[zzeitg]

DA* 300 (@420mm)

[luftfluss]

Not a fantastic shot of a common bird, and the strong sunlight from behind meant a lot of PP to pull out detail from the black, near-featureless, near-silhouette of the bird. What is interesting? Taken with a Panasonic deck-or-cards-sized P&S at the 35mm equivalent of 720mm (hand held). Not great, but acceptable.

As a fan of small-sensor superzoom cameras, I appreciate a shot like this.

[zzeitg]

DA*300 (@420mm)

[ffking]

Damn, this is great. Would love to see more!

thank-you - that's very kind of you -all the35mm slides I've scanned are here (below)- but I'm slowly sorting through them and adding when I have odd moments

https://www.flickr.com/photos/73146629@N02/albums/72157630045157204

here's a similar pose in the early morning light Z-1, 400mm FA* f/5.6, Velvia 50



---------- Post added 03-19-16 at 11:39 AM ----------

DA* 300 (@420mm)

terrific detail on the moon

[Racer X 69]

DA* 300 (@420mm)

Very nice.

terrific detail on the moon

I agree. The color of the sky adds a unique dimension to a subject that sets this photo apart from the multitude of moon pictures.

[Canada_Rockies]

The juncos came for a visit to a seed dump (emptied feeder near a planter). I took the opportunity to try the M400 and AFA 1.7X to see if they were usable. To reduce the old lens's propensity to Chromatic Aberration, I stopped the lens down to f/8, giving an effective aperture of f/13.6. I took a whole lot of pictures over several days, and finally nailed it today. I've added these to USER 1, which I have renamed M400. The aperture is not remembered by the camera, but I know that f/8 is the maximum because of CA. I was on the inside of a double pane glass patio door. I am so pleased with this result, that I am going to brave the chilly winds and leave only the lens and converter glass between the sensor and the bird, when there are more exciting birds to snap.

1. Aperture set to f/8, giving f/13.6
2. Exposure compensation at -2 stops. Using the green button, the K3 uses the exposure compensation. This is a real plus.
3. AF.C high because the little birds never stop twitching, moving the head around.
4. ISO 1600 to get some shutter speed. This is not noisy enough to disturb me with the K3.
5. Manfrotto 055B tripod with 0168 ball head, the support I have been using since the early 1980's.
6. I did not use mirror lockup or 2 sec delay, but pressed the shutter release tenderly.

I developed the in camera JPEG with Lightroom 6.3, reducing the exposure one more stop. I'll do some more testing with compensation at -3 and see if that is consistent as the best exposure. I also reduced the purple saturation and luminance by 100%. I always use RAW+ in the camera, but saw no advantage with this inmage in the RAW file compared to the JPEG. I will continue to take both. This image was cropped to 3615x2404 and is displayed here at 1024x680.

[gatorguy]

400mm really moves you away from the pack. With the 1.4 TC it gets you to 560 ƒ8, not too shabby.

So the M400 and 1.4x HD PENTAX-DA make a good match? I assumed M lenses weren't but I'd be pleased to find out I'm wrong.

[Mike.P®]

K-5IIs and DA 55-300mm

[swip]

K-5IIs and DA 55-300mm

Beautiful bird. Love the shot.

[r0ckstarr]

DA*300 @ 420mm

[lukulele]

A miserable, intermittent rainy, whiteout day.

[jeffshaddix]

DA* 300 (@420mm)

Nice! Did you use the K-3ii pixel shift for that?

[Scorpio71GR]

I finally got the Bigma out today for the first time this year. The sun came out late in the afternoon.

House Finch 500mm f11 ISO 1000 1/250s




The ordinary Robin. Thank goodness for these guys or I would have nothing to shoot.

[Tas]

Well, the wave at least.

[Quartermaster James]

This little redpoll dug out his own snow-cave.