Recent Airshow pics taken with the 150-450mm ... my thoughts (Image heavy)

I thought there may be a few people interested in how the 150-450mm performed on the day so here are a selection of shots taken with the lens. Have to say I noticed something I never had when using the Sigma 50-500mm OS which was that when using the lens with SR switched on and panning every second picture taken when using the high fps was badly blurred. I know they say turn SR off when panning but I have never had a problem with any other lens (50-500mm, Sigma 100-300mm f4, 60-250mm f4 to name a few) so I am wondering why this is happening. Hopefully the K-3II with it's panning SR ability should put a stop to that. Also, I rather missed the K-3 on this occasion ... you definitely need the extra cropping ability of 24MP, especially with the big jets who seem to fly further and further away to demo every year.

For anyone wondering if the grass is greener on the other side .... Yes the Pentax may be slower than Canons 7D but I also took mine along with a new Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary version lens and yes the Canon locked on easier and tracked much better but compared to the Pentax and 150-450mm there was no contest ... Pentax image quality took it by a landslide.

Anyway, a few pictures from Yeovilton and RIAT .... All taken hand held with the K-5IIs and 150-450mm. I know I say it every time but please click on the pictures to get a decent idea of the image quality which has been severely compromised since the forum revamp.

My thoughts on the lens? .... Possibly (for me at any rate) the best lens Pentax has ever made.


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RIAT 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RNAS Yeovilton Air Day 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RNAS Yeovilton Air Day 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RNAS Yeovilton Air Day 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RNAS Yeovilton Air Day 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RNAS Yeovilton Air Day 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RNAS Yeovilton Air Day 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


RNAS Yeovilton Air Day 2015 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr

Sorry for the amount of pictures, I wanted to show the true quality of this lens and hopefully I have ... you may notice there are no Red Arrows shots here but as usual I think they deserve their only little thread.

Thanks for sharing these,I was thinking of a 7d but I'm hooked on Pentax now I just love the quality just wish I could afford this lens

Great set of pictures , very well captured by a cracking photographer using Cracking glass

Regards

Daronl

Wow great pictures. And by all accounts this looks like a great lens. Sharp at f5.6 and compatibility with the 1.4 TC are real advantages. Do you miss the optical stabilisation from the 50-500mm? I really like the stabilised viewfinder and I find the sigma OS surprisingly effective - I think this is the one thing I'd miss.

Mike,

great set of pics as usual. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the new lens. Interesting comment about the SR. I took quite a few shots with the SR both on and off on my K50...I ended up with whole batches of very OOF shots ...haven't had chance yet to examine the EXIF data to see whether a pattern has developod that might account for these..admitedly some of them were because I forgot to make minor changes to focus when I was doing it manually. My first airshow with the K50 so i did tend to try all sorts of permutations to see how it managed with each.

Hopefully by next year i'll have upgraded my main airshow lens.

cheers

Karlo

Very impressive shots Mike.

I thought I had got over my LBA !

Regards

George

Amazing photos! Thank you for showing us how the the D FA 150-450 performs in this kind of setting.

Hi mike
Some really cracking shots

cracking set looks like the lens is a gem
you know what im going to say i like the vulcan the best
that is probably the best one of the old girl that i have ever seen
and i have seen a few


kind regards stu

Very impressive!

I totally agree !
Absolutely awsome shots with mind-blowing clarity.

These almost put me off posting my own RIAT 2015 shots but I will do a Forum thread once I've sorted through the 450+ that I took !

Best regards
Peter

Very impressed. Seems to be mostly F8 at 1/1000th for the jets and 1/250th for the prop and rotor stuff.

As expected Mike. You're the man !! Good to see you're enjoying the lens.

I'll do some revision on your exif, just like last year, before I go to the Sunderland Air Show.

OMG as my daughter would say - wish I had one top take to the Sunderland airshow on Saturday!!!!

Carl

says Alan.

I like to do the same - all part of the learning curve - but couldn't find any for these, even though Bill seems to have done. Is it the exif viewer I use (Jeffrey's)? It seems a bit hit and miss, but I've always assumed the poster must have withheld the data when it doesn't show. I'd be grateful for any advice here.

Needless to say, these are wonderfully sharp images, which prompted me to want to see the exif data.

Thanks to anyone who can tell me what I'm doing wrong!