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Forum: Lens Clubs
02-01-2017, 05:57 PM
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Wow, thanks for your very elaborate reply! Funnily enough I've never tried Lightroom because my irrational fear of Adobe rivals my irrational fear of Canon, but it looks like I should definitely give it a try....
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Forum: Lens Clubs
01-30-2017, 03:17 PM
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Yeah, that qualifies as a success indeed. I'm curious, how do you get the blue skies to stay so clean while preserving all that detail in the birds? I always struggle a bit to get the noise reduction right with my K3II (and K3 before that), although switching to DxO software helped a lot.
After a three month wait, I got my DFA 150-450 back from repair. Half the lens has been replaced with new parts. Mental note for the next time: always check if the zipper is closed when you carry your camera bag while walking on a concrete floor. Anyway, from last week (crops to about 25% of original frame, click for larger versions):
Great Bittern taking off:
 fK3II0396_DxO by Orang J. Goreng, on Flickr
Iceland Gull in flight (in mist and rain, but that may not be too obvious):
 fK3II0235_DxO by Orang J. Goreng, on Flickr
Here's a couple of slightly older ones, with the DA* 300. Zoo pics, obviously, due to a lack of free-roaming Mandrills in the greater Amsterdam area. I'm not entirely unhappy with that fact.
 fK3136307_DxO by Orang J. Goreng, on Flickr
 Some day... by Orang J. Goreng, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
12-15-2016, 08:22 AM
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Quite some time ago I dropped my 150-450 om a concrete floor. It seemed to be fine and I took a great many images with it afterwards, but then a while ago the zoom got stuck again. Repair service diagnosed massive internal damage, including the front lens group needing to be replaced. Yikes... the repairs cost half the new price of the lens. Ugh. Anyway, temporarily back on the DA* f/4 300...
Short-eared owls playing in the fog, shortly before dusk.
 Short-eared owls (Asio flammeus). by Orang J. Goreng, on Flickr
Hen harrier, same fog. This one is with the 1.4x converter.
 Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) in the fog. by Orang J. Goreng, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
04-28-2016, 02:58 PM
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We seem to be having a bit of a Black-winged Stilt invasion, which is great when one has to escape the city due to the dreaded King's Day madness. DFA 150-450 on K-3, cropped. Uninspiring background, but at least it helps with tracking AF accuracy. Click for larger version.
 One-hundred-and-eighty! by Orang J. Goreng, on Flickr
Also from yesterday: black-tailed Godwit in the rain. Same lens. I keep wondering if it's suffering from a bit of back-focus. In this case the focus ends up being on the head (which works out), but also on some rain drops behind it, with the wings and tail being ever-so-annoyingly just out of focus (which doesn't work al that well), despite the aperture being f/8. Of course, user error is probably the more likely explanation.
 Done to death by Orang J. Goreng, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
02-14-2015, 06:17 PM
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Having contracted a mild concussion I'm mostly confined to balcony birding at present, which led to this experiment.. A rosy-ringed parakeet attracted to my bird feeder, shot through double glazing with the DA*300 mounted on a 1st-version Q body with an aftermarket (i.e., shutterless) adapter. Most shots were horrible, this one was fairly OK:
 Rosy-ringed Parakeet by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
My love affair with the HD 1.4x converter seems to have watered-down quite a bit, since it seems I consistently get better results using the old 1.7x AFA. The lens without a converter still beats both combinations, though, and I've been using it like that more than I'd expected when I bought it. A few from my stroll around the neighbourhood today, all K-3 w/ DA* 300mm:
 fK3135635 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
 fK3135685 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
 fK3135692 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-04-2014, 04:42 AM
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I got myself the new 1.4x HD teleconverter last week, to pair with my DA*300. It doesn't dispappoint, although I have to say the 1.7x AFA doesn't seem to be significantly worse... it just requires a bit more contrast enhancement in post-processing.
Common European Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) on migration, visiting the permanent building site behind my plce of work, yesterday. Bit of a crop.
[IMG] K3138648 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr[/IMG]
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-09-2014, 02:48 PM
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Spectacular! I see a lot of different species at the moment, but DIF shots aren't the easiest, to put it mildly.
Encountered this critter yesterday (Grass snake, Natrix natrix). The grass blades and shade were unfortunate, but then, being able to take a shot without the snake darting off was a nice change to the usual "at least I got the tip of the tail in the frame". DA*300 withOUT converter, for once.
 K3133431 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
 K3133441 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
08-20-2014, 02:50 PM
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Thanks. The short distance helped, though. Normally I wouldn't approach a young bird this much, but I was at the end of my lunch break and it was right next to the only path leading back to my office...
Here's another one with the same combo, from today. A Great Black-backed Gull in the evening light, sitting a bit further away, so this is a bit more of a crop (the cuckoo images were only trimmed a bit for better composition).
 fK3131521 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
08-19-2014, 05:01 PM
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-27-2014, 05:36 AM
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Just a tad closer and you'll be able to read the leg band! I'm sure some researcher will be very happy with those data.
 Quote: Now perhaps you folks can help me out a bit. Oyster catchers, I find, are a bit tricky, being black and white. So I have to have a compromise exposure. Now can you give me any good tips for bringing out the detail in the black feathers, head and eye. The books point to the adjustment brush (LR3.6) but I'm struggling to get a natural looking result (faststone has a quite effective shadows slider...). RAW file here (10mb .dng) if you want to play. I get a " no file" screen when I click on that link. At any rate, usually it's a matter of pulling up the bottom end when adjusting tone curves, though results tend to be ... eh... not that great. Or at least not when I do it.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-08-2014, 08:06 AM
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Neat! I'll have to google the Pardalote.
While I'm confined to the house due to manflu and bad weather on my days off, the DA*300 without converter gets some time on the camera. The crows nesting in the communal garden space of my block raised two young this year; this is them on my neighbours' rooftop last night. Looks like they stole a chicken egg from some place.
Bit of a crop.
 K3130816a by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-28-2014, 04:50 AM
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Is that a juvenile Merlin?
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-25-2014, 03:25 PM
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Area, i.e., the resulting images are roughtly 7 and 8 Mpixels respectively. The distance was something like 3-4 meters. Unlike their (Euro) nightingale cousins, bluethroats aren't particularly shy when they're displaying.
Here's an uncropped one, at 510mm (i.e., with the 1.7x AFA). Clicking on any of the images will take you to much bigger versions of Flickr, BTW.
 K3130423 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-25-2014, 01:39 PM
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Yes, the first one is 27%, the second one 34% of the original frame.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-25-2014, 11:41 AM
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Today, at the little swamp behind my place of work. The bluethroat was so close I removed the 1.7x AFA I more or less permanently keep between camera and lens.
 K3130476 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
Same bird, slightly further away, so this one is with the AFA attached. Lens is a DA* 300mm, BTW, camera a K-3.
 K3130399 by Orang J Goreng, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
05-22-2014, 01:04 PM
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One from last week... a common tern in difficult light; harshly backlit. DA*300 with 1.7x AFA.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
03-28-2014, 06:30 PM
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It took me roughly .3 seconds to realise we don't have wolves in Amsterdam-East... funny when you're out doing urban birding and unexpectedly stare into the face of this, a Saarloos Wolfdog. DA* 300mm with 1.7x AF-adapter (on a K-3), straight jpeg extraction without additional PP.
Hmm. Flickr has now definitively changed their share link format to something the forum software can't interpret. Unmolested picture is here, here's a crappier downsized photobucket version:
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