[cmohr]

Conrats on the Lens, should be hard to go wrong with it. Maybe try to pick up a Pentax 1.7x AFA teleconverter to pair with it.

[snostorm]

Hi altovintner,

Congrats on your purchase!

I would also suggest you look for a deal on an F 1.7x Auto Focusing Adapter. I use this with my ultra teles more than not for birding as it offers 3 distinct advantages:

1. 1.7x magnification and AF, of course. Your MF 300/2.8 will become an AF 510mm f4.8. The AFA with tele lenses does have a limited focusing range, so you have to prefocus the lens to get it within the AFA's range. This is not as much of a detriment as it sounds to be though, as once you've used it for a while, it becomes second nature, and this brings up the second advantage. . .

2. It acts as a focus limiter. My FA* 300/2.8 is the only one of my ultra tele lenses (I have a few. . .) that includes a focus limiter, and it's a bit fussy to use, IMO, even though it's got 3 distance ranges. The AFA, it acts as a natural focus limiter, and once you're in the range of the AFA to AF, slight focus corrections using AF are easy and quick, and if the camera misses AF lock completely, even a full lock to lock hunt takes only a small fraction of a second, and you're back in focus as opposed to a full MFD to ∞ with a normal AF lens. I'm probably not describing this well, but as a birder, I can tell you that the main reason why I habitually use the AFA is for the focus limiting function, though the 1.7x mag is a very close 2nd.

3. Once you've gotten the MF prefocus drill down, AF is extremely quick to lock, and it is, more often than not, dead on. The limited focusing range and the very light focusing elements in the AFA are the reasons for the very fast lock.

The Tokina should also be good enough to try stacked TCs. With all of my 300/2.8s I can use the AFA + a quality 1.4x TC to get 714mm f6.7. Even though this is a relatively slow max aperture, it's about the same as the Sigma 50-500 at 500mm, but you're shooting at 714mm. . . and you can still shoot at the lens' Minimum Focusing Distance (and sometimes a little bit closer).

Here are some samples with various camera/lens/AFA combos, all cropped a bit and PP'd to taste, except for the 100% crop:

*ist DS, Tamron SP 300/2.8, Tamron 140F 1.4x, P F 1.7x AFA. Handheld with no SR obviously. A lucky shot admittedly, followed by a 100% crop to show the wing feather detail. pretty remarkable for a 6 MP camera, IMO





Same camera/lens/TC combo, shot from a tripod.



K20, same lens/TC combo, shot from a tripod



K20, FA* 300/2.8, Sigma EX 1.4x AF APO TC, 1.7x AFA



Same as above



K-7, FA* 300/2.8, 1.7x AFA



Good shooting with your new lens!

Scott

[panoguy]

Oh, and now you need to get one of these as well:

Wide Open Tees — Lens Size Matters Shirt

[altovintner]

Snostorm: Quite simply your pics are awesome! FYI, I have a Tamron 1.4x that I paid way too much for. Thanks for tips on the 1.7x.

Panoguy: Love it! Thanks for sharing!

[altovintner]

Conrats on the Lens, should be hard to go wrong with it. Maybe try to pick up a Pentax 1.7x AFA teleconverter to pair with it.

Hi cmohr. Thanks for the suggestion about the 1.7x.

[cmohr]

Hi cmohr. Thanks for the suggestion about the 1.7x.

When I was about to get that one I posted the link for but missed out on, I was going to use it with my 1.7x AFA, for all the reasons the other guys have already mentioned, get close with the manual focus and just let the converter fine tune the focus, great focus limiter. I've used it on my Sigma 300/2.8 and it works perfectly in that way.

[audiobomber]

I've resisted buying the AF 1.7X. It would be useful at times but mostly with supertelephoto I'm shooting birds in trees, and AF doesn't work.

[panoguy]

FYI: you guys suck. I now have a email alert for "pentax 300 2.8" on eBay.

(Already got the 1.7x AFA...)

[steve1307]

FYI: you guys suck. I now have a email alert for "pentax 300 2.8" on eBay.

(Already got the 1.7x AFA...)

So did I, I think the only result you get right now are the 2 A*300 f2.8 one is 2 grand !! and the other is 5 grand !!!!!!

suggest also to include Tamron 300 2.8 (and check it has a PKA mount or factor the cost in)
also may want to include Tokina 300 2.8 (you'll also get hits for the expensive Canon/Nikon AF mount version)

[panoguy]

So did I, I think the only result you get right now are the 2 A*300 f2.8 one is 2 grand !! and the other is 5 grand !!!!!!

suggest also to include Tamron 300 2.8 (and check it has a PKA mount or factor the cost in)
also may want to include Tokina 300 2.8 (you'll also get hits for the expensive Canon/Nikon AF mount version)

No kidding. Won't be buying a pristine Pentax-branded one any time soon...

I do also have the Tamron and Tokina variants on alerts. Looking at sales histories, there are always Tamrons up there, but the adaptall mount kinda strikes me as a mechanical weak point. The Tokinas are pretty rare from what I've seen around here... but we'll see.

Jeez... just last week I was thinking "yeah, the 55-300 is all I need."
LBA!!