Originally posted by Miguel Thanks for the thoughtful answer. One more Q: Do you, or are you planning on making money off your prints?
Thanks,
M
Yes I do currently make money from selling prints Miguel.
Originally posted by emalvick This is a useful thread.
It would seem to me that once you get around 500 mm or larger, hand-holding is going to be difficult not only because of weight but because the limited field of view will make it a challenge to frame for your target. I have a cheap 500 mm mirror lens (I wouldn't recommend it at all), but I can hand hold it. However, my lack of steadiness has made it a challenge to frame the shots I want. If I do everything is fine.
What I'm getting at is that I'm thinking one would need a tripod regardless of the system weight.
Going back to the field of view, one should consider what the real differences are. The 560 mm lens is only about 7% smaller than a 600 mm lens. With the K3, you can make up that difference in a crop and still be over 20 MP with the original image. I'm not sure what print size or result you might be shooting for, but the one thing that keeps me honest and practical when looking at reach is thinking about (1) print size (2) resolution needed for that print size and (3) how much can you crop from the K3 to get to that size (or how much can you crop and be happy with the image). Realistically you can probably crop much further for more apparent reach just because even 20 MP is a lot. Of course you do lose some potential detail, but if you are starting at 500~600, you aren't going to do much better anyway.
I also like the earlier suggestion of using a telescope. I've not seen it done for bird photography, but I can't see why it couldn't work if it seems to work well enough for space shots. Again, it's probably just a challenge for the initial set up and framing.
I don't anticipate my next "step up" lens being a hand-holdable one. I know I'll need to reinvest in a heavier-duty tripod and head. Doing a lot of thinking the past few days and I think I'll be perfectly content with the 560 + 1.4 TC. I should start doing bench presses or lifting weights to get my lazy butt in shape for having to lug that around