This is what I get at 400 ISO.

Yes, the shutter speed really needs to be bumped, but I couldnt get that without bumping up the ISO also. So this time I thought of keeping the ISO low and trying to see how low I can go with the shutter speed, but aparently just like you said low ss sacrifices quality. Learnt my lesson

And they were all on tripod, and I agree, a tad on the soft side.

most of the shots I took I tried to keep the focus on the eyes, but the problem is SS was very low on everyone of them. 1/45 and around. I struggled with trying to keep low ISO and stopping a bit down, f9.5, f8.0 and I was already pushing my luck. The birds kept on moving the heads constantly obviously but also the light breeze kept the feeders swinging,
I suspect that movement is what shows on the images.
These goldfinch images were taken pretty close, I could have taken with the DA*300 alone without the TC, but I wanted to give it a short spin and also was hoping to capture birds from my neighbours trees , like this one.

Shame the bird didn't want to pose at all and kept itself hidden behind the branch.

But I think it givess a pretty good idea that the quality is pretty good.

I dont know if I am right in thinking this but my impression is that the TC attached to the prime really shines when you are capturing subjects really out of the normal range for the prime alone. This was mentioned by Mike a few threads before when I was playing with the AF1.7 and the DA*300 and I shot those dunnocks, he did mention that I sacrifice IQ by using the TC at such a close range and I would be better off just using the prime alone and cropping it.

He was spot on, this example below seems to prove that. This one I wouldn't have been able to capture at this range with reasonable quality without the TC,

Will see what Mike says about that Tel

Enjoy this one too, cropped a bit more to enlarge and see more of the details

Right, no more jokes about smokes, nor birds for that matter

Her are the first images taken with my DA*300 and Tamron 1.4TC kindly borrowed from Mike-P.

Suggestions and any views welcome.
I love the ability of retaining the SDM focusing on this TC, absolutely marvelous. It just takes a fraction of a second longer as it hunts up and down couple of times as if to make sure that is the exact focus point, which the DA*300 on its own doesn't do. The DA*300 locks almost immediately.

Light seems to be very important with the TC, as with the other pentax 1.7 adapter as well, but the big advantage with the tamron is the SDM fosucing ability, its just absolutely great, provided there is enough light.

I will let you have a look at the images and give some conclusions yourself.

some more on its way,. They were all shot in RAW mode

thanks hefty, will give it a go

HI, I am trying to get my vivitar 3600 flashgun to fire with the K20 connected through the X synch but it only fires if I choose Av or P mode.
I am trying to use the M mode to choose the aperture and the SS but the flash doesn't fire unless I use also the onboard flash.
I would like to fire it without having my onboard flash, am I missing something here please?
Thanks for your help

Amin

Davex
I forgot to tell you, another technique I use to form smoke shapes is using Air-condition. If you have premises that is supplied with an AC unit with louvre function and if its one of these specially you can make full use of it. It sucks the air from the top and blows from three ways and you can adjust lots of settings and at various distances also the smoke form different shapes .

I have one of these installed in my shed, and before someone calls me nuts nope!!! I didn't install the AC for my smoke images, , I have had it installed long time ago as its my workshop and I do often lock myself in there.

Next is a trip to Edgware Road and get to puff some hukka .

Davex, these are widely known techniques, its pretty simple.
I think you would probably come up with better results than me if I pass you some of the smoke I have been using (hehehe I really didn't mean to imply the smoking one, but couldn't hold the temptation of applying the term).
My techniques with regard to editing is pretty bad, got a pile of nice images but still struggling about how to colour them.

Oh about the photographing techniques? hehehe that is also left entirely to imagination and experimenting what works best. With a bit of knowledge in terms of vectors and vorticity one can come with amazing shapes. And for that you can just apply common objects to achieve the end results.

So, who wants to join me for a trip to Edgware Rd?