Originally posted by hinman Based on my limited research, the Novoflex is a much more capable lens but I don't recall seeing it adapted to Pentax mount. I thought the Novoflex only have Canon, Nikon and perhaps some other 4/3rd mount with extra adapter.
Do you own the Novoflex lens? I am planning to go low profile with the Tair-3 as in using it on a tripod in the beginning.
Thanks,
Hin
Hin, I have the last version (still in production, currently) of the Novoflex 400mm lens and the 600mm front element (these are interchangeable). The Novoflexes sport an interchangeable camera mount and you can easily swap any Nikon or Canon mount, which comes with a used lens, against the Pentax K mount.
I have tried the Novoflex 400 on the K10 and could handhold down to 1/40s sometimes. Something like 1/200s is a better bet.
In the image posted here, you see an older version, which uses a bellows for extension. The current version (in production for the last 20 years or so) uses a fully closed sliding tube mechanism, which is more rigid. On top it's got two handgrips, the one near the camera for focusing via the grip and a second one near the lens, which immensely helps to stabilize the lens. The grip at the front also has an intergrated electronic trigger switch, though without the intermediate contact for switching the camera on and AF adjustment etc. I called Novoflex to inquire, whether they could provide a two-step trigger, but they can't. I tried to get this trigger as a replacment part from Bushawk, to adapt it to the Novoflex and the Bushawk people in the US were very nice, but their European distriobutor ignored me. Now I taped a simple Chinese cable shutter release to the front grip of the lens...
If you buy a Novoflex try to get a later modell and be careful about the lens: the old 400mm lenses have only 2 lens-elements. Only later the T-Noflexar with 3 lenses came onto the market and it is much better. The 600mm has always only two elements, but I have never really used that.
Focusing, by the way, is in many situations much faster than AF. Birds are a good example, as there are often twiggs and leaves near or just in front of the birds, which irritate the AF (not only on Pentax cameras....) Manual focusing is much better and with the rapid focus lens, also really much faster. -- The more I write, the more I think, I should use it more often.
Ben