[Jan178]

It's the perfect yard birds lens. Although I do swap between the 55-300 PLM and FA*300 at times for the faster aperture and higher resolution (at the expense of less versatility and much slower AF). If you can pick up a DA*300 or F/FA*300 at an affordable price, you won't regret it either. Ultimately there's a place for both the zoom and prime if you like wildlife.

Thanks for the input! With wider angle i´m more comfortable with primes but versatility and budget (aaalways the budget) are the limiting forces with teles Gotta keep eyeing the used markets for long primes

---------- Post added 07-05-21 at 07:00 ----------

Great shots! Your 100 macro did a wonderful job. I doesn't look heavily cropped at all. I'm always afraid of cropping too much with shots like the one's I've been getting of the Cooper's Hawks. I'm glad I can fool some of the people some of the time! . I usually try to avoid the 300 on my DA 55-300, backing off just a bit before shooting.

Thanks! I was very pleasantly surprised for the capabilities of K-70 when cropping these, and the 100mm macro IS a fantastic lens! Oh, the flaws of image, if no one else sees them, no need to explaining them

I´m really getting interested in this bird thing, all the photos here are great inspiration and guidance!

[rod_grant]

One of our pond visitors.

That's lovely.

[OrchidJulie]

One of our pond visitors.

Blue Heron Happy Dance

Happy, happy! A terrific capture!

[dadipentak]

One last shot before closing time at the Redbud Inn.

---

Last edited by dadipentak; 05-07-2021 at 10:40 AM.

[rod_grant]

WET male northern cardinal in the grass. KP/DFA 150-450 @ 450mm

Now that is colourful!
And he has his eye on you.

[dadipentak]

Not a great photo but it's not everyday an osprey shows up in the yard.

[Thagomizer]

Cross posted from the Mirror Lens Club.

Today I took my MTO 10/1000 out for some shooting. My version is the older design, dating from the late1950s, where the end closest to the camera is bigger than the front, rather than the whole assembly being a constant diameter throughout its length. This is it here.

In my backyard, a pair of Red Breasted Nuthatches are opening a hole in a dead tree limb. As they are returning reliably to the same spot, I figured they might make good test subjects.

Using the 1000 was a bit trickier than I thought it would be, quite apart from its greater weight and larger size. I'm close enough to the tree that depth of field is quite shallow at this camera to subject distance. Focusing on the hole in the tree where they were working would mean that the birds would actually be slightly out of focus. While the birds were there regularly, they didn't stay still for very long. So, I focused as best I could, using live view with peaking, making adjustments occasionally. I shot on continuos hi, firing short bursts when the birds were around the opening.

This was also the first test of my recently acquired CS-310 cable release, which worked very nicely. I also had a go at using WiFi on my tablet, but I found using the camera's LCD panel better. I might find the tablet more useful with an AF lens, though, so more play is needed.

I attached the lens using a flanged M42-PK adapter, along with a 12mm PK extension tube (to clear the KP's flash housing overhang). My understanding is that Maksutov mirror lenses often focus beyond infinity, so a bit of extension doesn't interfere with infinity focusing. I'll have to test this with some lunar photography at some point. My subjects were much closer in any case, so not an issue.

Unfortunately, the M42-PK adapter resulted in the camera being at an angle. The tree limb in these photos is actually vertical, but the angle of the camera obscures this fact. The lens is much too heavy to use the camera's tripod mount. The lens has a single, non-rotating mount point on the bottom. I believe later MTO 1000mm lenses have two mounting points at right angle to each other. I'll have to either mess around with the tripod head, or try an M42 extension tube, backed off a bit, to see if I can get better alignment.

The sighting posts built into the upper surface of the lens body work very well for aiming. Little additional tripod adjustment was needed for proper subject alignment.

Okay, time to shut up and show some pictures already! All taken with KP, uncropped, with levels and contrast adjusted in post.













Not bad, but not great. I won't post any 100% crops yet. I'm still learning, so I may yet be able to get more out of it. I think it shows promise. More distant subjects will have more forgiving DOF, so there's that. At some point I also want to do some real world tests comparing the MTO to cropping shots from the Tamron 55BB to the same FOV.

---

Last edited by Thagomizer; 05-08-2021 at 10:18 PM.

[rod_grant]

Not a great photo but it's not everyday an osprey shows up in the yard

Sometimes Dave you just have to take what presents!

[dadipentak]

Sometimes Dave you just have to take what presents!

Yep, I grabbed the camera, took the shot, checked it to make sure it really was an osprey and, when I looked back, it was gone.

[Mbaez]

A lot of work but you got great pictures of a very dynamic bird.

Cross posted from the Mirror Lens Club.

Today I took my MTO 10/1000 out for some shooting. My version is the older design, dating from the late1950s, where the end closest to the camera is bigger than the front, rather than the whole assembly being a constant diameter throughout its length. This is it here.

In my backyard, a pair of Red Breasted Nuthatches are opening a hole in a dead tree limb. As they are returning reliably to the same spot, I figured they might make good test subjects.

Using the 1000 was a bit trickier than I thought it would be, quite apart from its greater weight and larger size. I'm close enough to the tree that depth of field is quite shallow at this camera to subject distance. Focusing on the hole in the tree where they were working would mean that the birds would actually be slightly out of focus. While the birds were there regularly, they didn't stay still for very long. So, I focused as best I could, using live view with peaking, making adjustments occasionally. I shot on continuos hi, firing short bursts when the birds were around the opening.

This was also the first test of my recently acquired CS-310 cable release, which worked very nicely. I also had a go at using WiFi on my tablet, but I found using the camera's LCD panel better. I might find the tablet more useful with an AF lens, though, so more play is needed.

I attached the lens using a flanged M42-PK adapter, along with a 12mm PK extension tube (to clear the KP's flash housing overhang). My understanding is that Maksutov mirror lenses often focus beyond infinity, so a bit of extension doesn't interfere with infinity focusing. I'll have to test this with some lunar photography at some point. My subjects were much closer in any case, so not an issue.

Unfortunately, the M42-PK adapter resulted in the camera being at an angle. The tree limb in these photos is actually vertical, but the angle of the camera obscures this fact. The lens is much too heavy to use the camera's tripod mount. The lens has a single, non-rotating mount point on the bottom. I believe later MTO 1000mm lenses have two mounting points at right angle to each other. I'll have to either mess around with the tripod head, or try an M42 extension tube, backed off a bit, to see if I can get better alignment.

The sighting posts built into the upper surface of the lens body work very well for aiming. Little additional tripod adjustment was needed for proper subject alignment.

Okay, time to shut up and show some pictures already! All taken with KP, uncropped, with levels and contrast adjusted in post.













Not bad, but not great. I won't post any 100% crops yet. I'm still learning, so I may yet be able to get more out of it. I think it shows promise. More distant subjects will have more forgiving DOF, so there's that. At some point I also want to do some real world tests comparing the MTO to cropping shots from the Tamron 55BB to the same FOV.

[OrchidJulie]

Yep, I grabbed the camera, took the shot, checked it to make sure it really was an osprey and, when I looked back, it was gone.

Lucky shot, for sure. Does it have lunch in the right talon? Looks like half a fish there.

[dadipentak]

Lucky shot, for sure. Does it have lunch in the right talon? Looks like half a fish there.

Yep--good eye! It's fresh from the stream down in the valley.
Actually--although not an every day thing--it has happened before. Back in 2016, when the dead oak nearer the house was still standing and I was shooting with the FA*600/4, I got this.



Hmm, I think I'll revisit the pp (again ).

[noelcmn]

[OrchidJulie]

Yep--good eye! It's fresh from the stream down in the valley.
Actually--although not an every day thing--it has happened before. Back in 2016, when the dead oak nearer the house was still standing and I was shooting with the FA*600/4, I got this.



Hmm, I think I'll revisit the pp (again ).

Another good catch! (no pun intended, honest!) we have ospreys down here, but they are rare in this part of town, no suitable water for their hunting, although one sees them flying occasionally. There are plenty of "lakes", really just big borrow pits, not very close to this immediate neighborhood, so the ospreys tend not to hang out nearby.

[KC0PET]

This was from early 2020.