Hi everyone,
This is my first post here, and I thought I'd start by sharing a couple of the first photos taken with my new Pentax.


Some leaves in the backyard (F5.6 1/200sec ISO 100)


My mother's horse Bobby. (F7.1 1/400sec ISO 250)


I am Loving this K-5 IIs. Super glad I bit the bullet and picked one up!

Thinking of getting a budget telephoto lens to try and capture some wildlife this winter. Can anyone recommend anything for $500 or less?

[Venom3300]

Congratz on the new camera!

Those picture are a bit soft. perhaps the shutter speed is a bit on the low end for leaves in the wind or a horse moving its head eating. or perhaps it just the lens (I have no experience with it)

If you can find one, the tokina 400 5.6 AT-X AF is a great lens at around $330-450

[Stavri]

Nice call on the K-5IIs, it remains one of the best Pentax Dslr offerings to date. Enjoy!

[pdvair]

Congratz on the new camera!

Those picture are a bit soft. perhaps the shutter speed is a bit on the low end for leaves in the wind or a horse moving its head eating. or perhaps it just the lens (I have no experience with it)

If you can find one, the tokina 400 5.6 AT-X AF is a great lens at around $330-450

Yeah, I've noticed that too. I shot the one of the horse at 150thsec, and the one of the leaves at 200thsec. I think it might be that I should have maybe used a smaller aperture?

[pdvair]

Nice call on the K-5IIs, it remains one of the best Pentax Dslr offerings to date. Enjoy!

I've been having tons of fun with it for the two days I've had, and we haven't even had nice weather.

[Cee Cee]

I like the horse shot, very nice, sharp enough for me.
cheers

[RobG]

Congratulations on the K5iis! If these images were resized to something like a screen resolution (HD or lower) and slightly sharpened, I'm sure they would look fine.

[Kerrowdown]

A good start, you need to go back into the first image and give the fringing a tweak in PP.

[pdvair]

Thanks for the responses everybody! I have much to learn about post post production work.

[Des]

Thinking of getting a budget telephoto lens to try and capture some wildlife this winter. Can anyone recommend anything for $500 or less?

The obvious candidate is the Pentax 55-300. It's relatively compact, lightweight, reasonably fast and produces very good images, even wide open at 300mm. There are 3 versions, all optically identical: DA-L, DA and DA WR:
1. The DA-L has a plastic mount. It doesn't come with a lens hood, but you can get them for less than $5 on eBay.
2. The DA adds a metal mount and quick shift (i.e. manual focus override of autofocus). QS is a good feature, but whether it is worth the extra $50-100 is up to you.
3. The DA WR version adds weather resistance, so you can confidently use it in rain and snow.
Each version provides excellent value - especially the DA-L, which sells for less than $200 second hand. The IQ will be a significant step up from your 50-200.

There are plenty of reviews and articles about this lens on this site. Have a good look at the photo samples too.

Once you want to go beyond 300mm, things get more complicated and expensive. For under $500, you would be looking at a manual focus lens (not ideal for moving objects) or something like the Sigma 170-500 (which I have). These lenses are all much bigger and heavier. The 170-500 is about 1.2kg and it is about the lightest of the long lenses. Lenses of that weight and bulk require more commitment! I wouldn't suggest you leap into getting such a lens without trying something like the 55-300.

Pentax are about to announce a new long telephoto lens. It is likely to cost significantly more than $500, but it might lead a number of people to sell their old lenses off, possibly at lower prices.

[pdvair]

The obvious candidate is the Pentax 55-300. It's relatively compact, lightweight, reasonably fast and produces very good images, even wide open at 300mm. There are 3 versions, all optically identical: DA-L, DA and DA WR:
1. The DA-L has a plastic mount. It doesn't come with a lens hood, but you can get them for less than $5 on eBay.
2. The DA adds a metal mount and quick shift (i.e. manual focus override of autofocus). QS is a good feature, but whether it is worth the extra $50-100 is up to you.
3. The DA WR version adds weather resistance, so you can confidently use it in rain and snow.
Each version provides excellent value - especially the DA-L, which sells for less than $200 second hand. The IQ will be a significant step up from your 50-200.

There are plenty of reviews and articles about this lens on this site. Have a good look at the photo samples too.

Once you want to go beyond 300mm, things get more complicated and expensive. For under $500, you would be looking at a manual focus lens (not ideal for moving objects) or something like the Sigma 170-500 (which I have). These lenses are all much bigger and heavier. The 170-500 is about 1.2kg and it is about the lightest of the long lenses. Lenses of that weight and bulk require more commitment! I wouldn't suggest you leap into getting such a lens without trying something like the 55-300.

Pentax are about to announce a new long telephoto lens. It is likely to cost significantly more than $500, but it might lead a number of people to sell their old lenses off, possibly at lower prices.

Cool, thanks for the info!