[gaweidert]

Carolina Wren gathering nest materials.
DA*300 + 1.4 HD TC

I saw one of these in my back yard near Rochester, NY this past winter. Never saw one before and had to consult the books to see what it was. Really rare to be this far north but is was a relatively mild winter. Unfortunately spring is now cooler than normal.

[Scorpio71GR]

Nice shots everyone. Not much to post here lately. Have not too much luck on my outings lately.

K50 with the HD 55-300. Poor lighting, overcast, not enough light, bright white grey background. Lots of PP and cropping, the HD 55-300 handles PF very well. I have been taking the K50 and 55-300 with while walking my dog lately in case anything happens to show up.
European Starling @ 300mm cropped.

[rvannatta]

Took my Mamiya Sekor e 300mm f/4 for a walk today. Weather was not great but sun showed itself eventually.

The problem with the K-1 is that it's going to make all of our long glass shorter. These doves don't seem to like me closer than a 400mm + a 2x-l converter.
I'll be stacking converters with my FA 600 to fill the full frame. This dove was keeping an eye out for me even while sleeping.

[Audi 5 cyl]

The problem with the K-1 is that it's going to make all of our long glass shorter. These doves don't seem to like me closer than a 400mm + a 2x-l converter.
I'll be stacking converters with my FA 600 to fill the full frame. This dove was keeping an eye out for me even while sleeping.

All true, but there is a but.

The thing is, with bird photography, based on my experience with birds (and I live from researching them), that there are two basic conditions for a good photography (or close observation).

- you need to know the biology of your subject very well and
- you need to be well hidden.

The second one being a lot more important. To illustrate this I will just say that I know people that had birds landing on them or their gear while hidden. I've tried it for scientific observations in the past and had birds behaving naturally 1-4m from me. This would have never happened in Europe without good hide, except with trained birds and some owls.

I found it difficult to shoot handheld anything longer than 300mm and, as I am an anti-tripod person, I will stay there on FF (once I get one) as well as on APS-c.

There is an alternative as well. Just go to a country where hunting is forbidden and voila, you can do bird photography with a 135mm lens. I had a Cuban Tody once on a 40cm from my nose and many other species within a medium telephoto reach.

[dadipentak]

The problem with the K-1 is that it's going to make all of our long glass shorter.

Which is why I'm not particularly excited about FF--I intend to stick with a crop sensor body for wildlife.

[rvannatta]

All true, but there is a but.

The thing is, with bird photography, based on my experience with birds (and I live from researching them), that there are two basic conditions for a good photography (or close observation).

- you need to know the biology of your subject very well and
- you need to be well hidden.

The second one being a lot more important. To illustrate this I will just say that I know people that had birds landing on them or their gear while hidden. I've tried it for scientific observations in the past and had birds behaving naturally 1-4m from me. This would have never happened in Europe without good hide, except with trained birds and some owls.

I found it difficult to shoot handheld anything longer than 300mm and, as I am an anti-tripod person, I will stay there on FF (once I get one) as well as on APS-c.

There is an alternative as well. Just go to a country where hunting is forbidden and voila, you can do bird photography with a 135mm lens. I had a Cuban Tody once on a 40cm from my nose and many other species within a medium telephoto reach.

agreed. Unfortunately, my patience for being well hidden is somewhat limited. I have so far obtained most of my bird photos by having a camera handy when the bird came to me. Learned behavior as you say is an issue
and I suspect it's the issue with the Mourning dove, which as appeared at my feeder only in the last couple of weeks. Mourning doves are common throughout the United States, but they are also recognized as a 'game bird',
that is to say--they are good to eat. I have made it a point not to eat any of them, hoping that they would get a little more trustful which seems to be occuring. when the first came I couldn't go near the window or glass door
without them taking off. but the last couple of days I've been able to get photos through the glass door.

Remote control seems to offer a great opportunity for birding as well. I got my first Stellar Jay photos by setting up my camera on a tripod on the back porch aimed at a tree stump with some bird seed on it.
I retreated inside the house by the coffee pot with my remote wireless release which sort of qualifies as well hidden and tripped the release at appropriate times. I expect the K-1 to have enhanced remote capabilities,
and if someone will make an affordable tripod that will pan and elevate remotely, which should let me remain near the coffee pot for extended periods while 'birding', as my idea of a bird blind includes hot coffee and a soft chair.

What I'm sort of sad about is the lack of power zoom. At one point Pentax developed that, but it wasn't very successful apparently and the contacts put in the lens mount for it have been reassigned. This is too bad because
a remote zoom could add another dimension to the remote photography.

---------- Post added 04-30-2016 at 09:59 PM ----------

Which is why I'm not particularly excited about FF--I intend to stick with a crop sensor body for wildlife.

I was sort of holding off as well, but got to thinking of the probability of a higher price after the pre-order period closed and decided to get one.

I've carefully kept and accumulated "A" and "FA" long glass for this occasion. in the case of remote photography where the target may
not get fully in the chosen target the FF will be preferable, as you will have more to crop, but there will be trade off's to be sure.

I thought when digital photography first came out that it would never be acceptable and that I would stay with film forever, but when I got around
to buy a digital camera, I liked it so well that I never finished using the roll of film that was in my film camera. It seems that 'my thing' in photography
has been accumulating photos for my website (see my signature line) which I have been doing for about 20 years now, and digitizing film images
never was a lot of fun nor did it improve the quality in the process.

With this experience, I bravely claim that I am going to keep my K3 and use it along side of the K-1

[RockvilleBob]

Arrow in the back? Maybe a spear? no a feather

Attached Images

   

[Nicolas06]

DA55-300, @300mm

[biz-engineer]

A55-300, @300mm

The safari was fruitful ?

[Nicolas06]

The safari was fruitful ?

No safari yet, zoo, I got the 55-300 from my birday 1 month ago, and so I try to train for september. The trip is scheduled and the plane tickets taken The problem is to get rid of the wire fence in the tiger pictures! If you look with attention it destroy a bit the bokeh.

The 55-300 not bad sharpness wise with a bit of PP. Here I'am at 1/800s, iso 800, f/8... I would say the only downsize is overall a bokeh that look a bit on the buzy side overall.

While 1/800s is sure fast enough, I have to check if I can't go down a bit in shutter speed? I'll have to try at 1/300 1/500... How far can you go with SR? 1/100, 1/200 ? That would allow to get the iso down a bit or get more margin if light is not so great.

Until know that look quite promizing... I also learned the DA55-300 work not bad at all with the TC... That would be interresting to check first hand...

[biz-engineer]

How far can you go with SR? 1/100, 1/200 ?

@300mm , 1/125th with SR can get sharp images but 50% of them (using burst mode), deleting blurred images, 1/250th+SR works I use this setting @ 400mm to lower iso noise when using f8 <-> f11 aperture to optimize lens sharpness and DoF. Stopping down the lens by one or two stops has the advantage that slight AF offset from the lens gets geared down. SR in full use, I use it most of the time with long lenses, except for birds in flight. Eh eh, you can try for yourself.. have fun ;-)

---------- Post added 01-05-16 at 20:06 ----------

The problem is to get rid of the wire fence in the tiger pictures! If you look with attention it destroy a bit the bokeh.

Yes you are right. Beside being able to get close, I think the success of beautiful wildlife images boils down to lighting of the subject and non distracting background (busy background can make of break the image, but we don't always get the background we'd like to have). When I miss a photo, I telling myself that there will be other opportunities.

[MRCDH]

Here is a sampling of various venues shot with the Sigma 50-500; any comments, suggestions and observations are welcomed.

[Nicolas06]

Eh eh, you can try for yourself.. have fun ;-)

I'll do it and I'll have fun Thanks

Yes you are right. Beside being able to get close, I think the success of beautiful wildlife images boils down to lighting of the subject and non distracting background (busy background can make of break the image, but we don't always get the background we'd like to have). When I miss a photo, I telling myself that there will be other opportunities.

yeap

[Ducatigaz]

This Whinchat landed on the end of a fallen dead tree that I was standing next to. I have never seen one before. K-5/FA*600mm f4 ED [IF]

These shots were taken from the drivers seat of a car using a Kirk window mount with a 58mm ballhead




Thank you to everyone who views, comments and likes my pictures

[Rupert]

Thank you to everyone who views, comments and likes my pictures

Those are really superb shots as always from you.

Here is a sampling of various venues shot with the Sigma 50-500; any comments, suggestions and observations are welcomed.

Enjoyed those very much!

I'm thinking that ISO 1600 will be a lot better when I get that K1....very soon now?

Bigma 50-500

Whitewing


Mourning Dove


Regards!