[NZ_Ross]

Have a saturday night- over at Oturere hut on Tongariro with adout 30 other people. Was worth it for the morning views though! Doing a bit of experimenting with night photos.

I really like the first one GUB, thanks for sharing

[Kiwizinho]

pic please, people claim all sorts of things on the internet

Here you go. See how the area around the macro switch is flush with the rest of the lens barrel, whereas if you can remember the other one it had a sort of raised hump, and there was a little panel that was screwed in place.

Another difference, the last one had the word 'LOCK' screen printed on the aperture dial next to the little button you push in. This one has the button, but there's no text.

Maybe I'm blind, but I haven't managed to find this particular variant of the Sigma 70-300 in the reviews on PF, although I guess optically it should be similar to the other APO versions?

[Kiwigeezer]

Here you go. See how the area around the macro switch is flush with the rest of the lens barrel, whereas if you can remember the other one it had a sort of raised hump, and there was a little panel that was screwed in place.

Another difference, the last one had the word 'LOCK' screen printed on the aperture dial next to the little button you push in. This one has the button, but there's no text.

Maybe I'm blind, but I haven't managed to find this particular variant of the Sigma 70-300 in the reviews on PF, although I guess optically it should be similar to the other APO versions?

Interested to get your impressions on this lens. I've been tempted a couple of times as they seem to come up on eBay fairly regularly, but I think I'd always be reaching for my Pentax 55-300.

[Kiwizinho]

Interested to get your impressions on this lens. I've been tempted a couple of times as they seem to come up on eBay fairly regularly, but I think I'd always be reaching for my Pentax 55-300.

I might attempt a more objective test of the lens as described here: Camera Lens Testing- Sharpness, Chromatic Aberration and Distortion - Bob Atkins Photography
as well as my personal impressions.
I see quite a few reviews on here from people who've had a lens a few days or a week, and write up a review which may be quite positive, or not, but without a great deal of hard evidence to back them up.

My personal impression of my last Sigma 70-300mm APO was that it was sharper than the kit 50-200mm DA-L, with a longer reach. It will take me a bit of time to see how this instance which is obviously a slightly different build compares.
I think the F 70-210 might be a little bit sharper, but my copy suffers from bad spherical aberrations and/or coma which limits its usefulness in high contrast situations, and of course it's a bit shorter.

[Transit]

Here you go. See how the area around the macro switch is flush with the rest of the lens barrel, whereas if you can remember the other one it had a sort of raised hump, and there was a little panel that was screwed in place.
....

I had the screwed on one, it fell off a few times
Has it got the violent AF that twists the sucker like a V8 reving

---------- Post added 6th Jun 2016 at 09:44 PM ----------

woo great shot
Is that moon glow behind the hill ?
The landscape is very other world like some art work
care to share your technique ?

Have a saturday night- over at Oturere hut on Tongariro with adout 30 other people. Was worth it for the morning views though! Doing a bit of experimenting with night photos.

[Kiwizinho]

Have a saturday night- over at Oturere hut on Tongariro with adout 30 other people. Was worth it for the morning views though! Doing a bit of experimenting with night photos.

Nice ... and I dare say a bit chilly. I'm only about 20m above sea level, and there have been frosts every day for the last few days.
I found even going for a walk with an aluminium tripod in my hand at 4.30pm was a bit chilly as the tripod was acting as a heat sink.

I'd imagine it was considerably colder out at night with snow all around.

[GUB]

woo great shot
Is that moon glow behind the hill ?
The landscape is very other world like some art work
care to share your technique ?

This is a 20 image stitch. A friend was doing some single image shots with a wide. His settings from memory - 30sec / f2.8 / iso3200. He was hitting the wall with noise and stars moving. So I thought thought my sup tak 50mm 1.4 would hit the sweet spot. Essentially it would take a block of 9 images to equal a 14mm. And I had 2 stops to play with. Yeah wide open it is a fraction soft but it is 3 goes with the lens in each direction so in practical terms you have tripled the resolution. Your pixels and noise are 1/3 the size. (This of course is for a given print size). So I ended up using 20sec / f1.4 / iso 1600 but with hindsight should have used iso 3200 and 10sec coz the longer focal length exaggerated the star movement. In practise I had a hell of a job aligning the lens in the blackness so had a lot of overlap. The stitched image has been smart sharpened and the landscape lightened a bit courtesy of a layer mask.

[richandfleur]

Great photos GUB!

[Transit]

Thanks for the explanation Gub, impressive !

I heard back from CRK (NZ) re K-1.
anyone interested in the response PM me

[richandfleur]

I'm really interested in this new K-70 that's apparently in the works. Fingers crossed it will provide the video developments I've been hoping for since I got my K-30 years ago.

[Transit]

are those good numbers for video ?

Video: full HD 60i and HD 60p
- Autofocus in video mode: on-sensor hybrid AF (phase difference and contrast detection)

[richandfleur]

are those good numbers for video ?

Video: full HD 60i and HD 60p
- Autofocus in video mode: on-sensor hybrid AF (phase difference and contrast detection)

Numbers, no Pentax are miles behind.

AF bit has my interest as I hope that means they took a look at the wider video offering.

Fingers crossed. Figure there is a 20% chance of them doing something useful, but still hopeful. They need to return the real sensor stabilisation of the k-5 / k-7 / k-x era, to be competitive against Sony and Olympus who can make this work.

[Kiwizinho]

I'm really interested in this new K-70 that's apparently in the works. Fingers crossed it will provide the video developments I've been hoping for since I got my K-30 years ago.

I see the official specs are now out on DPReview Ricoh introduces weather-resistant Pentax K-70 with Hybrid AF and Pixel Shift: Digital Photography Review

Having an external mic input is good, and pixel shift is nice.

Not exactly revolutionary, but If this is the new 'entry-level' from Pentax it's pretty good.

[richandfleur]

Yep, it's looking very exciting for me. Has mic in, and AF in video mode via on sensor AF points.
That bit has me interested, as it's likely the Sony A6000 sensor, which was both very good for stills, but also had 179 AF points on the sensor. Maybe Pentax could actually track something now?!

Still waiting to see if the k-x/k-7/k-5 sensor stabilisation during video makes a return. That would be the selling point for me...

[Transit]

Surely the '70' name is taken ?