Hi All,
The "reach" thread has served it's purpose, but IMO is getting a bit cumbersome with size, so I thought I'd start posting the new stuff I shoot in their own threads from now on. . .it'll pump up our thread count here.
These two species are part of the reason I wanted a Q for the extreme cropped FOV. They are both divers and very wary of shoreline activity, so the closest I can usually get is 50 ft or so. With my APS-C DSLRs and 714mm, it's possible to get some very good shots, but it usually has taken me hours to get just a few shots because the lake is pretty big, has virtually no cover at the shoreline, and I don't use hides or camo. I only see these guys in the spring, maybe for a few weeks, and I always try to get at least a few keepers of them if I can each year.
I'm still getting used to shooting the Q and the Pentax adapter, so I've been making some huge mistakes -- like not checking the aperture ring. More than once, I've started shooting with this kit, then while chimping, I notice that the ISO is very high and the results are very soft. I look at the aperture ring, and it's set at 3 or 4 -- f16-22 with the DA 55-300 -- apparently I inadvertently turned the ring when I put the Q in the bag or took it out. . . Got to get into the habit of checking the ring before I shoot. . . With the Grebe, I also started freaking out when I thought that the camera or the Pentax adapter was malfunctioning. All of a sudden, the LCD would black out when I actuated the shutter, but there was no shutter sound -- I went through the usual drill of checking the battery charge, turning the camera off, then back on again, pulling the battery and using a freshly charged one, and kept getting the same result. . . then I realized that the sun had come out and the shutter speed had increased over the 1/1000 max of the Adapter, and the Q had switched to the electronic shutter!
One tip I can share about using Focus Peaking with the Q for super tele work -- with the lens wide open at long FLs, the DOF is usually pretty evident on the LCD as you can see the area that's in focus move across the EVF as you move the focus ring, especially when shooting down on the water like this. What I did for these was to try to place the bird about 1/3 from the front of the peaked area, wait for the pose I wanted, and take the shot. I found this much easier than trying to concentrate on small details on the bird to focus. This won't work in all situations, but it does in some. . . and it's much faster for me at least.
Anyway, on to the shots -- All were handheld, sitting position braced on a knee, with the DA55-300 at 300mm wide open at f5.8. I've found that with the zoom, I don't need to use a Red Dot to spot as I can zoom out, spot the subject, then zoom in, keeping it close to in frame. If I don't touch the focus ring, I can also use the peaked focus plane to locate the subject when shooting down on the water like this. I just center the focus plane in the LCD and move horizontally to find the bird. Using the zoom would be easier if this was a one touch zoom, but there just aren't any xx-300 push pull zooms out there that are anywhere near the weight with the optical quality of the DA. . . I also used an inexpensive V5 LCD Loupe modified for the Q.
All shots are the full frame as taken processed with light NR using Topaz Denoise and significant sharpening with Topaz InFocus.
I do have a few shots of these species that are a tad better than these taken with a K7 or K5 + FA* 300 f2.8 + F 1.7x AFA + Sigma EX 1.4x APO TC stacked on a heavy CF tripod with a Sidekick gimbal, but that's over $5K and 16+ lbs of gear, and the shots needed significant cropping for reasonable display. For less than $1K and 2 lbs, the Q did
VERY well!
Scott
Last edited by snostorm; 05-05-2013 at 01:20 AM.