, but this article is written by a fool. No ball head on the planet can support a 600mm lens. No wonder this guy struggles with the lens. Take a look at the image and see the thin stem of the head holding the long and heavy 600mm lens with most of the weight off-axis. This guy is trying to defeat the laws of physics. Every nature photography book I own, written by European nature photographers mind you, will tell that this setup simply doesn't work. It is also my experience. I stopped using my heavy duty ball head because it didn't produce sharp images with my 600mm lens. Not only is the magnification a problem; equally important is the weight. A Pentax 600/4 weights 7kg with almost all the weight in the front of the lens. This means you cannot really trust the weight load capacity of your tripod/head since most of the weight are off-axis. A 300/2.8 with converter will in fact be a set-up that's far easier to handle. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
