[Weevil]

Indeed--I'm looking forward to seeing the photos! The DA*300 is a good choice, I think.

Yeah! and in case of incident, it can be easily replaced ... contrary of my 250-600mm or my other F* 300... and also it is weather sealed, so better protection against moisture...

My advice would be put more your money into 3rd party batteries. If you're really into solar, I have a number of portable solar panels and inverters lying around, I could experiment a bit...and see what I can come up with... but for my trips, if I'm going 16 days, I need two batteries for sure maybe 3. I bet you can get batteries cheaper than a solar set up. Now if you were taking a K-x and could use AA rechargeables, I could probably figure something out for you.

IN my experience, you're going to need at least a 6 watt panel (which will charge one battery one a bright sunny afternoon, 12 would be better, and an inverter. But, you're going to have to find out how much the Pentax recharger draws... if you still think you want to do this I'll get out some test equipment and see if I can get something working. Send me an PM.

Even with a charger I wouldn't go with less than three batteries. The sun isn't very reliable. One of my buddies travels with a CPAC which he needs to help him sleep. We've never had a trip where he didn't lose a couple nights sleep because we couldn't get his panels enough sunlight to keep his battery charged, and that's starting the trip with enough charge for a couple days, out of the gate.

Thanks Norm... you are right, I did googling that topic a bit after I posted this, and most get to the same conclusion... but for a long trip like this, I'd rather have a backup system just in case (may be useful to charge other types of batteries, such as the AA for GPS). There is no easy / cheap solution...


I found that product that seems interesting: Solar Charger for Pentax with Sunlinq 12 Watt Foldable Solar Panel - Sundance Solar
The other solution would be a solar panel with a AA/AAA charger and USB output (that is ~100$), combined with a 3rd party USB charger such as this one: Amazon.com: PowerSmart


Anyways, I don't want to pollute this thread with this technical details, so I will maybe start another thread on that topic...


thanks for you advice!

---------- Post added 2014-05-04 at 10:20 ----------

Had a Red Tail Hawk fly by and turn around to check me out

NicE !
But I think it is more an immature Bald Eagle that a Red Tail Hawk...

[wtlwdwgn]

Nice shooting Cold Iron!

[littledrawe]

@Cold Iron your hawk looks to me like a juvenile bald eagle.

[tim60]

My advice would be put more your money into 3rd party batteries. If you're really into solar, I have a number of portable solar panels and inverters lying around, I could experiment a bit...and see what I can come up with... but for my trips, if I'm going 16 days, I need two batteries for sure maybe 3. I bet you can get batteries cheaper than a solar set up. Now if you were taking a K-x and could use AA rechargeables, I could probably figure something out for you.

IN my experience, you're going to need at least a 6 watt panel (which will charge one battery one a bright sunny afternoon, 12 would be better, and an inverter. But, you're going to have to find out how much the Pentax recharger draws... if you still think you want to do this I'll get out some test equipment and see if I can get something working. Send me an PM.

Even with a charger I wouldn't go with less than three batteries. The sun isn't very reliable. One of my buddies travels with a CPAC which he needs to help him sleep. We've never had a trip where he didn't lose a couple nights sleep because we couldn't get his panels enough sunlight to keep his battery charged, and that's starting the trip with enough charge for a couple days, out of the gate.

The D-BC09 (for D-LI90) charger shipped with the K3 (happens to be labelled as a product of Hoya Corp., has an input: 100V-240V, ~50-60Hz, 19VA, 0.2A (0.2A). (Dated 2012 09). Output: 8.4V, 400mA.
Delivers 3.36W. Draws up to 19W - must be some inrush effect.
Conclusion: A system that could reliably deliver 4W probably would work - but this requires asking what solar capacity (under laboratory conditions) is needed to be confident that it can deliver the 4W for the duration required for charging given the vagaries of sunlight and the losses incurred getting the inverting process to work.
Other conclusion: the recharger is useful for people who travel a lot, like most, but not all modern kit.

I have a recharger fro my toothbrush which is 240V only, which means that toothbrush cannot be used for travel without also carrying a transformer - heavy in a baggage allowance.

[Cold Iron]

Thanks for the ID guys! Of course you are correct....

I spent half an hour last night after I got home looking at pictures trying to make a positive ID. I've seen hundreds if not thousands of juvi BE's and could have sworn this one was half the size of any I had seen before. Then it hit me just a little while ago looking at the pictures that after playing with the Pelicans for half an hour any other bird is going to be small. And the size of the beak is more massive than a hawk, I came on here now and was going to correct it. Leave it to PF, I could have saved myself a lot of time by just coming here to post and ask

[swip]

Lots of good photos posted the last two days. Keep up the good work, guys.
Ran into this good looking grebe in between periods of rain yesterday.

[dane.dawg]

A few Hummers from today but I am not sure what I am doing wrong to get so much wing blur.
In theory if set set both flashes @ 1/16 power it should freeze all action @ 1/180 shutter speed correct? Any tips would be great.
073.
078.
072

[TenZ.NL]

Something else for a change:

[swip]

A few Hummers from today but I am not sure what I am doing wrong to get so much wing blur.
In theory if set set both flashes @ 1/16 power it should freeze all action @ 1/180 shutter speed correct? Any tips would be great.
073.
078.
072

Nice! It is still too cold here to see them yet.

[fotogaffer]

Great shooting everyone. This Nuthatch gave me some classic poses today. K3 and Pentax DA* 300 with the Pentax HD TC 1.4 X handheld.

[dane.dawg]

TenZ.NL- The adults look like they are having a blast, the kids not so much.
Fotogaffer- #1 has it all, great focus, comp, DOF and background.

[fotogaffer]

Fotogaffer- #1 has it all, great focus, comp, DOF and background.

Thanks Travis. Some more from today. I came across this Hooded Merganser Drake while out looking for warblers (didn't find any of those!) This is the first time I've had a chance to photograph one of these. Tough exposures balancing the white markings against the darker colours especially with the sun coming in and out of the clouds randomly while shooting! I blew the highlights on the 4th one as a consequence but I liked that pose so included it anyway!
K3 with the Pentax DA* 300 and Pentax HD 1.4X TC.

[Sandy Hancock]

A few Hummers from today but I am not sure what I am doing wrong to get so much wing blur.

I suspect you're getting too much ambient light in the mix. Stop the lens down and crank the flashes up.

[Weevil]

Nice bird pics travis (and wow for the yesterday handheld hummingbird! ), swip and fotogaffer! the DA* 300mm + 1.4x TC seems a very good combination!
Good action and colors TenZL!
I run test the DA* 300mm today (low light rainy day), and was really pleased by the results ! The AF speed was pretty impressive... ans silent !
I did not though it would have been that good on flying subjects!


Shooted everything that flew around, handheld, with the K-3, while walking the dog...
here are some results (sorry, the composition was left apart)


This White-throated Sparrow, was highly cropped, almost 1:1...but Wow for the details !





The Northern Cardinal also much cropped , around 2:1






The Gull is not cropped, but tone enhanced in PP...





Well... I am wondering if I should keep the F* 300mm f4.5 after that ! If it wasn't because of the frequent SDM failures users experience .... I think I would do that ! They are very close in term of IQ !

---------- Post added 2014-05-05 at 00:18 ----------

The D-BC09 (for D-LI90) charger shipped with the K3 (happens to be labelled as a product of Hoya Corp., has an input: 100V-240V, ~50-60Hz, 19VA, 0.2A (0.2A). (Dated 2012 09). Output: 8.4V, 400mA.
Delivers 3.36W. Draws up to 19W - must be some inrush effect.
Conclusion: A system that could reliably deliver 4W probably would work - but this requires asking what solar capacity (under laboratory conditions) is needed to be confident that it can deliver the 4W for the duration required for charging given the vagaries of sunlight and the losses incurred getting the inverting process to work.
Other conclusion: the recharger is useful for people who travel a lot, like most, but not all modern kit.

I have a recharger fro my toothbrush which is 240V only, which means that toothbrush cannot be used for travel without also carrying a transformer - heavy in a baggage allowance.

Thanks , but the D-BC90 charger has to be plugged into the sector.... I haven't found any relatively "small" solar panels that has this output...

[Greyser]

Nice shooting all as usual.
I was not so lucky. I found my favorite location very lousy today. As my friend said: "There are about 12-15 different birds around, but nothing to shoot". I just managed to get these two little creatures. Nothing special unfortunately.