[reh321]

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I've spent the past few days matching wits with a squirrel. Right now, he's eating seed that I intentionally spilled on the ground for him, so my latest trick (after the first picture), using a metal coat hanger to lower the feeder another foot or so, may have finally stalled him for a while.

In the meantime, my latest acquisition, a Rikenon 70-300 zoom, arrived today; it cost me $32 on ebay (I was the only bidder - I'm guessing that other potential bidders were put off by the "Ricoh pin", but that won't affect my cheap adapter).

I wasted some gas (the temperature is 6 degrees F) by opening the patio door a couple of inches and using the entire house as a blind, so I'm guessing this is about the best I can do without spending more serious money on a more serious lens. (I can't use the 2 second delay trick, it turns out, because most of the animals, and especially the Juncos, don't stay that long)

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[reh321]

The wind was really blowing the feeder around today, so I was expecting some serious distortion in this picture (since I have a cheap adapter), and I was having a terrible time with focusing, but i took it anyway because this was a much better view of the bird in the second picture above, and my wife and I were trying to determine exactly how they differ. This turned out much better than I had expected.

[Heinrich Lohmann]

Reh, I looked at the exif of these images and here are my 2cents: To take a sharp image at 300mm in windy conditions with a shutter speed of around 1/300 is impossible. I would increase the iso to 800 (Q7 easily handles that) and that would give you shutter speeds of around 1/1500 and I believe that you would she a huge difference in the sharpness of your images.

Take care,

[johnmflores]

Great start and certainly good for helping your wife ID birds. Looks like we're seeing some bent wood thanks to the electronic shutter, and the haze may be due to shooting through a window and reflections caused by the adapter. Keep at it though-practice makes better!

[Antonio Marques]

Keep them coming!

[reh321]

Reh, I looked at the exif of these images and here are my 2cents: To take a sharp image at 300mm in windy conditions with a shutter speed of around 1/300 is impossible. I would increase the iso to 800 (Q7 easily handles that) and that would give you shutter speeds of around 1/1500 and I believe that you would she a huge difference in the sharpness of your images.

Thank you for the advice.

Another fact I forgot to mention, because to me it is a natural part of who I am, is that I shot "chrome", mostly Kodachrome 25, for roughly 40 years. I developed certain habits, from how I hold the camera to what I do at the end, which don't necessarily translate smoothly into the current world.

Thus, I have spent most of my time experimenting with various F-stops (the EXIF for the latest picture wouldn't show that I had used F/8.0 on an F/4.5 lens), shutter speeds, and ISO settings looking for the best picture right now. From your cruise pictures, I am guessing that you think "post processing" when you take a picture, but I do not. I need to add that to my thought process, but it will be slow.

Again, thank you for your patience and suggestions!

[pacerr]

"post processing" . . . I need to add that to my thought process, but it will be slow.

I was taught that the picture I shot wasn't actually attained until the wet darkroom processes were finished so digital PP has come easy. And I'm SO appreciative of the economy, speed and instant gratification possible via PP today.

Choosing film type, filtration, base exposure, etc had to be chosen so that development chemicals, pushing speed, dodging & burning, paper contrast, etc complimented and finished the process.

IF NOTHING ELSE, avoiding the smell of the wet darkroom is incentive enough to spend a little time and effort to learn digital advantages.

It's just sooo nice to pull an SD card and sit down in front of a computer moments after I shoot something and know exactly how badly I screwed up the shoot.

[reh321]

I was taught that the picture I shot wasn't actually attained until the wet darkroom processes were finished so digital PP has come easy. And I'm SO appreciative of the economy, speed and instant gratification possible via PP today.

Choosing film type, filtration, base exposure, etc had to be chosen so that development chemicals, pushing speed, dodging & burning, paper contrast, etc complimented and finished the process.

IF NOTHING ELSE, avoiding the smell of the wet darkroom is incentive enough to spend a little time and effort to learn digital advantages.

It's just sooo nice to pull an SD card and sit down in front of a computer moments after I shoot something and know exactly how badly I screwed up the shoot.

The difference of where we came from.
I had to get it right when I took the picture, because Kodachrome was processed at large mass facilities only. Shoot it and forget it (until the mailman delivers it in a few weeks)

Then, all my pictures became slides, which were viewed on a screen; now, they become jpeg files, which are viewed on a screen. It seems so similar ...
Then, all your pictures became prints; all your pictures today become prints?
I'm not trying to be negative or contrary here ... it's just that so much of my "world" seems the same on the surface that sometimes I get vertigo trying to adjust to a "brave new world".

[reh321]

As I experiment with various ISO, aperture, shutter speed combinations, one thing I seem to have trouble keeping optimal is focusing ... sometimes when the picture isn't "quite right", the most likely culprit appears to be focusing. With my lens, my feeling is that the depth of field is not as deep as I had hoped, and an inadvertent very slight change may confound my results. Is there some kind of "trick" for nailing focusing with a manual focus lens, or should I just slightly vary the focus within each group of pictures, hoping that I will nail it on one of them?

[pacerr]

The difference of where we came from.

An excellent example of different applications. Other than the usual family stuff, photography was a working tool, a means of recording information and support for training material. B&W printing was simply the fastest, most efficient and economical means to an end. Ironically,now that shooting's just for fun, I very rarely ever print and when I do it's color and I let a pro print shop do it. All the old darkroom effort just ends up in PP out of habit and to see what I've learned from the past.

One MF trick I use is to not look at the target but to observe the surroundings at the plane of focus -- i.e., the grass at the feet of the subject. I can see the entire DoF presentation, watch it bracket the subject as the plane of focus moves and center it as desired. The subject doesn't even need to be present but I can pre-focus as when using CIF. Obviously that won't work for BIF though.

[crewl1]

As I experiment with various ISO, aperture, shutter speed combinations, one thing I seem to have trouble keeping optimal is focusing ... sometimes when the picture isn't "quite right", the most likely culprit appears to be focusing. With my lens, my feeling is that the depth of field is not as deep as I had hoped, and an inadvertent very slight change may confound my results. Is there some kind of "trick" for nailing focusing with a manual focus lens, or should I just slightly vary the focus within each group of pictures, hoping that I will nail it on one of them?

One thing that helps me is to use a loupe like this along with magnifying the image using the focus assist setting on the Q7.
LCD Viewfinder Loupes Magnifier Eyecup Extender V5 Hood for Nikon 1 J1 DSLR | eBay

Handheld will be difficult because unless you are braced well you may be changing the focus point with natural unsteadiness of your body.
This is worse when using the LCD because you are holding it out in front of your face.
The Loupe makes you put the camera up to your eye like a DSLR.

Anyway, set the option in AF/MF Settings called AF Autozoom to 6x

When shooting attempt the best focus without zoom, then press the OK button to enable the zoom. Fine tune then take the shot.

Here is the unit on a tripod with one of my lenses.

[johnmflores]

One thing that helps me is to use a loupe like this along with magnifying the image using the focus assist setting on the Q7.
LCD Viewfinder Loupes Magnifier Eyecup Extender V5 Hood for Nikon 1 J1 DSLR | eBay

Handheld will be difficult because unless you are braced well you may be changing the focus point with natural unsteadiness of your body.
This is worse when using the LCD because you are holding it out in front of your face.
The Loupe makes you put the camera up to your eye like a DSLR.

Anyway, set the option in AF/MF Settings called AF Autozoom to 6x

When shooting attempt the best focus without zoom, then press the OK button to enable the zoom. Fine tune then take the shot.

What he said. I do wish that the LCD was higher resolution though. Would make it much easier to achieve critical focus.

[crewl1]

To the OP , I just saw your setup post in the other thread, so it appears you already have a loupe.
if you haven't done the zoom assist try that. The Focus Peaking function is not really useful to me to achieve critical focus so I rely on the zoom assist instead.

On a side note, I think you are stressing the Q7 mount too much with that big lens not supported directly.

[reh321]

To the OP , I just saw your setup post in the other thread, so it appears you already have a loupe.
if you haven't done the zoom assist try that. The Focus Peaking function is not really useful to me to achieve critical focus so I rely on the zoom assist instead.

Yeah, I never understood the zoom assist until you explained it to me. Thanx!!

On a side note, I think you are stressing the Q7 mount too much with that big lens not supported directly.

As habit from my film days, my left hand is usually supporting the lens, but I supposed I should look into tripod mount for the lens.

[reh321]

As habit from my film days, my left hand is usually supporting the lens, but I supposed I should look into tripod mount for the lens.

I am thinking of spending serious bucks and getting the genuine Pentax adapter. It has a mount for a tripod collar, but I would have to buy the collar separately. When I look at tripod collars, there seems to be one specialized for each application. I am confused!! Which tripod collar actually goes with this adapter??