At least thats what I think it is... I'm not a birder but there is a nature preserve near my house and I figured it'd be the perfect place to break in the new BIGMA. Dang but this beast is hard to handhold at 500mm. It looks pretty decent after resizing for the web but the 100% JPG crop (from the camera) shows my shakiness (some things even the K10D's SR can't cure). Think I'm gonna have to pick up a monopod tomorrow.

btw... 500mm at 1/500sec & f6.7 and ISO 200





NO/ZERO/NADA CA or color fringing apparent. I love it!!!

[cputeq]

Hey that's not bad at all for hand-holding that beast Glad you got it in.

I remember in a thread of mine you mentioned it would be arriving soon; looking forward to some pics!

I'm curious to see which monopod you get -- I'll be in the market for one soon and I have no idea what to buy.

[Lowell Goudge]

You might want to try a couple of different things here

1) monopod, more for your tired arms than absolute stability
2) if SR is working take the lens down to F8 and slow the shutter to about 1/250. more DOF may be better than fast shutter.
3) set shutter to 1/150 and stop down to get about -3 stops on exposure, then use a flash. FLash freezes better than anything else

If you want to see flash on a 500mm equivelent lens, see the link below. SMC 300F4 plus 1.7x AF TC
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/106132-post4.html

I will look for a heron. I know I have a bunch done with 300mm And a flash.

[LaRee]

You might want to try a couple of different things here

1) monopod, more for your tired arms than absolute stability
2) if SR is working take the lens down to F8 and slow the shutter to about 1/250. more DOF may be better than fast shutter.
3) set shutter to 1/150 and stop down to get about -3 stops on exposure, then use a flash. FLash freezes better than anything else

If you want to see flash on a 500mm equivelent lens, see the link below. SMC 300F4 plus 1.7x AF TC
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/106132-post4.html

I will look for a heron. I know I have a bunch done with 300mm And a flash.

I assume you are using an external flash for 500mm shots right? I guess the bird would have to fill up most of the frame in order for flash to be successful right?
I have only once used a tripod and a monopod with my Bigma. I just can't seem to track the wildlife on a tripod as well as the freedom of hand held. The time I used the monopod was walking at the zoo. It was more comfortable (less fatiguing) than carrying it around for hours, but I'm not sure it made any difference shot wise. Maybe I need to slap my 540 flash on top of that k10d/bigma beast rig.

[Peter Zack]

A monopod works well with this lens but I tried something different a lot of the time. Using a ball head on the tripod, I would loosen the head some and use it like a swivel. Tight enough to stabalize the shot and loose enough to frame and move.

The hand held shot above is very good with that lens. it is tough to shoot at 500mm without question. As Lowell says, stopping down helps the lens and I also found pulling back to 470-480mm helps as well. Like almost any zoom, the extreme ends can be softer.

[daacon]

Nice shot Mike - I agree I took the Bigma out a few days ago , hand help all at 500mm and did not like one of my shots. As Peter says backing it off 20 or 30 mm helps as does a monopod. But when you nail one at 500mm it is so sweet.

[scott-devon]

That is very nice for handheld. I use an ist without SR so I routinely carry my tripod. I've never gotten the hang of using my monopod somehow.