Pentax 560mm

When this lens first came out it received a lukewarm reception, as as far as I can see there have only been 2 reviews, one on the other forum and one by a journalist on his blog.

Since the price dropped to a more affordable £3000 (the lowest price prime 500mm or more on any make I believe) a few members seem to have got one. So can I ask them is it better than the 1.4x on the Da*300mm? Is it possibly as good as DA*300mm but at 560mm?

Its a different beast altogether Neil. Its so long that the balance point is a long way from your body which makes it hard to hand hold. It. I've spent another £700 on a second hand tripod plus a head, and a monopod plus a head to get best use from it

I wouldn't compare it to the 300mm. It would be unfair to do so as they are physically so different. If I need to be mobile I'll take the 300 and the TC. If I'm in a hide, then I take both the 560 and the 300. The 560 taking priority because the targets are often at a distance that need cropping anyway.

It is capable of excellent results. I won a competition at the camera club with this one.



This was handheld at 1/125 sec. I was on one knee and the arm holding the lens had the elbow resting on the other knee



Both of these are crops. Just over half the frame

Here's one with the 1.4TC attached, cropped to about 1/3 of the frame

Thanks

Incredible images Alan... Now for that lottery win

Alan have you had any problems with the close focus distance with this lens. Say its over 5m!? Do you find filling the frame difficult with small birds for example?

Yeah Neil. I've got a regular place for Kingfishers, with a few perches. I have to take another lens and body for the near perches

As to filling the frame I think this was pretty close to the min focus distance

Thanks Alan. Something to think about. Its currently 'only' £2899, which is obviously still a lot, but not compared to the 500mm primes on other brands, or even the SIgma 500mm.

Do you ever try it with 1.4x converter to fill the frame with small birds? Or do you find the cropping still gives nice results on the k-3?

Crops are absolutely fine. Look at the two in my first post. I don't bother with the 1.4x now.

But here's one with the 1.4x. Was one of my first outings. Shooting into the light, and a lifer for me


Bearded Tit by Alan Wennington, on Flickr

The full size image is 1360x2045, so that's a sizeable crop

Just to give you a comparison of the difference in focal length compared to the 300mm plus the 1.4x. Was shooting Jays this morning. Here we have a couple of pics on the same post, both taken from the same position.

Here's a Jay with the K5IIs @ 420mm



And here's a Jay with the K3 @560mm

Careful Alan, keep it up and you will cost me a lot of money!

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You could get some money back hiring it to me for £20 a day Neil

........... or how much will you give me not to forward these posts to Sue