I have nothing but praise for CRK as well. They have serviced and cleaned my cameras and they brought my first copy of the PLM back from the dead twice. Very good to deal with.
Originally posted by K2 to K50 Thanks Des - I already have the 55-300mm PLM zoom, so I would see little value in investing in a 300mm prime.
Many of us have both, because they serve different functions. The DA*300 f4 with teleconverter gives you an effective 420mm f5.6 with much less weight and at half the cost of the DFA 150-450 (even with the high cost of the DA TC), and with comparable image quality. If the birds are hopping around nearby, use the PLM. Have a look in the 300mm+ thread and you will see a lot of fine images taken with this combination. Even without the TC, the extra resolution from the 300 means that images can withstand a lot of cropping, and you gain 1.3 stops of aperture compared to the PLM at 300mm. The main downside of the DA*300 is its autofocus (performance and reliability).
Originally posted by K2 to K50 I did some thinking on your suggestion of a Nikon body with the Nikkor 200-500mm zoom.Are there Nikkor or Canon to Pentax K mount adapters that preserve autofocus?
No.
Originally posted by K2 to K50 If I bought a Tamron 150-600 for either Canon or Nikon, is there an adopter to use such on a KP?
No. Same goes for the Sigma 150--600 models. (IIRC, Sigma used to offer mount conversion, so that if you switched from say Canon to Sony you could get the mount changed at a reasonable price. But they only did it for mounts they supported for the particular lens - not K-mount for the 150-600.)
Originally posted by K2 to K50 Anybody have any comments on image quality re Pentax 150-450 vs Nikkor 200-500mm?
I can't comment on this Peter. The 200-500 is at the cheap end of the Nikon range, but it is very popular. I do see a lot of images taken with it in the Birdlife magazine so that is something! There are millions of images with this lens on Flickr, so you can form your own view.
You might be interested in the comments of one user who switched to Nikon here:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/122-lens-clubs/55946-300mm-plus-lens-clu...ml#post4455801 He later got a Nikkor 500mm f4 PF; see his comments here:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/122-lens-clubs/55946-300mm-plus-lens-clu...ml#post4727514 Originally posted by K2 to K50 Otherwise, I have discovered for between $3200 to $3500 I could buy brand new a Nikon D5600, or D7500 body, plus a brand new Nikkor 200-500mm lens. So for less money than the Pentax 150-450, I get a (brand new) second camera body and slightly longer (brand new) telephoto lens. I could keep the Nikon loaded with the telephoto, and my KP with my F2.8 100mm Macro - no lens swapping needed when changing from bird photography to insect/flower photography!If I waited until Easter or June/July I could probably do even better on the Nikon combo on discount offers.
If I were getting serious about birding I would be tempted to go that route myself (although I would personally go for a second hand D500/200-500, or maybe one of the 150-600 lenses, in good condition). It is handy to dedicate one body to telephoto duties (I used to use my K-3 that way), ready to go when you see an interesting bird! Isn't your mate a Nikon shooter too? So you could share lenses and learn some tricks from him.
But you might also want to keep an eye on the launch of the K-3iii, which seems to be aimed at sports/wildlife shooters. Who knows, maybe they will offer a deal with the DFA 150-450? That might turn out to be a really outstanding combination.