[zzeitg]

With the K-3/DA*300/HD1.4 I am free to wander around with a lightweight kit and shoot moving creatures at will with AF convenience.

That's exactly what I appreciate on this kit. I prefer to walk around and shoot and with DA*300 & 1.4 TC I have 420mm f5.6. If stacking 2x 1.4TC would work, I'd get almost 600mm yet lightweight and carriable.


I'm considering DA560 since some time, but in that case tripod work is a must and that discourages me a little. As I mentioned, I'd rather walk around instead of stick in one point and wait for the birds to come.

[Venom3300]

That's exactly what I appreciate on this kit. I prefer to walk around and shoot and with DA*300 & 1.4 TC I have 420mm f5.6. If stacking 2x 1.4TC would work, I'd get almost 600mm yet lightweight and carriable.


I'm considering DA560 since some time, but in that case tripod work is a must and that discourages me a little. As I mentioned, I'd rather walk around instead of stick in one point and wait for the birds to come.

You are going to have a really hard time hand holding a 560-600 mm lens on crop sensor on your target (a moving bird). Any little movement and it's going to go out of frame. Add in the fact that 2 TCs will make your AF unreliable and you pretty much won't get most shots. Plus the shutter speed required to handhold such a lens will increase you ISO perhaps beyond acceptable levels since you are already at f8 wide open.

In my opinion 400ishmm at 5.6 is the reasonable limit for walk around bird photography. Even then you should use a monopod or tripod when possible.

The bottom line is you are trying to have your cake and eat it too. It just doesn't work.

[biz-engineer]

In my opinion 400ishmm at 5.6 is the reasonable limit for walk around bird photography.

This is exactly my experience, even 420mm + TC is a bit long and AFC tracking with TC has some bugs.

I decided to go for 2x TC on tripod when more reach is needed, versus a Q based solution; for the following reasons:
- assumed the actual image resolution would be similar for the same equ. focal length
- TC is cheaper than a Q + K mount adapter + viewfinder
- if AF does not work with K-3, it's the same as with the Q: -> manual focus
- at the lowest ISO, APSc sensor offer better image quality than the Q, so I expect the APS-C to provide more room for PP enhancement

[crewl1]

- at the lowest ISO, APSc sensor offer better image quality than the Q, so I expect the APS-C to provide more room for PP enhancement

The DA*300 on Q7/S1 sensor at base ISO can have very good IQ, it just takes more effort and care to attain it.

[mocker]

Do we have any results? Same sample shots of DA300 + 2X 1.4 TC?