Jackie

I got mine from here, this one remote

The added benefit about this one is it comes also with the wire and you can attach it if you want to use it cabled. I use mine wireless, it suits my purposes, in fact I haven't even taken out the cable out of the plastic . Still tucked in there as the wireless feature gives me all I want from it.

I am not sure if it will resolve your problem with the finger/thumb size, as I haven't seen the pentax one, but I would think that this button is quote good, hmm let me take it out and check it. I got an idea, want me to take a macro picture of it and show you the true size? , I can gladly do that. No problem at all .
Just give me a few mins and will upload it in my server and you can then click the link I will send and you can browse the full resolution image .
But check also if it has all the features that you require, as i said i am able to focus with the button. My bird shots on tripod I always use AF by remote, I just aim and bring it a touch closer then press the remote and it will just focus and immediately release the shutter.
With macro I just put the knob of the camera on AF.C and manually focus and when I press the button it fires without searching for AF. I will run this test again just to make sure again, I am about to take a macro shot of a daffodil so I can do this right now and you will have your remote image too

talk in a while

EDIT: this is the other link with more detailed features link

Jackie

Yes you can AF with the remote.
I am not sure if they all differ from each other but I believe that most of them if not all you are able to AF by half pressing.

But there is a setting in the menu where you can adjust it to focus first before shutter release with remote, or just directly release shutter as you press the remote button.

What I have though it focuses first BUT only if I have kept the AF.S on. If I select AF.C (continuous focus) the moment I press the remote button it fires the shutter. This is irrespective of what you choose on the menu settings.

let me know if you need any further detailed explanation, I will be glad to go through it with you, as I have explored this particular area a bit deeply just in the past couple of days. Not widely experienced in the general field but this one I dived deeply just a few days ago while shooting some macro . So if you need any more help just drop a line

Regards

Amin

Jonathan

that one on your flickr site looks pretty good. You managed to get the underside of it reasonably well lit and the colours can be well seen.
At this stage I would definitely be happy even with that one , but hey, I have seen what you are capable of, and I can just imagine when you manage to grabe the perfect one how its going to look. Your images are on a totally different league mate . Well done. I definitely could learn a few tricks from you and improve my wildlife photography.
I am pretty patient so I guess that is something that counts in this field, and do not mind enjoying the woods and sorroundings while waiting for the perfect shot. Gets me away from the buzzing of the city anyway

Thanks

Amin

Chilterns is where they are abundant in the South East. If you get familiarised well with the area you can really find lots of them. I have seen some of them even flying low near the backgardens around Aylesbury as I drove to the hills.

Ideally would love to get a shot of one of them from the above, and the Chilterns have some hill tops where the farms are below and getting lucky to be in a position where they are flying low and snapping them from that angle would give a brilliant image. As most of them you catch them from the side, eye level or they underside.

There are a couple of spots I have been told by the locals I can get there and see them flying around. Seems that my trips are going to be more frequent on the M40 for the next few weeks . They definitely are great looking birds and stunning colours

Rob, I will follow that tip next time i go shooting these birds. Definitely increasing the EV would have helped, but seems that the other aspects also might give it a better shot. I am totally new to shooting birds in flight but its definitely something that fascinates me immensely and would love to pursue and improve.

Plenty of these ones just off junction 4 of M40. About 20 odd miles from where I am. It might not be too far from Harlow either, you might have to take M25 and join on the M40.

I have been around there twice, first time I forgot my 55-300 (ouch, driving all the way there and finding that I only had the macro 100 mm with me) but had a feel around the area, and today decided to go again, and explored the sorroundings again. The more I go there I seem to get more familiarised with the area. I got to catch a day that a farmer is driving his tractor around the fields, they say that's the best time to catch good views of them as they flock around and just chase the tractor all around very low on the ground. These birds fly so high that they literally disappear from the view, I was absolutely fascinated watching them for a good couple of hours.

If you are interested why don't we arrange a day and go shooting them together? Its got to be a day that the weather is expected to be sunny. I am game if you are, days are starting to get brighter and sunnier. I would definitely learn a few good tricks from someone like you, and I would contribute a bit with the knowledge of the terrain .

I used my K20D to shoot those images. And they were all handheld. Next time I will use the tripod, I think it might help also

Tried my best to capture one of these today under best of conditions but it just was't to be. The angle of the sun and the distance of the birds weren't just on my side.

Well, next time.

This is the best I could get, but feel under the right conditions and with practice I might just do better

Still got a lot to learn .

Ideas, suggestions advice and recommendations all welcome

Thanks

Amin

Pete

Thanks, thats very kind of you to really explain in detail, and reading what you wrote something tells me now that light must have been the culprit here.

I am much more comfortable now knowing that these issues are normal and I do not have to tweak anything. Its a daunting task for me at this stage .

Thanks very much for all your kind help

Thanks John

That's very kind of you explaining me that. I wasn't aware of that fact.

So in other words what happened is normal, sometimes a situation like that can occur and it doesn't mean that I have to readjust any settings? Specially after I noticed within a few minutes that it was focusing again pretty accurately?

Thanks

Amin

Hi again,

This is really really strange, and I really dont have any logical explanation for this.

After reading page 106 of the manual and getting ready to adjust my AF, I got my stuff ready including my laptop to shoot tethered and make adjustments, put my camera on a tripod again and aimed at that flower. Position of the camera precisely at the same spot, angle, same setting, everything. Aimed at the flower again at the long end of the lens like I had done with the above images and the image came focused when I checked. Repeated this several times and none of the images came out of focus like the above one.


Barry,
I am using centre focus, tend to keep my camera always with that setting.

Then decided to aim at the top edge of a tree trunk like I had done before and which had prompted me to think that there was something wrong in the first place as it just wouldn't lock unless I aimed a few good inches lower, and again surprise as this time it was locking. I even managed to lock on a small splinter which was sticking up from the cut tree trunk which had no other background around it except clear sky, and the image came out sharply focused.

So I decided not to mess with the AF and left as it is.

All I had done was change from AF.C to AF.S and tried these shots, so thought I should go back to AF.C and check if this was the culprit, but this time all the images were sharp again at whatever I was aiming to focus.

Any explanation please? Or this could have been just a one off or one of those situations that electronic stuff sometimes can just have one of those moments and hard to explain.

Does this seem something to do with the lens (55-300) or with the camera itself?

Thanks

Amin

Stefan

I think I have nailed what the culprit is with my focusing. I wrote about it on the other thread.
I am going to check it now and try to put it right. I have the suspicion that the majority of my shots with this lens lacked huge sharpness because of that. It seems to be way out of focus. Check the images I put up