[blankmampf]

Welcome to the club. If you can get good shots like this with a K10D and a MF lens, you will have well-developed skills when you come to get a good AF lens and a more modern body.

Thank you kindly!

Yes, at least having live view would be a great help for focussing. As it is, I have to delete maybe 70% of my images simply because they are not sufficiently focussed on the subject.
It also doesn't help that the stop-down lever on my vintage 300mm does not work at all. I have to open wide to focus (and see the subject, in some cases), then close down one or two stops to get a sharper image. If the lads from a hundred years ago could do it, then so can I




I took a long walk today, camera in tow. Sadly these two hopped away whenever I approached, but I managed to get a decent picture nonetheless. I was surprised myself that I could get decent images today even with a 2x teleconverter while handholding, at 1/90 - 1/125.
Sensor stabilization was one of the features that persuaded me to look for a Pentax, and it hasn't let me down so far



Here I got lucky - he sat there just as I was waiting for the bus to arrive, in a lovely scenery. 300mm Auto-Revuenon F/5.6 again, this time sans teleconverter.

[Ducatigaz]

A few recent pictures taken with my K-3ii/FA*600mm F4 ED[IF]/RRS BH-55/Kirk window mount.











And a shot of the Moon with my K-3ii/A*1200mm F8 ED[IF]/Pentax rear converter-A 2X-L/Gitzo 5532LS. I think with a bit more practice I can get better.

[marcusBMG]

Impressive as always Gaz.
With that lens Gary - which I could describe as a ~5 1/2" refractor - you don't need a photographic tripod, you need an astro set up

[MossyRocks]

And a shot of the Moon with my K-3ii/A*1200mm F8 ED[IF]/Pentax rear converter-A 2X-L/Gitzo 5532LS. I think with a bit more practice I can get better.

Possibly, but I would almost recommend leaving the 2X-L converter out of the mix next time as it seems to soften things and shooting at a minimum of f/16 diffraction starts making a mess too. The image looks a bit soft so I don't know if that is from the 2x converter or if the focus was ever so slightly missed so how did you get the infinity focus? For longer glass I like using a bahtinov mask as it makes getting perfect infinity focus super quick and easy and with big glass you can easily do it in live view. Also it makes it easy to check the focus as things shift from temp changes with astro shooting. If you want to create a Bahtinov Mask you can find some printable template ones that will likely work here.

Apart from that I would suggest starting with using setting equivalent to loony 11 so: F/11, ISO 100, 1/100s. With that 2400mm setup I wouldn't want to have a shutter speed slower than about 1/50s otherwise the movement of the moon across the sky will start to blur things. So running wide open at f/16 you could still shoot at ISO 100 and 1/50s and have a ballpark correct exposure but I find I typically will have to add another stop to 2 of exposure so you may be shooting at ISO 200 to 400 to get the most out of the image. Now to get a great shot you will just need to take a lot of them in the hopes of getting one with a really nice calm atmosphere.

[Pentikonian]

Welcome back! Nicely captured!

Thanks!

[bertwert]

Thank you kindly!

Yes, at least having live view would be a great help for focussing. As it is, I have to delete maybe 70% of my images simply because they are not sufficiently focussed on the subject.
It also doesn't help that the stop-down lever on my vintage 300mm does not work at all. I have to open wide to focus (and see the subject, in some cases), then close down one or two stops to get a sharper image. If the lads from a hundred years ago could do it, then so can I




I took a long walk today, camera in tow. Sadly these two hopped away whenever I approached, but I managed to get a decent picture nonetheless. I was surprised myself that I could get decent images today even with a 2x teleconverter while handholding, at 1/90 - 1/125.
Sensor stabilization was one of the features that persuaded me to look for a Pentax, and it hasn't let me down so far



Here I got lucky - he sat there just as I was waiting for the bus to arrive, in a lovely scenery. 300mm Auto-Revuenon F/5.6 again, this time sans teleconverter.

I like the bird in the flowers there - nicely done.

I think you'll find you'll have better images cropping from just the 300 rather than using the teleconverter. Generally TCs will degrade the image quality a great deal, especially cheaper 2x ones, and the effect is even more so noticeable without a stellar lens in the first place.

And yes, manually focusing with little songbirds jumping all over the place is a real challenge, and takes a lot of practice!

[luftfluss]

Thanks!

I went out again in the evening light, got a more environmental shot of some whitetail dear. Being roughly 300m away, sneaking up skills were not required



K-50 and A 400/5.6, right on f/9.5 where it seems to perform its best.

That's excellent, and I agree that f/9.5 is the sweet spot.

[Pentikonian]

Able to snag a snap of one of the lizards that frequent the tree outside the apartment. Hard to see if they're not moving. So many small branches and twigs to try and work around. K-1 + DA*300, 6mp crop and resize for web.

[K2 to K50]

My Pentax tele lenses are working, starting to get bird photos. Happy days.

K-1 + DA*300, heavy crop (6mp) and resize for web, Rufous-winged Sparrow (I think) a couple days ago.

Your recovered teles and you are doing a good job - some good images. That lizard is certainly well-camouflaged!

A few recent pictures taken with my K-3ii/FA*600mm F4 ED[IF]/RRS BH-55/Kirk window mount.











And a shot of the Moon with my K-3ii/A*1200mm F8 ED[IF]/Pentax rear converter-A 2X-L/Gitzo 5532LS. I think with a bit more practice I can get better.

Great series of shots there! Wonderful.

---------- Post added 04-20-21 at 08:10 PM ----------

I took a long walk today, camera in tow. Sadly these two hopped away whenever I approached, but I managed to get a decent picture nonetheless. I was surprised myself that I could get decent images today even with a 2x teleconverter while handholding, at 1/90 - 1/125.
Sensor stabilization was one of the features that persuaded me to look for a Pentax, and it hasn't let me down so far

Here I got lucky - he sat there just as I was waiting for the bus to arrive, in a lovely scenery. 300mm Auto-Revuenon F/5.6 again, this time sans teleconverter.

Couple of very nice shots - especially the one with the flowers or buds in the image - very pretty.

A few recent pictures taken with my K-3ii/FA*600mm F4 ED[IF]/RRS BH-55/Kirk window mount.











And a shot of the Moon with my K-3ii/A*1200mm F8 ED[IF]/Pentax rear converter-A 2X-L/Gitzo 5532LS. I think with a bit more practice I can get better.

Great set of images, Gary. The two with the subject isolated and perched on a twig are especially nice images.

[bertwert]

That's excellent, and I agree that f/9.5 is the sweet spot.

Thanks! I wouldn't normally even bother taking a shot at that range, but I'm glad I did with them standing out in front of the mountain like that.


Whenever I go out, I'm still surprised how hard it can be to nail focus, and I think the extra depth-of-field I gain stopped down a bit slightly counters my inaccuracy without even mentioning the added sharpness of the sweet spot.

[Pentaxians]

Collared Kingfisher taken few days ago.

[rod_grant]

A few recent pictures

Brilliant as usual.

[tduell]

Laughing Kookaburra.
K-3 II, DFA 150-450 handheld. See exif for shot details.

Cheers,
Terry

[K2 to K50]

Collared Kingfisher taken few days ago.

Amazing shots - beautiful!

[HoutHans]

Been quite a while since posting in the thread, but I have been following along what you all have been posting.

Thought I had lost my 200 and 300 early December when they stopped autofocusing. Took them out to clean them as I was thinking about sending them in for repair, and thought I'd try them again. The 200 woke right up. The 300 took a little coaxing. Both working again. Only thing I can think of is the cold stiffened the internals up a bit (grease?), and now that it's getting warm... Anywhos.

My Pentax tele lenses are working, starting to get bird photos. Happy days.

K-1 + DA*300, heavy crop (6mp) and resize for web, Rufous-winged Sparrow (I think) a couple days ago.

This is great; to see the bird surrounded by the bokehed flowers makes this an amazing image.