[WPRESTO]

Ruff in combat position

A ruffled ruff?

[gatorguy]

So continuing with the "Tower Test" from yesterday here's a series using various TC combos with the very old and very manual Pentax M400 5.6. Autofocus with any AF TC? Forget it tho it might occasionally stumble into focus. Way too much hunting to be useful tho.

All are handheld (!) and all at 500 ISO except for the last two. No cropping or PP either. As shot. Note that yesterday's Starling has grown up into today's Osprey.
First one is just the M400


...with Tamron 1.4x


...with Pentax 1.7x


... and a fairly silly try with both stacked. Not my best work but I didn't spend much time, maybe a couple of minutes, with some guesswork settings. This was the best of three I took. Perhaps I should have used a tripod, ya think?


Now remember my Osprey friend from one of the pics above? I had just set the camera down and opened the SD card cover to remove it after doing these test shots when I saw him returning to the nest. So quickly close the card-door, turn the camera back on, press OK for whatever lens I said I had before and shoot with no time for setup at all. This is a heavy crop of that. TBH I'm really surprised I got anything with any definition at all. The only processing I did with this is a bit of level adjustment so even this miserable image could be fixed more.


I suspect that in more experienced hands and under good lighting there's a couple of folks here in this thread who might be able to scratch out at least a few usable shots with stacked TC's even on this relatively slow lens. At least I wouldn't rule it out. In fact anyone with a 400 F4 should give it a try if they have the TC's available as I think the possibilities are definitely there.

[marcusBMG]

Got an MTO 500mm Mirror. Okay sharpness, really neat Rendering I think.

Nice - hows the focusing on the MTO, are you using aids? All these mirrors have millimetric focussing due to the compact design. I find my tamrons' are easier to use with my mirrorless bodies because of the magnification available in the evf. Even with my tenpa 1.36x it's ticklish on the pentax.

I've read that the Samyang mirror lenses are actually darker than the f stop indicated (f6.3 = f9 or something).

The T-stop (as opposed to F-stop) gives a truer measure of the light transmittance. All lenses lose a bit of light at every lens element surface due to reflections. And with catadioptrics some of the light is blocked by the secondary mirror as well. More here. But it's only about 1/2 stop difference.

[WPRESTO]

So continuing with the "Tower Test" from yesterday here's a series using various TC combos with the very old and very manual Pentax M400 5.6. Autofocus with any AF TC? Forget it tho it might occasionally stumble into focus.

...with Tamron 1.4x

...with Pentax 1.7x

My impressions: The Tamron 1.4X cropped will probably have about the same IQ as the Pentax 1.7X uncropped. Either TC uncropped will provide acceptable to good IQ.

[timb64]

55-300

[biz-engineer]

A ruffled ruff?

yep , and there were a few of them; couldn't make a sharp photo of when the fought in the air (too fast).

[JML69]

"Raindrops Falling On My Head"......

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[normhead]

K-3 with DA*60-250 + F1.7x AF Adapter (425mm)

The "old" sparrows, I'm getting tired of these guys. although I saw no Fox Sparrows today, they may have headed north. I saw two together for the first time yesterday. Today they're gone. Maybe they hook up and head north together.

Fox Sparrow


All the "regulars" were there.

American Tree Sparrow


White Throated Sparrow


Dark Eyed Junco


New today. I photographed it because it acted a little different than the American Tree Sparrows, my intended highlight bird of the day. He not only chases them away, he took the moment in the norm head sun away from them.
a couple of Chipping Sparrows

[dadipentak]

Even as I post, this Osprey is up in my dead oak eating the smallmouth bass he caught for lunch. Nice fish, too--maybe 12".
I'm guessing he may be around all summer--I'm psyched (but I hope he doesn't take all the fish. )

[F*600/4, HD 1.4x, K-3]

[normhead]

Very cool. I need a handy tree like that. There used to be big oaks around here. When the government took away the company leases they gave them a two year window to prepare for the new system. They responded by clear cutting everything of value. Now they complain that because of "Government mismanagement" there's nothing to cut. So typical of the private sector. Shoot yourself in the foot, (which they were doing anyway and why the government stepped in) then blame the Government for your woes. They complain that 60 mills have shut down in this area over the last 20 years and demand the government do something. They did do something, they now manage the forest so any cuts are sustainable, and parcel out cutting rights to the remaining mills. The private sector hates them, but without the government they all would have tanked by now.

[zzeitg]

DA*300 & 1.4x TC

[RockvilleBob]

Even as I post, this Osprey is up in my dead oak eating the smallmouth bass he caught for lunch. Nice fish, too--maybe 12".
I'm guessing he may be around all summer--I'm psyched (but I hope he doesn't take all the fish. )

nice shooting Dave

[dadipentak]

nice shooting Dave

Thanks, Bob! It's quite a luxury to be able to get photo ops like that from the back porch--the urban life is good!

[RockvilleBob]

Thanks, Bob! It's quite a luxury to be able to get photo ops like that from the back porch--the urban life is good!

I have a feeling with that Osprey camped in your yard we'll see as many Osprey shots as Squirrel shots

[WPRESTO]

I have a feeling with that Osprey camped in your yard we'll see as many Osprey shots as Squirrel shots

Do we need an osprey-naming contest? How about "Toefish?"