[Clinton]

I've got the nnx-L converters, both the 1.4 and the 2.0 (something i don't see a lot of mention of). Anyhow I'm sort of hoping that I willfind the 400/f2.8 fairly user friendly....

Congratulations! I think you'll find the lens amazing.

My only complaint about the lens is that it can purple fringe in high contrast situations. I have used it with the 1.4x and 2.0x and been fairly amazed with the results. The only downside is that a tripod is necessary.

Welcome to the club

[BillM]

Bill, using a telescope as telephoto lens sounds very intriguing to me

What I seen with stellarvue was profound.Very specific application though.
You and I both know how much of a pleasure it is to "run & gun" with M400/5.6.
Not applicable with scope,more a 'snipers rig' in application. Members Wildman
and Squire use rigs along those lines,put up some fantastic pics with them.


Congrats to Rvannatta on the score,everybody's looking forward to some pics.
Classic piece of timeless history.

[Sagitta]

I suppose a cheap Sigma 70-300 counts, right? Shot these at 300mm, pure luck of being in the right place at the right moment with the right lens on the K-x. I'd been trying to shoot a heron down in the river without any luck (too far away, no tripod on me) when I looked up and BAM.

[rvannatta]

Congratulations! I think you'll find the lens amazing.

My only complaint about the lens is that it can purple fringe in high contrast situations. I have used it with the 1.4x and 2.0x and been fairly amazed with the results. The only downside is that a tripod is necessary.

Welcome to the club

Well, my 1.4x-L just lives on my A*300/f2.8

[BillM]

being in the right place at the right moment

Nice Jody,'bout time for osprey to be filtering down mississippi flyway here.
High water been a problem.Wonder if I can fit snorkel & fins on K20?
Nice to be working,but be nice to get out of backyard for a change.
been shooting film,this from past weekend,same female with "spider,beside 'er" above
A400/5.6 + 1.4x L TC (cloned out stupid plastic flower on feeder)

[darrenleow]

Took my recently-purchased Sigma 170-500 APO to the zoo today and got some good shots with it. Not as crisp and sharp as the better options and flares when shot into light but overall pretty good, especially for the price. The lens mount screws kept loosening and the lens kept losing its electronic connection as a result. Gonna have to Loctite the screws in to fix that problem.

[KevinR]

Darren, You've got some very nice shots with the 170-500. The orangutan mother (presumed) and little one is brilliant. And love the cheetah with the dark background. Nice series all round.

I have found the lens to be quite good ito sharpness up to about 400mm, but then looses the plot a little at 500mm. But as you say, for the price. Great value..

[mikec100z]

I would love to join the 300+ club but until pentax decides to actually satisfy an obvious market demand and make a lens longer than 300 I will have to be only in the 300 club rather than the plus.

[atupdate]

First time poster in this thread. I bought a Promaster 100-500mm f5.6-f8 back in May and decided it was time to try it out. I bought the lens off Craigslist for $20 and about $20 in gas to pick it up.

The reason I got it so cheap was that there was an issue with the barrel and I could only operate the zoom from 120-500mm. When I got it home, I discovered that the barrel had a big screw mark under the collar thread that attaches to a tripod. I figure someone tighten the collar to tight or someone's tripod screw was too long. Either way, it probably put a flat spot on the barrel. To add insult to injury, when I was removing the Ricoh pin, the steel ball that locks the aperture in the A position fell out and turned my A lens into a M lens.

Enough talk, here are a few shots from Saturday morning.

Somewhere in the 400-500mm range


300-400mm range


Not really sure.



500mm with a little crop


Post processing wasn't much different from my normal processing with my Kit lens.

Tim

[dadipentak]

For all that, it looks like you got a serviceable lens at a great price.

[rvannatta]

I would love to join the 300+ club but until pentax decides to actually satisfy an obvious market demand and make a lens longer than 300 I will have to be only in the 300 club rather than the plus.

Actually you can get a genuine pentax lens in the 300+ for less than a $100 bucks on ebay. It's even auto focus...--- the FA 80-320. It's widely panned as an optical mutt, but those that cost 10 times more aren't 10 times better. IT is what it is---a cheap long zoom, but I've taken some really nice photos with it. Just don't try putting a converter on it.

[dadipentak]

In the midst of changes to my lens line-up, I'm temporarily without a prime between 135mm & 1000mm. In the interim, the Sigma 100-300/4 & Tamron 1.4x TC combination seems to do pretty well as long as I get close.

[rvannatta]

In the midst of changes to my lens line-up, I'm temporarily without a prime between 135mm & 1000mm. In the interim, the Sigma 100-300/4 & Tamron 1.4x TC combination seems to do pretty well as long as I get close.

It's good to be reminded that piles of cash and exactly the 'right' equipment is often not as important, getting the equipment that you do have out of the closet, and actually pushing the button. The world is full of outstanding photographs many of which were taken with very humble equipment.

Every time I look at expensive equipment, I have to ask myself if it's so good that
I will never take it out of the closet for fear of dinging it.

[DanielT74]

A quick trip to the lake to try out the newly acquired Sigma 300/2.8 EX. It was overcast and the parrots were not cooperating. So here's a duck, a goose and a myna (real exotic, I know):







First impressions is that it's a bloody good lens, sharp, nice bokeh, pretty good AF, minimum focusing distance IQ is not great, it seems, fairly hard to hold due to the massive size and weight of the front part, but goes with the territory.

[xjjohnno]

Some decent pics there Daniel, btw the last one is a miner, not myna, and a noisy one, related to the bell birds which are bell miners.