new lens

Kris

you have just expressed into words what I have experienced yesterday. Extremely hard to avoid any tremor at the long end. Should have taken my tripod yesterday when I wento into the woods. Most of the shots were rubbish, and the ones reasonably good could have been much much better. Phew!! you just helped me feel so much better. After looking at the pics I took yesterday at the long end of the lens I was starting to think I was utterly rubbish really and had a long long way still to go before I can even dream of taking reasonably good shots

Amin

Kris

Isn't using the 2sec delay shutter release the same thing in this circumstances as the IR or cable release? Of course if one has the IR or cable release its fine, but in my case the 2sec delay would be the same, am I right? or am I missing something?

Amin

Amin,

for the majority of situations you are right. It's all about avoiding camera movement during exposure. The 2 sec delay will do the trick.

Cheers,
Prieni

It will help do much the same thing. The advantage of the cable release is you don't have to wait two seconds which is helpful when shooting wildlife! The main reason I prefer the cable release is that I do not have to take my eye away from the viewfinder. Even with the IR I often use the short delay to allow for camera shake caused by the mirror, more of a problem with long exposures.

Cheers, Kris.

BTW, if you are hand holding, a good stance and grip will help. Make sure your hand on the lens is under it supporting it, stand with your feet slightly spread, tuck your elbows in, take a deep breath, squeeze the shutter button slowly, if you have the neck strap fitted, pull it tight across the back of your neck. I have spent too much of my life shooting 50 or 64 ASA film!

To increase the chance of a sharp shot handheld at 300mm:

1. Try faster shutter speeds and higher ISO settings.

2. Wait until the hand symbol appears before firing the shutter. That means Shake Reduction is ready.

3. Breath slowly and calmly. Try firing the shutter when breathing out, or whatever seems to work best for you. Support the lens with your left hand, but don't have your arms or body too stiff. Let your joints act as suspension.

4. Take lots of shots! Luck plays a part in whether a jerk from your hands coincides with the shutter firing, so some shots will be sharper than others even when everything else is the same.

5. For JPEG, try turning up the sharpness setting in the camera one notch, or have a go at RAW if you want to want to try sharpening later. This doesn't fix blur from motion, might generally improve your pics anyway.

Kris

just a bit of clarification here please, I might be just a little confused so please help me out on this point. I understand that you can use the cable while your eye is on the viewfinder, but I thought with the IR you could still do the same, keep the eye on the viewfinder and press the release button from the remote even just keeping it near. I understand that the closer the remote is the angle of the IR becomes small but I would have guessed that it would still cover it and do the job. So Also seems that this takes me swiftly into my next purchase, and am I glad this one is not that expensive ha lol, Remote or cable switch. And also could you suggest which ones to go for? I think there are a couple of choices last time I glanced through the websites, and if IR is preferable which one please. Would help knowing which ones are more popular or the ones you are using.

Thanks

Amin

This dirt cheap IR fires the shutter (that's all) from all sorts of angles:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120340444474

You can fire the shutter with the IR while your eye is at the viewfinder but I keep finding I have the emitter pointed at my hand, or I have put the thing on the ground and cannot now find it! The remote dangling from the camera just suits a klutz like me, it is a purely personal thing.

Having said that, I always have my IR remote with me because it lives in the battery grip whereas the cable release tends to live with the rest of the kit at home. I got the Pentax IR because it fits the grip. I waited for six months for it to be delivered from Jessops then gave up and bought it over the counter at 17th Street Photo along with my DA* 50-135mm and a spare battery. I believe you can get some TV remotes to fire the camera too

Best wishes, Kris.

I guess a remote it is then.

Isn't this one better than to order than the one on the link iceblinker has kindly put above? This one ships from Manchester rather than China, somehow when I see Far East locations I get a bit weary, delays or if they really exist, etc .

link

Should do the job, right? Locate the target, adjust, focus and then take out remote from the pocket while trying to keep eye on the viewfinder and fire .

thanks a lot for all the help

Amin

First select Remote Control Shooting mode via the Fn button.

Amin, I simply wanted to see the photo to look how it is on the far end of his reach because I'm looking for something that can do 300mm.

I myself use a cable release, I also have a remote but the cable is more responsive and it always works so I tend to use that more often when i can. The remote works also great but it's just so small the pentax F remote.

Hi Stefan

I got some test shots taken which I have uploaded on my server. And they were all handheld. Next time I go in the fields i won't think twice and will carry the tripod.

link

On the link keep changing the numbers on the jpg as follows to shuffle through the other ones: 1004, 1005, 1006, 1016, 1019, 1030, 1041, 1042, 1053, 1056, 1067, 1068

Let me know how you get along with it

thanks

Amin

It works Amin, thank you!