Newby with a question about lenses for wildlife

Hi I have recently bought a pentax k-x with a twin lens kit so it includes a 50-200mm lens. I love it but the only issue I have is when I want to take photos of wildlife from far away the 200mm isn't quite long enough.

I can't really afford a new lens at the moment unless there was some really old one someone could reccomend which is really cheap, but I had read a little about teleconverters.

I had a look on ebay and there seem to be loads for pentax k series for between £10-£40. Are these totally useless? I expect a bit of image quality reduction but it's just to get me by for now as it's frustrating not quite being able to take a shot of a bird without getting too close and making it fly away haha!

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi Toon

Wildlife is what I "shoot" 90% of the time and from the get go I recommend you buy the longest lens you can afford straightaway.
The Sigma 150 500 is the lens that I use and think its fantastic. click on my flickr link for all my photos.

Heres one from the other day




Length is very important when it comes to small animals like birds so you can never had too much length (oh er Missus)

QC

I started off with the K-x kit. A cracking little camera. Though I totally understand your frustrations. When trying to shoot wildlife with it. All the K series lenses you have seen are compatable with the K-x. Most you will have to manually focus though. Some you will have to use the stop down metering system to opperate.

As already stated the Sigma 150 - 500 is the go to lens.

Thanks I would love to get a lens like that but I'm a student so buying the camera was my big spend for the year haha! Was hoping to find something cheap for now until I can afford a lens like yours!

Hi Jade, you can buy an old telephoto lens for not too much money, but more than likely it will be manual focus, not autofocus. I bought a Tamron 300mm Adapt-a-matic (1972 vintage) in mint condition from an ebay seller for £20. It takes beautiful, sharp images, but is manual focus. It also requires a M42 to Pentax K Adaptor, this cost £7 - they are widely available on ebay. See image below for an example shot with this lens:




You can use teleconverters with such lenses, but this makes them more difficult to focus (less light in the viewfinder) and affects the shutter speed and / or the aperture you can use, again due to the loss in light transmission.

Having said this, it's great fun using these lenses and you can learn a lot about how to use your camera manually. I hope this helps.

Best wishes
David

Unfortunately, whilst there are lots of converters on ebay in the price range you mention, very few (if any) will do much for what you want as the quality is not very good.

To get a decent converter you will now have to pay £100+ (sometimes nearly £200!), and I am not sure how well any of them will work with the 50-200mm kit lens (some versions of which do not have a very good reputation compared with, say, the 55-300, which has a well deserved reputation for many good things).

Seriously, I think you will need to save up some more cash and aim to spend between £150-£200 (if you shop very carefully), although you might get a decent 75-300mm Sigma or Tamron for around £100 if you choose carefully (again, there are some good and bad versions of both around).

You might also be able to flog the 50-200 and get something like £70-£80 for it towards something better.

John

Thanks that's useful to know as that picture looks great! I had previously been using a pentax me super 35mm camera so by manual focus do you mean like what I had to do on the film camera or is it different on digital? Also do you need that adapter you mentioned with all older pentax lenses?

There are lots of us who start out like you. If you are strapped for cash the usual "buy the best you can afford" is always followed by an expensive suggestion, which of course is relative! I actually believe it is best to start cheap, learn the skills and progress. Second hand lenses hold their value well so you don't lose much as you progress. The best "cheap" starting option is often the Tamron 70-300mm macro zoom which can be picked up for under £100 and I imagine for £60-£70 on Ebay. It is a cracking starter lens for birds albeit with a little fieldcraft and luck. Also brilliant for Dragonflies and Butterflies. Next up I would try and get a Pentax DAL 55-300mm second hand for maybe £140. Ignore the stuff about the plastic mount which is fine and buy a cheap lens hood and you will get exceptional quality for the price. I agree the realistic next step would be the Sigma 150-500mm
To see what you might expect from the budget lenses look at the pre-2012 shots here:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcweather/sets/72157618004801757/
Dave

Hi Jade, you only need adaptors with lenses that have an 'M42 Mount'. If the lens has a 'Pentax K Mount', no adaptor is needed. Regarding manual focus, yes it will be exactly the same as your Pentax ME Super film camera.

Regards
David

If you go the way of a cheap manual focus/pre-set lens with M42 thread, check if it has a T2-M42 adapter fitted. If it does then this could be changed for a T2-PK adapter. It would then fit directly to the bayonet fitting on the camera the same as the standard lens. This saves the M42-PK adapter needing to be taken out of the camera every time at change time.

Some of these lens can be on Ebay for next to nothing but are still usable to someone willing to try.

Patty

If you need long and cheap, then have a look at a Tamron 500mm mirror lens.

Manual Focus, fixed aperture of f8, and can sometimes give an odd bokeh (out of focus background). The Tamron is widely regarded as perhaps the best of the mirror lenses.

I've got example shots taken with my Kx on pages 59-61 of my Flickr photostream (no doubt if someone reads this post in 12 months time, they'll probably be on about page 90 ... lol)

I'd agree with the suggestion of the Tamron 70-300 lens which should be possible to find for around £60-£70 in very good condition. It's sharp and also has quite a nice macro ability for smaller wildlife closer to you! It has issues with purple fringing on occasion, but nothing that can't be dealt with on the computer afterwards.

I think this would be a much better purchase than a TC for the 50-200.

One thing you could look for is an old mirror lens, but you need to get a good one - the Tamron 500mm is the easiest to find, and you'd probably have to be in for close to £100 to get one in really nice shape These require patience and learning, but if you persevere you can get some very good results out of them. These were taken with the Tamron 500mm and Pentax K20D:













Oddly enough, a couple of years after taking them, I found that some of these images were being used by a Spanish distributor of Samyang mirror lenses to show what they could do!

You don't need to keep taking the M42 to PK adaptor out of the camera every time. You simply need to remove the spring clip from the adaptor and screw the adaptor tightly and permanently onto the lens. You now have a byonet mount lens that's as easy to mount and dismount as any other bayonet lens. This is how I use all of my M42 lenses.

The other advantage of an adapted M42 lens is that you can use it with the camera in AV mode. Simply set the required aperture on the lens and the camera adjusts the shutter speed for you.

Regards
David

A used Tamron 70-300 is likely to be cracking value for money and a great starter lens.
It was my first longer zoom when starting photography again with a K-m, and used it on the K-x I subsequently bought. It's not likely to be the greatest lens you will ever have, but will probably give you the best 'bang for your buck'.

It is almost certainly going to be better than your 50-200 plus a cheap teleconverter.

If you can stretch to a bit more, then a used DA-L 300 is likely to be the next step up. The plastic mount is not a problem with them, and it is optically identical to the DA 300.

A Tamron 500 mirror lens would certainly be another nice option, but perhaps a bit of a one trick kind of lens, being limited to that one focal length. It's likely a zoom might be more useful for you right now.

Sell the 50-200 and use that to help fund a Tamron 70-300 or DA-L 55-300.
_

There are a couple of lenses in the classifieds which may still be available:

Tokina MF 60-300: link

Tamron AF 70-300: link

Don't forget that your 50-200 already behaves like a 75-300 because of the sensor size (multiply the length by 1.5x).

Buying better lenses usually pays off in the long run, but if you're constrained by cost, you'll get reasonable photos and learn an awful lot with any lens.

I've also got the Tokina (which I used on film), it's not a bad lens (I don't use it on digital because it needs to be modified to fit the current mount - the one in the classifieds sounds like it has been modified).

Regards,

John.