[luftfluss]

Nice! I found the 400 Tamy + 1.4XL converter a satisfactory combo. I also used a 2XL on the 400 Tamy to get 800mm f8, So long as you don't crop the results are OK, but not outstanding. Captured a few Goldfinch images in the Film Era with that combo, and there is decent feather detail. The 400mm f4 Tamron was/is one of the best big teles for K-mount short of the massive, rare, very expensive Pentax 400mm f2.8.

Yes, I agree that the 400/4 + 2x-L is a bit rough, and the focus ring travels a bit too fast for precise focus adjustment, in my experience.

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[lesmore49]

K1 and MF Sigma 4.5/500 APO



and an older shot with the same lens on the K3

Wonderful photographs.

In my travels I have come across one wolf in the wild. It was a Timber Wolf in Manitoba, Canada at the western end of the Canadian Shield, not too far from where the Northern Plains of North America's eastern edge begins.

I was driving slowly, just after sunrise along a back road, near a large lake in late March, looking for good place to cast a few line in the hope that I would get a Lake trout, before they went to the depths of the lake.. The lake ice had started to recede from the shore and I was driving close to a heavily forested area, and the lake.

I was driving about 5-10 mph and noticed a large wolf looking at me intently by the road edge. Long legged, gray, yellow eyes from what I recall. I didn't stop, I just continued at my slow pace and looked in the rear view mirror. As soon as I passed him, he looked both ways at the road and moved vey quickly to the bush and forest. He just disappeared completely into the forest.

The thing that struck me, was that he looked both ways, before crossing (how civilized and cautious) and the intensity of his stare. His eyes locked onto mine , and that did give me a start.

[Ducatigaz]

This arrived in the post yesterday. The A 1.4x-L works well with my A*1200mm F8 ED [IF] so I thought I would give the A 2X-L a try.







Does anyone use one?

[WPRESTO]

This arrived in the post yesterday. The A 1.4x-L works well with my A*1200mm F8 ED [IF] so I thought I would give the A 2X-L a try.

Does anyone use one?

I have used, and still own a 2XL converter (must put it up for sale*). I used it successfully on two lenses 1) 400mm f4 Tamron = acceptable but not great results; 2) 200mm f4 SMCA macro = very good results, but not as good as the lens alone nor the lens with a 1.4XL. As I have posted so many times, teleconverters were introduced to deal with the problem of cropping chromes, a very difficult problem. Teleconverters allowed you to fill the chrome frame with little birds or distant wildlife, so the image became a picture of a bird, rather than a scenic with a bird in it. I think using teleconverters in the digital era when color images can be cropped more easily than a B&W negative, is more psychological than necessary.


*I've kept it because I still have the 200mm macro on which it works quite well. Imagine a 400mm that can get to 2X life size for photographing insects in the field. But do not think for a moment that such a rig is easy to use. Framing the subject is a major challenge.

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Last edited by WPRESTO; 02-06-2021 at 04:49 AM.

[swip]

This arrived in the post yesterday. The A 1.4x-L works well with my A*1200mm F8 ED [IF] so I thought I would give the A 2X-L a try.


Does anyone use one?

I have used it on my A*300/2.8 and worked very well.

However, I have not used it much because it is manual focus.

With this on the 1200mm, you will need a concrete block as tripod but you will be able to see the aliens on the moon

[volley]

Wonderful photographs.

In my travels I have come across one wolf in the wild. It was a Timber Wolf in Manitoba, Canada at the western end of the Canadian Shield, not too far from where the Northern Plains of North America's eastern edge begins.

I was driving slowly, just after sunrise along a back road, near a large lake in late March, looking for good place to cast a few line in the hope that I would get a Lake trout, before they went to the depths of the lake.. The lake ice had started to recede from the shore and I was driving close to a heavily forested area, and the lake.

I was driving about 5-10 mph and noticed a large wolf looking at me intently by the road edge. Long legged, gray, yellow eyes from what I recall. I didn't stop, I just continued at my slow pace and looked in the rear view mirror. As soon as I passed him, he looked both ways at the road and moved vey quickly to the bush and forest. He just disappeared completely into the forest.

The thing that struck me, was that he looked both ways, before crossing (how civilized and cautious) and the intensity of his stare. His eyes locked onto mine , and that did give me a start.

Thank you for your comment and for sharing the story!
I don't think I've ever seen a wolf in the wild, but since several years they are moving back into Germany after being extinct for nearly 200 years. At present approx. 130 packs are confirmed, mainly int eastern and northern part of Germany (some wolfs living just 20km from my place).
Germany is quite densely populated and the increasing number of wolfs start to create problems. Since they are strictly protected it is impossible to hunt them, even though they cause a lot of damages to livestock. Farmers can only try to invest in protection, supposedly "wolf-safe" fences and so on, but they can't shoot them. Let's see how this develops further.

[normhead]

We live with wolves but we see tracks and scat a lot more than the we see wolves.

A chance to see wolves without actually setting up blinds and stalking them tends to be a once in a life time experience. This from my once.

DA* 60-250 and K-5


This guy is a 20x30 canvas on my wall.

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Last edited by normhead; 10-19-2021 at 12:11 PM.

[Canada_Rockies]

We live with wolves but we see tracks and scat a lot ore than the we see wolves.

A chance to see wolves without actually setting up blinds and stalking them tends to be a once in a life time experience. This from my once.

DA* 60-250 and K-5


This guy is a 20x30 canvas on my wall.

Gorgeous!

[weverka]

This arrived in the post yesterday. The A 1.4x-L works well with my A*1200mm F8 ED [IF] so I thought I would give the A 2X-L a try.
...

Does anyone use one?

I have paired it with the SMC Takumar 6x7 600mm F4, 6x7 to K mount adapter.
Also the SMC Pentax 500mm F4.5
It seems to do work fine with these.

But I think your case is different. You are starting with an f8 lens and your 2x converter will make it f16. If the pixels on your camera are about 5 microns, you are already at the diffraction limit. I think that a perfect 2x converter would not give you more resolution on the target. It will give you more dynamic range though, since you can divide the light over more pixels.

[WPRESTO]

Gorgeous!

+1 On that. I'll observe that the steely stare of a wolf is unlike the face of 99% of domestic dogs, even German shepherds. Some huskies IMHO come closest, but despite their sometimes wild look, they are generally very sociable, friendly dogs that love human attention.

[lesmore49]

Thank you for your comment and for sharing the story!
I don't think I've ever seen a wolf in the wild, but since several years they are moving back into Germany after being extinct for nearly 200 years. At present approx. 130 packs are confirmed, mainly int eastern and northern part of Germany (some wolfs living just 20km from my place).
Germany is quite densely populated and the increasing number of wolfs start to create problems. Since they are strictly protected it is impossible to hunt them, even though they cause a lot of damages to livestock. Farmers can only try to invest in protection, supposedly "wolf-safe" fences and so on, but they can't shoot them. Let's see how this develops further.

I know that in some North American jurisdictions farmers and ranchers hire individuals who will drive animal predators away from their ranchlands, farms etc. Use of dogs, large hounds, etc. are used to track them and the people who are in the business employ different methods to scare them (predators) off properties, particularly during calving times, etc. The aim isn't to kill the predators, but to scare them, drive them off from properties and some properties are quite large. A lot of times, predators will return...so this can be a regular operation.

I have been fortunate in my life over the years to live where I live. I'm 90 minutes from the Canadian Shield, a couple of hours from parts of the Boreal forest, 100 odd miles from a desert, and live in the northern section of the Great Plains of North America....and two hours from an area designated as a migratory pathway for raptors. I've spent a lot of time in these different areas fly fishing, doing photography, camping, going for walks, etc. I have traveled these areas with my wife, my son, friends....but also a lot of times by myself. I find traveling by myself oft times to be the most successful and there is no talking, just enjoying the outdoors quietly . Noise can lessen your opportunities.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I went for a drive....in a rural farming area, down frozen dirt, country roads. It is about 15 -20 minutes away from our abode. It was a snowy, windy day.

But we saw about three Snowshoe Hares in winter coat, a covey of Hungarian Partridges and best of all...not too far from one of the snowshoe hares...a snowy owl taking off from a hydro pole...then flying fast and low over the fields. We could see it quite a distance away, suddenly hit something (we think) on the ground. Assuming it was prey, but too far for our human eyes to get a clear look at what was possibly happening.

Did I have my camera ? Yes, but it had my 100 Macro F 2/8 WR lens attached. My Sigma 150-500 was sitting in it's case at home. Still tooo heavy for me to lift, use...as I had a shoulder bone, etc. replacement a few months ago. But my shoulder is getting stronger and I'm sure I will get that 150-500 out of mothballs soon.

But even if I had my 'big game' lens ...good chance I wouldn't be able to get a good pix, and to me, if I get the occasional ok pic that is great, but in the end, just being out and about in the middle of nowhere in different areas of my province and every so often happening on something is good enough for me.

[luftfluss]

Does anyone use one?

Congrats on the new acquisition - looking forward to your pics with it.

I mostly agree with @WPRESTO about the TC's usefulness. I'm not sure there is any benefit to it compared with using the 1.4x-L and cropping. But it's fun.

Tamron 400/4 65B + A 2x-L...




K 500/4.5 + A 2x-L

[MKohoutek]

Been stalking this eagle’s hangouts for a while.
Finally had the right lens at the right time and place.
(And pretty close to the right focus.)

Pentax M*300mm on K1

[kengoh]

So far has been posting birdie in clean background, I have lots of them due to very frequent shooting during the 1st few years of birding. Sometimes I spent hours to wait for birds to perch on clean background and eventually I got them. I usually will process these pics first and those non-clean background rare birds or lifer later.

One of the rare birds - Feruginous Partridge shot with K5 + DA*300
These birds don't perch on branches and they moved very quickly on the ground looking for food, many times they will be blocked by branches and leaves, spent few hours just to snap a few shots... I only managed to have 2 shots of the pair in frame and I've never process this shot before until recently uploaded to flickr


One of the most colourful bird in Malaysia - Silver-eared Mesia
shot with K5 + Sigma 500/4.5




White-rumped Shama (juvenile) shot with K5 + Sigma 500/4.5



sidenote - these pics are less favorited in flickr than those birds with nice clean background, could be few times lesser.

[Des]

So far has been posting birdie in clean background, I have lots of them due to very frequent shooting during the 1st few years of birding. Sometimes I spent hours to wait for birds to perch on clean background and eventually I got them. I usually will process these pics first and those non-clean background rare birds or lifer later.

One of the rare birds - Feruginous Partridge shot with K5 + DA*300
These birds don't perch on branches and they moved very quickly on the ground looking for food, many times they will be blocked by branches and leaves, spent few hours just to snap a few shots... I only managed to have 2 shots of the pair in frame and I've never process this shot before until recently uploaded to flickr


One of the most colourful bird in Malaysia - Silver-eared Mesia
shot with K5 + Sigma 500/4.5




White-rumped Shama (juvenile) shot with K5 + Sigma 500/4.5



sidenote - these pics are less favorited in flickr than those birds with nice clean background, could be few times lesser.

Clean backgrounds are overrated! I like seeing images of wildlife in their habitat. These are all fine shots.

If I ran Flickr, I would change the algorithm so that every one of your photos was Explored, Ken.