[GUB]

Got a friend who is a professional enough photographer to manage trade price from Littles. He spoke highly of them. He contacted them to get a price for a K1 after I bought mine through PWarehouse. I could have saved $400!! I think his degree of "professional" extends to mainly taking ID photos at schools - Can't help thinking Littles has a rather warped view of the world or we are missing something here. What does it take to qualify for "trade"?

[Kiwi645hauler]

Got a friend who is a professional enough photographer to manage trade price from Littles. He spoke highly of them. He contacted them to get a price for a K1 after I bought mine through PWarehouse. I could have saved $400!! I think his degree of "professional" extends to mainly taking ID photos at schools - Can't help thinking Littles has a rather warped view of the world or we are missing something here. What does it take to qualify for "trade"?

He may have had an account with littles for years, I know many pro's from a while back who shot Pentax 67's and 645's dealt directly with Littles on Pro Accounts which gave them trade pricing, there was one here in Dunedin especially who shot 67s for wedding work and 645s with 220 or 70mm roll backs for schools and groups who had a Pro/Trade account with Littles, but for servicing and other little bits non Pentax would visit us.

[following.eric]

Here are the 55-300mm Shots I was talking about, specifically sharpness wide open. Subject is pretty far away. Shot a city building from at least 1km or so away. Hand Held all shot at 300mm
ISO 200 f5.8 1/1000, ISO200 f8 1/640 and last shot the sharpest of the bunch ISO200, f13 1/400. Same results when shot at 55mm, sharpness as I stop down the aperture.

to me I feel at f5.8 its very unsharp and could be something off with my DA L lens?

[Kiwi645hauler]

Here are the 55-300mm Shots I was talking about, specifically sharpness wide open. Subject is pretty far away. Shot a city building from at least 1km or so away. Hand Held all shot at 300mm
ISO 200 f5.8 1/1000, ISO200 f8 1/640 and last shot the sharpest of the bunch ISO200, f13 1/400. Same results when shot at 55mm, sharpness as I stop down the aperture.

to me I feel at f5.8 its very unsharp and could be something off with my DA L lens?

Cool pics Eric, believe it or not, Atmosphere has a big part to play when distances become involved. If the temps are highish, then heat haze becomes a factor which makes things look a little soft too, as the lens magnifies everything, including any distortion in the atmosphere from things like heat haze and it will affect the resulting images.

[zkarj]

Interesting reading about these cheap TCs after I just spent some time reading the PF review of the Pentax 1.4. For all its advantages (it appears to be the most feature/function complete example), the reviewers did not recommend it on a 55-300, yet folks here are using a $38 chunk of glass with some success.

[Transit]

Here are the 55-300mm Shots I was talking about, specifically sharpness wide open. Subject is pretty far away. Shot a city building from at least 1km or so away. Hand Held all shot at 300mm
ISO 200 f5.8 1/1000, ISO200 f8 1/640 and last shot the sharpest of the bunch ISO200, f13 1/400. Same results when shot at 55mm, sharpness as I stop down the aperture.

to me I feel at f5.8 its very unsharp and could be something off with my DA L lens?

I'll try similar with mine tomorrow.
Have a DA and a DA-L

[following.eric]

Cool pics Eric, believe it or not, Atmosphere has a big part to play when distances become involved. If the temps are highish, then heat haze becomes a factor which makes things look a little soft too, as the lens magnifies everything, including any distortion in the atmosphere from things like heat haze and it will affect the resulting images.

Would heat haze be less visible when stopped down?or would heat haze affect all images regardless of settings?
a f13 it appears much sharper even with a slower shutter speed.

Update. I just ran two test on a tripod in my place with poor lit condition shooting at speeds of 1/6 and it looks like f5.8 may be sharper than f13 when shooting 2m - 3m in distance. not the results I was expecting.

I'll be outside all weekend so some more tests are going to be run lol

---

Last edited by following.eric; 07-07-2017 at 05:24 AM.

[Transit]

I'll try similar with mine tomorrow.
Have a DA and a DA-L

Oh well i buggered that up...
used AF rather than live view and focus peaking...doh
the DA-L obviously needed fine tuning...but rugby was the winner on the day
try again tomorrow

[awa355]

I used my 55-300 DA-L yesterday for soccer photos (281 of them) and have no issues with it. The edges/corners may not be perfect if pixel peeping, but as I crop the clutter away from the player where possible, I'm still left with images sharp enough for the clubs facebook page.

For a Hall of Fame photo, I would be looking for another lens (but then I wouldn't be getting asked to take the photo either)

I used the K50 for the first game and the D5200 /Tamron 18-200 for the 2nd game. I have to say, the Tamrom's AF was much faster than the DA-L 55-300.

Also gave BBF a go for the third time. Not for me, I have set the D5200 back to shutter release focus. The AEL/AFL button on the K50 is to far away from where my thumb rests to feel comfortable using. If I have issues with focusing, it is likely to do with my AF selection rather than the time difference between the two focus options.

[following.eric]

Oh well i buggered that up...
used AF rather than live view and focus peaking...doh
the DA-L obviously needed fine tuning...but rugby was the winner on the day
try again tomorrow

Would aperture also affect auto focus adjustment. I again have tried with f5.8 F8 and f13 with various distances and lighting and held hand f13 is sharp, f5.8 is blurry and unusable. But if the AF is sharp at f13 then it shouldn't need an AF adjustment then.

Im at the point that i don't think it can be fixed. Just use it at f13 bump up the iso and move on. Only real problem is the increased iso but I can live with that for now, not like my images are getting published or anything.

Also what would people recommend for AF setting for wildlife? I've been using AF-C with center single spot.

[zkarj]

Also what would people recommend for AF setting for wildlife? I've been using AF-C with center single spot.

Depends whether it's moving, how it moves, and what the background is.

For a gull wheeling in the sky, I use auto-point, continuous focus and if it gets anything in focus it'll be the bird.

For a tui hopping through a densely flowered kowhai, I'll stick with my normal single focus centre point because there are a ton of possible points of focus and most of them not what I want.

[Transit]

Would aperture also affect auto focus adjustment. I again have tried with f5.8 F8 and f13 with various distances and lighting and held hand f13 is sharp, f5.8 is blurry and unusable. But if the AF is sharp at f13 then it shouldn't need an AF adjustment then.

....

the wider apertures would presumably need finer adjustment than using f13.
Lenses aren't really at their best wide open

[Kiwi645hauler]

Would heat haze be less visible when stopped down?or would heat haze affect all images regardless of settings?
a f13 it appears much sharper even with a slower shutter speed.

Update. I just ran two test on a tripod in my place with poor lit condition shooting at speeds of 1/6 and it looks like f5.8 may be sharper than f13 when shooting 2m - 3m in distance. not the results I was expecting.

I'll be outside all weekend so some more tests are going to be run lol

Heat Haze would be visible no matter the aperture at the distances of the samples, it is just what happens over long distances when you magnify things.

[Kiwigeezer]

60 bucks, I've even got the box, one careful owner

---------- Post added 6th Jul 2017 at 11:24 PM ----------

I answered the Ricoh survey, suggested they dump Littles...

Is your TC still up for grabs?

[Transit]

Is your TC still up for grabs?

Sure is. Wrapped and ready