[Ducatigaz]

I'm curious to know which Kirk window mount you have, and roughly the size of the vehicle that you have to move around in. Would you find any issues using a window mount in a smaller car?

There is a shot of my Kirk window mount with a Kood 58mm ballhead on page 916 of this thead , it has worked in every car I've tried it in, there may be height issues in some cars with a 500mm sat on the ballhead

[entropy1]

Hopefully I will be back to my favorite club with Tamron A17. Bought it yesterday used with Kenko P/AF MC 1.5x converter. I've have been shooting a lot with Canon 55-250mm, and the lack of weight and extra 50mm bugs me all the time. I miss 300mm range.

I just peeked at this thread again after a month or two and wasted time I didn't have. ;-) But I haven't seen any responses about the loss of your Sigma 300mm - your earlier post said the AF died. Sigma lenses seem to have a problem with AF gears - plastic ones stropping and, If the APO-Tele Macro, the posts loosening so the brass gears grind instead of turn. There's a great page (in French) on repairing that, as well as a thread on DPreview when a couple of us were dealing with this. If yours is not the APO Tele Macro and the plastic gear is dead, you might still be able to repair by measuring with calipers and ordering a new gear from somewhere like this (no connection and I never used them, but bumped into them before I figured out what was wrong with my 400mm).

I fixed mine (except for somehow messing up the ball detent on the AF/MF switch and then losing the ball on the floor) and had never done this before, so if you're a little handy, maybe you can revive your 300mm. But Sigma is no help, which is a shame since it seems the AF gear problem is common across the line.

[Cold Iron]

Spent a couple of hours in the bluffs today searching for Golden Eagles with the K3 and DA*300 with 1.4X tc. Had my first crazy mirror flapping event Saw about a dozen Bald Eagles but none were close.



But did capture this 10 week old Nova Scotia Duck Toller who needed some exercise.



The older Toller who is now 11 (DA*300)



isn't real fond of the young guy yet who is constantly full of energy, he snapped at him the other night and hit him in the eye. I'm hoping he will learn soon to leave old sleeping dogs lie.



Any day in the field is a good day, and made even better with a good dog.

[boriscleto]

Yet more zoo pics with the lil'Bigma. They have a photo contest in January and admission is free if you bring a camera...these are from Friday & today.

I shot both days not realizing I had SR and the OS turned on...









You think you have a great shot and it turns out they blinked...















Smew at the Zoo





























Blue Crane from South Africa. I wonder what they think of the snow...

[derekkite]

Cold iron, those dog shots are very nice.

[chardie]

hello the group i have the pentax 300mm f4 m42 i also bought a penticon electric 2 times converter to use with it. however the pictures seem quite soft when i attach it to the 300. is there any known issues relating to this particular lens ? . i like the 300mm lens its just i was trying to get the moon a little closer

[marcusBMG]

hello the group i have the pentax 300mm f4 m42 i also bought a penticon electric 2 times converter to use with it. however the pictures seem quite soft when i attach it to the 300. is there any known issues relating to this particular lens ? . i like the 300mm lens its just i was trying to get the moon a little close

Hi chardie and welcome.

TC's are pernickety! bear in mind that:
- they multiply all the aberrations/weaknesses of the lens
- they multiply all the technical difficulties of getting sharp pics with long focal length lenses: shake, vibration. small depth of field
- the latter being particularly made worse by slow shutter speeds from losing TWO stops worth of light ie your 300mm f4 + tc is 600mm f8
- tc's have a bit of a mix 'n match character its very possible that the pentacon 2x doesn't go too well with the takumar 300mm.it also sounds like thats an old tc, may not have good coatings, may not be very good period!

Check out these web pages for some considered discussion

Teleconverters (Multipliers) - how well do they work?

TC or not TC

[dane.dawg]

A couple from yesterday.
.

[derekkite]

Very nice Travis.

[Jens Lyn IV]

Trying my hand at panning...


K-3 with DA* 300 @ f/11, 1/60 s, ISO 100

[kengoh]

Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo looking back

[Canada_Rockies]

Chardie, the problem with your rig was without any doubt the rear converter. In M42 days, multipliers were notoriously bad. Modern optics have removed some of the problems, but not those mentioned a couple of posts up my MarcusBMG.

To test if the converter is itself a good paperweight, use a solid mounting for your lens with converter - a bean bag would work well - and take the proverbial picture of a brick wall use a shutter speed of at least 1/500 sec to avoid any chance of camera shake and turn off your shake reduction.

Myself I don't use brick walls, I use chain link fences because that shows up chromatic aberrations and purple fringing as well. I think you will find that you get a cleaner and sharper image by cropping the lens without the converter.

Not mentioned by Marcus is the necessity of using a lens hood with older lenses. The coatings are not as good as on newer lenses, and the slightest touch of sun on the front element will wreak havoc on your contrast.

[dunerunner]

A couple from yesterday.
.

Awesome, great timing!

[rkappleby]

I was fortunate this morning...

[tim60]

I have the STak 300/4. It is much better overall than the TTak 300/6.3 preset.


It is fairly challenging to use - focus, and the movement effects. With these observations I would suggest you use it as 300 and get good results with that before you try anything else.


It does have quite a good built in hood - it slides forward from the retracted position.