Tuning a lens

Hi Greg

Distance - quite a bit - the vehicle was stopped short of the middle of the bridge over the water, so it must be close to 50 yds.

Image is as shot, in *** jpeg, with no PP.

It's not a lens I use a lot. My SA travelling kit was, IRRC, K10D, ist D, MZ-S, FA28-105, FA80-320, DA18-50 MkI, DA50-200. I shot the Kruger section of our trip with the FA80-320 on the K10 & DA50-200 on the ist D. It was what I had available at the time - and could get in my pack as hand luggage.

Am I happy with it - yes. I've got a 100-300 which sits in my office draw. That's definately softer at 300mm. I didn't use the lens at its longer end that much - the Heron was one of the few instances I could remember without going through each image. For game drives, based on my experiences in Kenya, Zimbabwe and SA, I reckon that the focal range of the DA50-200 is pretty close to optimum.



Steve

Thanks, 50m is very far for any lens, so one can not expect great detail at that distance.

Greg

Hi,

Ran some tests today and it's amazing how a lens improves when the photographer applies his mind.

I first rechecked the Back/front focus and reset it. I then took a whole series of photos (2 sec mirror lock up) of a test chart at various focal lengths and at each f stop and the results between f8 to f16 are OK at all focal lengths. I then went and took some random pictures freehand using SR.

I've posted a few to flicker.link

Here are two examples




and




The examples on Flicker are much sharper than here, thanks for all the advice.

Greg

Sorry I forgot to mention that they have all been processed from RAW, clarified 60 and slightly sharpened in Elements 6.