[8540tomg]

Zewak,

Yes - it's the nearly extinct Headless Blackbird. Only found in the Purple Fringe Swamps of Southern Ontario these days.

Cheers,

Tom G

[Lowell Goudge]

Zewak,

Yes - it's the nearly extinct Headless Blackbird. Only found in the Purple Fringe Swamps of Southern Ontario these days.

Cheers,

Tom G

Oh, someone has mentioned the dreaded purple fringe.

To be clear, under the right conditions the 300F4 can make lots of it, I get some all the time when I shot branches against the sky..

Somewhere in this thread, you can actually see the real issue with CA in all it's glory. There is a bird on a branch with Purple fringing on one side and green on the other. The bird is in focus, and the color of fringing changes when you consider in front or behind focus point.


overall SO WHAT it is still a great lens, and used in the right conditions performs very well for a 30+yr old design. Build quality is far superior to most consumer lenses today

[8540tomg]

Lowell,

You are right the K 300 is a great old lens. I love it. This is just the first time I noticed purple fringe. As a rule I don't look for it but this time it just jumped out at me. Considering I had a 2x on the back and was working with roughly a 900mm lens I was amazed I could get a picture at all.

Tom G

[Lowell Goudge]

Lowell,

You are right the K 300 is a great old lens. I love it. This is just the first time I noticed purple fringe. As a rule I don't look for it but this time it just jumped out at me. Considering I had a 2x on the back and was working with roughly a 900mm lens I was amazed I could get a picture at all.

Tom G

Tom

I fully agree, mine is on my K10 as we speak, along with the 1.7x AF TC.

BTW worst CA I ever saw with it was a great egret. Not a good idea shooting a white bird but you say it really shine with my posting of the chickadee.

[hrishi]

the other night, I decided to go on the terrace withk10d, 300/4, 2x TC and a pillow, (and of course terrace door keys!) placed the pillow on the parapet wall and explored through it, searching for subjects..On a building which is 7 buildings and a road away from my terrace, this flashlight lit sign board stood out in the dark..

the snap is unedited, A 6MP jepg straight from the camera..

CAs are seen too distinctly ..(but they are always senn on my 300/4 even without the TC) :ugh:
The shot was at ISO 100, SPot metering, wide open (f/8), about a 1/2 sec long....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hrishikesh_chandanpurkar/2602442677/sizes/l/

this shot has increased my hopes that this combo will work with a tripod/monopod ...should start making the tripod colla ASAP..

Also, Will try shooting a more 3D subject..

btw, I still dont know how to upload a photo with original size on the web..even this flickr image isnt of the original size..

[Zewrak]

the other night, I decided to go on the terrace withk10d, 300/4, 2x TC and a pillow, (and of course terrace door keys!) placed the pillow on the parapet wall and explored through it, searching for subjects..On a building which is 7 buildings and a road away from my terrace, this flashlight lit sign board stood out in the dark..

the snap is unedited, A 6MP jepg straight from the camera..

CAs are seen too distinctly ..(but they are always senn on my 300/4 even without the TC) :ugh:
The shot was at ISO 100, SPot metering, wide open (f/8), about a 1/2 sec long....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hrishikesh_chandanpurkar/2602442677/sizes/l/

this shot has increased my hopes that this combo will work with a tripod/monopod ...should start making the tripod colla ASAP..

Also, Will try shooting a more 3D subject..

btw, I still dont know how to upload a photo with original size on the web..even this flickr image isnt of the original size..

Oops! You don't have permission to view this page.

[hrishi]

oh...I tried changin the settings, max I available is the 'Any Flickr User' option...that means if u aint a flickr user u cant view that page??!!!

Now can any1 suggest me a good image uploadin site where Anyone can see the photo n the photo can be shown at its original size??

[hrishi]

OK,

Hre is the link for the entire image, small sized, which I believe anyone can see..

SMC 300/4 + 2x Teleconverter on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

and here is the 100% crop of it..

100% crop of the previous image on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

hope people dont have probs accessing the images..

[8540tomg]

Hrishi,

We are getting there Hrishi. Once you get some sort of tripod collar made you will have a lot more success with this lens. While shake reduction helps a lot, when focal lengths start reaching the 600mm and higher range one needs some sort of serious support with all lenses no matter who makes them. It is just a fact of life.

I'm going to continue with my K 300 and K6-2x experiment as it is fun and I really want to see what is possible with this combo. Let's keep posting from time to time to see how we are progressing.

I've begun to think maybe we are being a little tough on the old K 300mm f/4 with this purple fringing (PF) thing. Chromatic aberrations (CA), purple fringing in high contrast situations are still present in modern lenses. Should we be surprised they are present in a 30-year-old lens or modern lens for that matter?

Klaus Schroiff of Photozone in his recent review (Feb. 2008) of the new
Pentax DA* 200mm f/2.8 ED found evidence of CA and PF in this new lens
as well. The overall evaluation of the new lens was very good but
longitudinal chromatic aberrations were present too.

Pentax SMC DA* 200mm f/2.8 ED [IF] SDM - Review / Test Report

Says Klaus:

“In high contrast situations the new DA* 200 lens shows a rather high
amount of purple fringing and longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA), colored out-of-focus halos, are also higher than average.”

It seems you can pay over $1,100 for this new lens and still get PF. I doubt anyone would argue that the DA* 200 f/2.8 is not a good lens. I want one myself – badly. But it is not a perfect lens. That lens doesn’t exist and never will. Depending on condition, at $200 to $400 on EBAY for a K 300mm, you can get a lens capable of stunning shots but it comes with some limitations. If you are aware of the CA and PF issues you simply avoid high contrast situations. You might miss a few shots but there are still a lot of good ones to be had.

The K 300 is still a great lens and a bargain to boot.



Cheers,

Tom G

[8540tomg]

Hi all,

I posted this in the K Club but it seems to work here as well. After all this is where the K 300 crowd gathers. My trials with the K 300 and 2X combo continue. This time in the back yard- not as many mosquitos. All shots K10 on monopod, most with AF 360 FGZ flash, ISO 800, between f4 and f8. Think I'm getting a little better with this package. All shots right out of camera with no post processing. Fisrt few are a common Grackle which drove off the smaller birds.










Chickadee

[Lowell Goudge]

As I said a long time ago in this thread, once you figure out how to use this lens, and what you can do with it, it is a good lens. Mine is used with the 1.7x AF TC, and generally performs well, when used with a flash on my *istD.

Anyone serious about this lens will want an *istD or DS to have TTL flash capabilities. What you give up in resolution (vs K10D or K20D) you get back in spades with the flash, and its ability to freeze the image.

You should consider also a flash extender (I use a better beamer fresnel lens) to get more range

[8540tomg]

Thanks Lowell - I'll look into that flash extension thing. Here's a few more from this morning. Some new visitors to the feeder and a Hummingbird dropped by. I'm going to have to dust off the old Hummingbird feeder and see if we can get anything with this rig.









Cheers,

Tom G

[Lowell Goudge]

Tom

Nice images.

As long as you can get close , have good support (home made tripod adaptor) or flash, the combo will work.

[hrishi]

Great images Tom...makes me proud of the lens and ur efforts..


Lowell,
Yes, it would have been great to have ttl compatible body but there is a work way- u'll know more than me about it- there are few flash like the Sunpak 422D which have few Auto mode which is neither ttl nor compeletely manual..All u have to set is the aperture on the flash and ISO should match that of camera and lens and it gives u corrrect exposure..I was offered this Sunpak 422D for $100..Very good flash indeed..it could bounce, sweivel, and had a tele kit which sounds like the beamer u mentioned..unfortunately its bulb died while I was testing it and now I have to go to Mumbai in these rains to repair it..Also, I am offered this takumar 50/4 macro for $88 which has given me some mind blowing images that I could have just dreamt of getting.. My Journey as a Photographer (as yet!) I'm yet to add the latest and the best pics taken with it)...

Anyways, I have a feeling that if i use f11 or f11-16 then I'll get sharper images even with my old crappy 2x TC..Will test it soon..

[Lowell Goudge]

Great images Tom...makes me proud of the lens and ur efforts..


Lowell,
Yes, it would have been great to have ttl compatible body but there is a work way- u'll know more than me about it- there are few flash like the Sunpak 422D which have few Auto mode which is neither ttl nor compeletely manual..All u have to set is the aperture on the flash and ISO should match that of camera and lens and it gives u corrrect exposure..I was offered this Sunpak 422D for $100..Very good flash indeed..it could bounce, sweivel, and had a tele kit which sounds like the beamer u mentioned..unfortunately its bulb died while I was testing it and now I have to go to Mumbai in these rains to repair it..Also, I am offered this takumar 50/4 macro for $88 which has given me some mind blowing images that I could have just dreamt of getting.. My Journey as a Photographer (as yet!) I'm yet to add the latest and the best pics taken with it)...

Anyways, I have a feeling that if i use f11 or f11-16 then I'll get sharper images even with my old crappy 2x TC..Will test it soon..

Re the auto flash, the AF540FGZ also has an auto mode, so it can work on the other DSLRs like the K10D and K20D with K mount lenses. The only draw back is it takes in the average exposure of a wide area, and when shooting birds, I prefer to use TTL with spot metering, so that metering is correct on the subject.

Auto mode is fine, for a close up or birds on a feeder, but when there is no background at the same distance, such as a bird on a wire, it will tend to over expose because there is nothing reflected back, or under expose because the background is bright, and the bird is in the shadow.

This is one reason, why in other threads regarding back up bodies for a K10D, I always suggest the *istD.