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Forum: Lens Clubs
12-11-2023, 06:46 AM
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Forum: Lens Clubs
05-10-2021, 05:26 AM
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Thanks! I just check some photos in your flickr gallery. Great stuff! Made me remember my visit from years ago, and want to take better photos next time. :)
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Forum: Lens Clubs
01-14-2021, 05:38 AM
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Forum: Lens Clubs
12-04-2020, 03:52 AM
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PENTAX K-1 • FF Mode • 400 ISO • HD Pentax DA 560mm F5.6 ED AW
Green Woodpecker
PENTAX K-1 • Crop Mode • 3200 ISO • HD Pentax DA 560mm F5.6 ED AW
Grey-headed Woodpecker
PENTAX K-1 • Crop Mode • 400 ISO • HD Pentax DA 560mm F5.6 ED AW
Hawfinch
PENTAX K-1 • Crop Mode • 400 ISO • HD Pentax DA 560mm F5.6 ED AW
Young Pied Woodpecker
PENTAX K-1 • FF Mode • 100 ISO • HD Pentax DA 560mm F5.6 ED AW
Some undefined bird...
PENTAX K-1 • Crop Mode • 800 ISO • HD Pentax DA 560mm F5.6 ED AW
PENTAX K-1 • Crop Mode • 200 ISO • HD Pentax DA 560mm F5.6 ED AW
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Forum: Lens Clubs
03-30-2020, 01:30 PM
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Not much I've done lately with the 560mm that is both interesting and excellent. But at least this sequence is interesting. From the dark, gloomy day that was New Year's Eve 2019: Rough-legged Hawk at the Bear River Refuge:
by Michael Stahulak, on Flickr
Braced on the top of my car…
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-11-2019, 10:32 AM
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Both with KP, mounted on a gimbal, out an open window. Looking forward to a new APS-C body with more, smaller AF points. Otherwise, the KP is great!
 shot at ISO 2000!
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-24-2019, 11:49 AM
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XPosted from K-1 thread yesterday:
GWE flying with nose heavy CG from breakfast***
HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW ƒ/8.0 450.0 mm 1/2000 iso400
HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW ƒ/8.0 450.0 mm 1/2000 iso320
HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW ƒ/8.0 450.0 mm 1/2000 iso320
***Saving the landing sequence for tomorrow... don't ya hate cliff hangers?! :fedup::mad::lol:
Eric
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-02-2019, 10:09 AM
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Bald Eagle
Eurasian lynx |
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
10-02-2019, 10:10 AM
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Indian peafowl |
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-17-2019, 03:18 PM
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You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ig5a3W2YaLg?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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The auto-focus section was of considerable interest.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
06-20-2019, 02:06 AM
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Another photo of a F-18 (Spanish air force this time) from the same event, this time with some PP.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
06-11-2019, 10:38 AM
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I have some more findings concerning the Pentax AF and AF-C performance that we will discuss at some point later on, but I will also include some images as I told you and let them do the talk :D
Here is an example of a frame from a long continuous burst (16 frames). The F-18 is turning towards me on a very hazy day. The first 5 images (the aircraft is quite away) are not in perfect focus. From the 6th frame and on the aircraft is quite large in the viewfinder and all images are in focus, without any "tricks" with the shutter release button. As I told you the bigger the subject the better the results, despite the fact that the relevant speed keeps raising and it becomes difficult to follow the plane...
The 1st image is the whole frame SOOC without any PP (the Jpeg extracted from the RAW file in DCU-5) and the 2nd is a 100% crop of the unedited RAW file.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
05-24-2019, 01:04 AM
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I would like to further comment on the Pentax K-1 AF performance during tracking (in Af-C mode and the settings I mentioned above) and speak a bit about what I called the Pentax paradox :lol: What is weird is that although the AF-C tracking performance is said to be weak and laggs behind competition, I have found it to perform better in demanding conditions that require extremely fast tracking than in lower speed and less demanding ones! I can't fully explain my findings but they have been confirmed on quite too many occasions to be considered a coincidence! Although there are not a lot of opportunities to shoot airplanes head on during air shows as they turn away from the crowd as they approach for safety reasons, there are cases where the plane or planes may come towards you getting bigger and bigger in your viewfinder passing quite close to you with high speed, during the "dedication passes" for example. You may also find yourself in cases where the planes come head on and pass over your head on flat land or a canyon or even if you stand at the sides at the end of a runway as planes take off.
For better explaining my findings let’s take one of these scenarios an aircraft is flying low in a canyon coming towards you head on and finally passes almost over your head (like it happens at Rainbow Canyon, Axalp, Mach Loop etc). I have found that as you see the plane in along distance and focus on it to start tracking and take images with a mountain (terrain) in the background the camera quite often looses focus on the plane and focuses on the background especially in cases where there is not much separation between the plane (subject) and the background. During such bursts you can see some frames with nailed focus, some where the camera is not decisive (probably the focus is somewhere in between the subject and the background - and the shutter was released while AF was hunting) and some with focus on the background. Even if the plane comes straight towards you without directional changes or maneuvers the % of OOF images is quite high sometimes and for me this is quite strange, since there are not many changes happening in the viewfinder other than the plane getting slowly bigger and the whole scenery happens so close to infinity that I would expect the opposite, many keepers and less OOF frames. Five major factors affect the keepers’ rate in such cases, whether the first image has been in perfect focus, the available light, the contrast between the plane and the background, the contrast of the background itself and the distance of the background from the airplane.
My explanation for these misups is that the airplane might be too far away so very small in relation to the frame and the camera can’t put an AF point on it accurately and also the “Hold AF status off” that I use because I need it more often, here acts negatively and leads to the OOF shots even after the camera has found the plane and focused right on it. So during this relatively easy situation the AF is not decisive and hunts instead of focusing on a relatively steady target in the middle of the frame.
As I said if Pentax:
- Rectifies its AF-C tracking mode and not permit easy locking on infinity (AF-C and continuous shooting means tracking, so the camera should scan to find the subject).
- Enables the photographer to dial in an electronic “distance focus limiter”. Imagine the third wheel on the K-1 to be customizable and by turning it you could choose between distances that you have previously dial in and save e.g. from 10m to 100m / 100m – 1000m / 1000m – infinity how much helpful it would be forbirding, aviation shooting and other sport related AF-C tracking situations.
- Creates aspecial mode (like the TAv is unique to Pentax) where tracking is the highest priority, even if that mode could be offered with the fastest Pentax lenses in their focus limiter modes only.
It could take the AF-tracking performance to a next level, because it is proven that Pentax cameras can nail focus and acquire it quite fast (with the newest lenses).
Now the paradox is that as the plane comes closer still head on (the most difficult situation for precise AF tracking) and with its relevant speed to the photographer continuously rising which makes it harder to track the plane and have it entire in the viewfinder, the AF performance increases and you get more tack sharp images provided you have set the camera right! It seems that when the plane is very close and the details on it are clearly visible, the AF performs great and the only limitation is the photographer and whether he can follow the super fast action… When I first noticed that I said I was lucky as I thought that was way too fast to AF and shoot it, but the pictures turned out great! There are many ones that only parts of the airplane are in the picture but the AF-C tracking works great! And moreover it really tracks the plane without the need to refocus by releasing and pressing the shutter button continuously. It seems like the AF-C makes very fast readjustments in such cases which is impressive,as the distance between the photographer and the target changes fast and now as the plane comes closer the telelens DOF becomes narrower and misfocused images are easier to tell than when the plane and the background are close to infinity.
This behavior of the Pentax AF-C system is difficult for me to explain, but for some reason it works best under more demanding conditions, but conditions where there are data to fine adjust the focus (the subject fills the frame). It reminds me of the SR paradox where the SR works better in very low speed panning shots than in relatively easier faster panning shots – and I leave the mirror slap or shutter shock out of this equation. I mean in terms of how effective the SR is and the % of high quality images in a burst. Maybe Pentax engineers have optimized these systems for cases like those I describe, I would love to learn a few things from them written down in a white paper or even as a loose talk in the special web pages Pentax makes for the new releases (and are a joy to read).
If there are Pentaxians who have similar experiences or PF members that know more about how Pentax DSLRs function and think they have some explanations I would love to hear them. Maybe I can learn things that will help me further improve my techniques! :)
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Forum: Photographic Technique
05-15-2019, 11:17 AM
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Thank you too Dagoban! About your questions:
1. My favorite lenses for aviation are the DA 560 and the DFA 150-450. Since I got the DA I try to use it whenever I can (even in airports). It is not an easy lens to use, the AF speed is just adequate and it is easier to lose focus while tracking. But the IQ when you have used it correctly is rewarding. The DFA 150-450 is much more useful for aviation, a must have for Pentax tele users. It’s fast, with the AF limiter even faster, it has the refocus buttons that can be helpful and it is sharp even wide open. I have compared it with the NIkon 80-400 and the Canon 100-400II and I have to say the K-1 + DFA 150-450 is a killing combo and shows the Pentax potential. It is better than the 80-400 and equally good if not better than the Canon classic.
2. In terms of sharpness the DFA* 70-200 is the winner, but again the DFA 150-450 is very close to it and impressive for a zoom lens!
3. Yes it’s clearly the DFA 150-450.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
05-14-2019, 03:32 AM
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So I went with Pentax because it offered me so much and at lower prices than the competition. The K-5 was better for me as a camera in general as it is a joy to use but also had better FPS and buffer than the D7000 and the final image quality was distinctly better! The D7000 had better AF-C and was faster to focus, but I found that although it acquired focus almost instantly, I got more tack sharp images in a long burst from the K-5 than the D7000. The area that the Nikon was (and still is) clearly better was tracking a bird or a plane in a frame with busy background. In such cases Pentax cameras tend to lose the subject and focus on the background (infinity).
When I got into digital photography my engagement with aviation photography became more serious and I started visiting airports,airshows etc taking thousand of pictures and as I was getting better and becoming more known to the aviation cycles in general, opportunities came up to work on various photographic projects and meet other serious aviation photographers too. I was upgrading my equipment too financing these upgrades partly by selling my older equipment but also by some projects - mainly products and architectural photography that turned over part of these investments. The K-1 was released at the perfect timing for me as I had decided to go FF after being able to assess the results from Nikon D750 and 810 and the upgrade from APS-C to FF was another significant step for me in many ways. This decision to go FF with a camera like the K-1 that is not the “best suited” for aviation photography and sports in general was conscious and after much thought. It was based on which my photographic priorities are and how much money I’m willing to invest. I had a plan in my mind and that was to have the equipment that could give me the results I want, to enjoy shooting (your equipment must be inspiring – not only top notch) and finally to pay me back in a medium term with the kind and number of projects I’m already undertaking. Unfeasible and overoptimistic plans are not helpful. It’s better to be honest to yourself and say I will buy this because of my GAS/LBA or because it will offer me joy even though I can’t justify it or because I can do it, than trying to persuade yourself or your wife/family etc that this lens-camera-equipment will turn you into a top photographer who will be selling prints and becoming rich if you are not already a top photographer getting richer everyday. 
Anyway we will talk about equipment a lot and I will happily answer your questions about equipment for aviation photography as I have used a lot of different equipment and I have close friends photographers that use a variety of cameras-lenses from other brands too. I’m the kind of guy that I will tell you my opinion straight without hesitations but also I will tell you I don’t know anything about a matter that I don’t have any idea about…
Back to aviation again! But before that I feel the need to say a very big “Thank you Pentax”! I have read a lot of bitter comments about Ricoh/Pentax and for me most of them are unjustified for a real decent small company that offers what it promises! Anyway although I also have/had problems with some of my equipment I don’t know any fellow photographer that didn’t have at some point with his. In total though Pentax equipment has given me the opportunity to take aviation pictures like those I was admiring back when I started and I was wondering if I will ever reach that level or more simply take some similarly great pictures myself. Some may laugh and think "who is that guy" and "he has a big idea of himself". I’m nothing more than an enthusiast but a very satisfied one by his work. And I’m always the strictest judge of my images, so this is quite an accomplishment and Pentax has helped me reach it. Could I have done it using different brand equipment? Most probably yes, but I’m not so sure if I could afford it and if it would offer me the same level of satisfaction (for some subjective – like ergonomics – and many personal reasons).
Anyway now I’m here and I’m a Pentaxian doing aviation photography, so back to our subject for the third time (or more, I’ve lost count). Next post will be about settings, technical stuff and eventually photos. I know there are many friends in here interested in aviation photography, so I hope we will have a lot to talk about!  |
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Forum: Photographic Technique
05-14-2019, 03:03 AM
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Hello to all Pentaxians that also love aviation photography. I wanted to start such a thread for a long time to share information and photos about aviation photography and never found the time todo so, until now! I could say many things but I have to keep it simple and short (I know I can’t but anyway…) because otherwise it will become a tiresome post. A few things about how I reached to the point I am now first:
I’m into aviation photography since 1992 but back to those days with my (borrowed) Zenit TTL camera and a MTO 11CA, 1000/f10 mirror lens I found in new condition (and still have, but don’t use anymore unfortunately). I was amazed to be able to photograph flying planes and helicopters and actually have many pictures with subjects filling the frame! Until then all my photography was with my dad’s Pentax ME with the M 50/1.7. So my aviation photography consisted of planes in airports that I was allowed to photograph and some efforts of low flying jets that were so tiny in the photos you couldonly say their type from the general shape… :D
My main interest was/is military aviation and my other hobby back then was plastic modeling, which further grew my love for aviation photography. Back to the film era, my try with the Zenit and MTO combo was just to make an archive of the airplanes you could see back in the 90s-00s in the skies where I was living. Anyone who has tried using such a monster in front of a manual camera with a max SS of 1/500 knows what it feels like. That era though taught me a lot about photography and I still believe that the joy of taking a really good photo with all manual equipment and aim/focus is unbeatable and only compares to some extend to the satisfaction of taking an absolute perfect (to your standards) picture with today’s advanced equipment.
After 20 years with this equipment (in fact, at somepoint around 2000, I upgraded to a Zenit 312 and a MTO 1000A 1100/10.5 both bought as new) I decided on 2011 to move to the digital photography. After some research on the www about aviation photography and equipment I ended up to go for the Canon 7D and the 100-400 that most people were using back then! I went to one of the big stores and after one of the salesmen who was also aprofessional photographer convinced me to buy the Nikon D7000 and the Bigma50-500 OS instead! The story behind this buy is quite interesting really, because this was a very serious investment and up to a few weeks before that time I had never seen myself getting so seriously into photography and aviation photography that I loved. The turning point was that the company I was working for ceased and 15 employees were given compensations and lost their jobs. I was very worried and unhappy as the general recession in the country meant it was very difficult to find a new job and to see my future with optimism… Despite this or due to this I decided to go against my fears and invest half of the compensation to buy some serious equipment. That way I would continue doing what I loved back then that I had plenty of free time and hopefully I would avoid falling into melancholy. Thanks God, things went well and I found a new job after 3 months, so everything was OK. ;)
So I began digital photography as a Nikonian! The D7000 was a very nice camera, but somehow it never felt very attractive to me. I understood that later when I bought the K-5! The Bigma is a great telelens and gets you to the pro side of the photography in terms of IQ. It was a joy to use. The jump from manual film photography to the digital era with advanced equipment was huge! It was the first time I felt I could also make images that were approaching those I admired in the aviation magazines and websites. I had still a lot work to do, but I was studying photography and taking seminars with a great photographic team we had back then and also improving my skills in PP again learning next to professional photographers (most of them landscape and portrait oriented).
After a while I thought it was a pity my mirror lenses were staying home without being able to use them for digital photography. After some research and some articles I found on the web I ended up that Pentax cameras is a real option that works for utilizing my MTO lenses again! I knew nothing about Pentax DSLRs apart from seeing some colorful K-50s and a red K-500 in two shops’ windows! I was reading great things about the K-5 and I found a very good deal on EBay (from Japan) but I wanted to be sure before giving my money to Pentax. So this was my first post in here:
MTO Lens Question - PentaxForums.com
After the answers I got from the fellow members in here, I decided to buy the K-5 and more or less end my story with photographic equipment as I would be good for anything from 18-55 with the K-5 to 500mm with the D7000 and then be able to play with the mirror lenses on my K-5… How wrongI was!
What I can’t well describe is how much impressed I was with the K-5! What a great camera in every aspect! I really loved everything about it and the images came out with beautiful rendering and IQ. I noticed that I was looking for excuses and situations to take with me the K-5 instead of the D7000! Then I understood that I couldn’t afford or justify supporting 2 systems and I had to choose. Since I liked the Bigma so much the ultimate test would be to buy the same lens in K-mount and compare it to the Nikon combo. Fair test of the same sensors on 2 completely different cameras in the way they feel in hands and operate. The Bigma on my K-5 was another huge step ahead and after 2 months of side by side shooting, everything was so clear to me. I sold my D7000 with all the Nikon lenses I had (the great 35/1.8, a very capable 55-200 I had received as a gift and of course the Bigma) and stayed withPentax.
Next part will be dedicated to aviation photography! :lol: |
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Forum: Photographic Technique
05-15-2019, 02:18 AM
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Now some technical stuff. For some incomprehensible reason the aviationphotographers I met at the airshows during the 90s and 00s were not very willing to share their experience or talk about settings and techniques! So many of the things I write below I learnt after many years of practice and through the trial and error process! Unfortunately this has costed me many lost opportunities. For example, it’s sad but I can’t rectify my wrong settings during a retirement ceremony of an aircraft type.
So here are my personal findings-settings that seem to work pretty well!
1. Always shoot RAW! I won’t recommend RAW+ as it affects cameras FPS and buffer (and personally I don’t see any reason for in camera Jpegs too).
2. When shooting jets on a bright sky, always try to keep your shutter speed (SS) above1/1600!
3. Don’tbe afraid of high ISO values! Light quality is all that matters.
With good light high ISO pictures can be processed and end up with a nice image. When the light is poor (for example a backlit plane in a dark canyon) whatever you do the final image will be poor! You can pan a shot with a very slow SS and get an ISO value under 400 in your frame, but even this 400 has nothing to do with an ISO 800 or more on a sunny day and a properly lighted aircraft! In the poor light the shadows don’t contain information that can be brought up later. OTOH the good light offers unlimited possibilities for post processing (PP).
Pentax tip:Our cameras handle high ISO better than almost any camera out there! If your settings are correct and still the light was such that gave you “bad” results,I assure you that everyone around you has the same or worse results! On the contrary most Pentax cameras are ISO invariant, which means that they forgive mistakes easier and they give plenty of room for PP! In fact it is a real joy to process K-1 images.
4. Don’t shoot wide open unless it is inevitable. There are the laws of optics/physicsthat you can’t overcome and when there is plenty of light try to keep your maximum aperture one stop down to get into the higher resolution and fidelity "territory” of your lens.
Pentax tip: The green button with the camera set for MTF priority helps you get into that territory by just pressing it. That way you don’t need to remember the MTF charts of each of your lens. Anyway the general rule of closing your lens one stop or more is always handy!
5. Always have in mind what you want to achieve before starting shooting a session/demo/aircraft! Never forget that. If you don’t have a clear plan beforehand you will end up constantly changing settings and aims that will ruin the whole shooting! When you have much experience and confidence you can change your goals during each pass of an aircraft, but I recommend envisaging the images you would like to get, set your camera accordingly and devote yourself in succeeding getting the desired frames. Personally I prefer 2-3 images that are exactly what I was aiming/hoping for to a whole session of correct and uninteresting images.
6. Don’t forget the fundamentals of photography are the same no matter what kind of photography we are talking about. Aviation photography is just another sector of photography and even if it doesn’t interest you, you can still tell a good picture to a mediocre or bad one. Choosing good light (early morning, late evening), a beautiful framing, correct camera settings, a different angle or an artistic view on a subject make a lot of difference in the final result. I believe that even those who are completely irrelevant with a subject can appreciate a superb work/artist/athlete etc when they come across to it! I have caught myself watching skating on ice world champions performing without even remembering how I fell on that channel on TV and sat on the coach :lol:
7. I prefer to shoot on TAV mode because I want to have control over my aperture as well as the SS. For AE metering I choose center weighted and depending on the light and my subject I usually apply some EV compensation. Most of the times I try to avoid blown out highlights by using -0.7EV but there are times that I need to dial in +1EV or even -2EV (classic example an airplane coming out to the sun from a dark hangar). Remember the EV compensation follows the background’s “direction”. For correct exposing a white airplane on a dark sky you go even darker, for a dark airplane against a backlit bright sky you go even brighter! In extreme conditions you only care about your subject to be exposed correctly!
Pentax tip: As I told you the Pentax ISO invariance is a great advantage for Pentaxians. In most cases leaving the EV compensation to 0 or -0.3 is fine as any corrections can be done later during PP. In extreme conditions though exposing correctly during shooting can make a lot of difference. :)
To be continued...
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Forum: Photographic Technique
05-15-2019, 02:46 AM
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As you can imagine the AF part is separate...
8. For AF settings, I shoot mostly in AF.C mode with the Expanded Area AF (S) of the 9 central points. When there is a situation where precision is required I shoot with the central point only. For large formations or in clear skies with good light I may also choose the total 25 cross type points, as in the K-1 they are all close to the center of the frame and this configuration also works fine - Expanded AreaAF (M). I have the sensation that this setting is the best for AF-C tracking, but since I can't tell it for sure, I just mention it here and not on the tips part.
When my subject isn’t moving a lot (for example a hovering helicopter) I go for the AF-S with the central point which gives the maximum precision.
Pentax tips and some suggestions to the manufacturers (if I may) :) :
AF.S Setting -> Focus priority.
AF.C Setting -> 1st frame release priority / Action in AF.C focus priority / Hold AF status off.
What Ihave found is that the AF of Pentax cameras is very reliable and when it locks it is spot on. To my feeling it lacks processing power to make continuous readjustments, so I feel (without having relevant knowledge – just a feeling from using the cameras for many years) that if Ricoh/Pentax include a processor like the one that improves IQ in the KP and K-1II which will allow instant continuous calculations and adjustments of the AF the AF-C of Pentax cameras will be rocketed to a higher level. Another great improvement would be if the AF.C when it passes from an easy contrasty background (a blue sky for example) to a busy background with a lot of information to automatically hold the AF to the distance it had before entering the “difficult situation”. So the hold AF status should go to High and moreover when the camera looses focus on its subject, not go to infinity and lock on the background but instead keep on “searching” in the last distance it had locked focus +- some meters back and forth. Imagine that a user is shootinga BIF some 30 meters away in AF.C mode against the sky. Then the bird falls quickly towards the ground to catch his pray. Since the user is shooting AF.C and in Continuous High frames he surely isn’t aiming at the scenery in the background! Keep the data from when the bird was at ~30 meters away against the sky and search for it in the “adjacent space” near the 30 meters that was the distance before entering in the busy background.
Another easy(?) to make solution would be if Pentax would offer us the alternative to dial in the preferable distance the camera would fall into when it looses focus during AF.C! For example if I’m standing next to an landing strip at 60 meters in front of me and I’m waiting for a fast low pass of an aircraft above it, Iwould dial in the 60m distance to be my “default” when camera looses focus and I am sure that I would get more keepers than I do now, since my K-1 usually locks on the background and until it refocuses on the airplane you have pretty much lost all the good frames! All these recommendations are based on the assumption the camera can calculate the distance to the subject.
Until then what works best is not pressing your shutter button continuously but leaving it and refocusing like pumping it at a tempo you will find out works best for you. My tempo is about every second as I have seen. :D
Another great finding (which shows that the Pentax AF is not lacking in accuracy but rather in speed or data transfer) is that when an aircraft passes really fast and low coming towards you, so it will at some point full your frame and its details are visible then the AF.C is spot on!!! I have photos of low flying jets with SS of 1/4000 or even faster where when the plane was above me you could read the stencils and the only problem was to keep it all in my viewfinder-frame. As the plane is coming from a distance head ony ou will have some good shots and some missed focus shots, but when it is so close that the camera has points to fine adjust AF the pictures are tack sharp despite the fact that the relevant speed to you is way higher and you struggle to track it! Impressive and confirmed finding which leads to my next recommendation. When you find yourself in such situations choose a fast AF lens with shorter focal length and aim for the closer and more impressive frames than the remote ones. (I will comment more on this Pentax paradox on a following post, because it explains or it depicts some of the Pentax AF weaknesses. Maybe this discussion will give an idea to a fellow member/engineer with deeper knowledge on how the AF system works to explain this behaviour or think about the fine tuning it is required to upgrade the AF.C tracking performane...)
The fastest lens and most accurate for me is the DFA 150-450 by a large margin. In the previous situation for example don’t waste all your buffer on the 450mm, but instead track the plane and follow it with the lens @150-200mm and shoot a long burst until you fill your buffer when it is closer and there is detail in your pictures… In this case, even the shutter button pumping is not necessary! The camera usually tracks the plane and give consistently focused frames during the burst. If 150mm are too long for your case go for an even wider short tele lens, even the DFA 24-70 which is also a fast focusing lens.
Another Pentax trick is again with the DFA 150-450 (I saw the images from the upcoming 50-300? and it also has this feature/button configuration!) is to utilize the prefocus button of the lens. Prefocus on the point where you expect the plane to pass in front of you (like the landing strip I was referring above) and when the aircraft dives above it use the focus buttons on the lens to acquire focus quickly when you feel that you lost AF on the plane.
To be continued...
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Forum: Photographic Technique
05-15-2019, 02:53 AM
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9. Shake reduction: I use it on helicopters and low speed planes when the SS is lower than 1/500 or 1/800. I usually not leave SR on for SS greater than 1/1000 but I know Pentaxians that shoot aviation with the SR always on without any problems (at least with the K-3II/KP and K-1/II cameras).
Pentax tip: A really impressive finding about Pentax (K-1) SR and panning shots is that when you are panning with fast moving subjects it is less effective than when you use it on slow moving ones! So, let’s say we have an F-16 that comes in for landing and you are panning with a SS of 1/200 and SR on. You will get some initial images that the camera hasn’t yet understand your horizontal movement where the plane is blurry and the background is clear! Then it adapts and the next images are with clear airplane and blurry background from the panning move. The % of sharp images depends on your skills, the SS (lower means less keepers but more impressive ones) and the AF tracking which rarely has problems under such circumstances. What is impressive though is after the plane has landed and while it is taxiing in front of you with slow speeds if you want to pan some shots even with large teles at SS of 1/50-1/100 with SR on you will get more keepers than while panning with faster speeds and faster hand movements! This also shows that the SR works great but maybe it also lacks some computing power when things get faster!... I think it is an AF.C tracking analogy and also aparadox as the vertical shaking at the slower movements surely is more but the in body stabilization has more time to adapt…
10. For shooting propeller driven aircraft use SS of less than 1/800 for the turboprops and the closer you go to the 1/320 the better prop blur you get. Under that point you are at the pro-league and you’re heading for full discs at SS around 1/125 to 1/80 depending on the type! It is nice to attend airshows where there are so many opportunities to make your tests and see what works for you, but I give you the general rules.
For helicopters again speeds around 1/500 to 1/320 give nice results and best results are around 1/160 where the tail rotor becomes from really blurry to full disc depending on the type (some Soviet helis don’t have tail rotor, but two main contra rotating ones, so be careful!). :lol:
11. Always PP your RAW images! You have to learn the basics, there is no need for advanced knowledge, but shooting RAW allows you to hand a nice image to an expert and make it really shine! Basic PP means the most important thing cropping right and then adjusting WB, your histogram and your colours. It’s less than 5-10 minutes per image and the result is far superior to shooting Jpegs.
I think I've covered most of the general information and settings. For anything special we can discuss it below. Sorry for the long posts but I couldn’t do it otherwise. Also since English is not my mother language you have to excuse my mistakes or any unfamiliar phrasing I may use.
Happy aviation shooting to everyone! :D
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-13-2019, 09:29 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-12-2019, 09:58 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-12-2019, 11:20 AM
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It is certainly sharp. I get some purple fringing shooting white birds, especially wide-open, but nothing unexpected. At one point I had both the A*300/2.8 and the A*600/5.6 but I couldn't afford to keep both of them. The A*300 was better all around (it is just an out-of-this-world fantastic lens) but I decided to keep the 600 because I wanted it mostly for the reach and comparing the 300/2.8 + 2x-L TC (making it 600/5.6) and comparing them head-to-head, then 600mm had the 300+TC beat on sharpness (but only just). And of course I can put TCs on the 600mm for even more reach so I went with that. If you do get the 600, find yourself some extension tubes with A-contacts if you can -- the MFD is something like 5.5 meters which is often too far for smaller birds (or whatever) you might be closer too, but with extensions you can get that down to 10-15 ft I think -- works nice if you know you are going to be close.
The problems with the lens are purely in the handling. The placement/balance point of the tripod collar is "not modern" -- you've dealt with the unbalanced Tamron SP 200-500/5.6 so kinda like that (although it is IF so the the balance is fairly static at least). So if you want to use an arca plate it has to be a long one. Except if you use one that is appropriately long, it will not leave room for the little thumb screw focus lock thing on the focus ring. I'm pretty sure my copy was damaged this way by a previous owner (the included the plate they were using when I bought it) -- they screwed in a long wimberley plate tight to the tripod mount probably not noticing that the front of the plate was pressing on that screw and they ended up binding something in the focus ring. My copy has a hitch where it gets harder to turn the focus ring near minimum distance -- a repair guy was able to mostly unbend whatever was bent so it works pretty good now but it still is not perfect. So to avoid all that I ended up semi-permanently attaching a small plate to the tripod mount to act as a spacer so I could put a nice long plate attached to that but removing the possibility of hitting the stuff in the front while still being able to balance it. That works, but I actually ended up with something even more complicated for most usage that involves a double-sided clamp and a *really* long plate with a cushion for the front half to take some weight and reduce vibrations. I've got options now anyway. (I can give you more details if you are interested.)
So...bottom-line is it takes some doing and probably some extra cost to get it set-up well to use it productively.
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
05-09-2019, 08:20 PM
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Yeah, but I'm pointing out the apparent typo, and wondering, why does it have two articles?
It's like "walkway", "promenade" or "passage of THE THE civilians".
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-28-2019, 06:10 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-28-2019, 03:16 AM
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