I cut a window on the mount board, then use masking tape to create a hinge mount for the print on the rear of the mount board. I then use double sided tape on the rear of the mount board to fix the backing board.

You could do worse than buy a Vivitar 100mm f/3.5 macro lens. The same lens is also available badged as Cosina (who make it) and as (rare) Pentax FA. Some refer to it as the "plastic fantastic". You should be able to get the AF version for less than £100 and the MF version for not much more than half that.

Andrew

I'm not sure that I would have noticed if I hadn't seen the photo with the dinghy. I do agree, though, that it is better. Thanks for the suggestion.

Andrew

Lose the dinghy? Yes, I have been wondering about that too. OK, I'll give it a go ........




I picked a different but similar exposure in Lightroom and removed the dinghy, using Lightroom's tools for removing spots - and an adjustment brush to clean up a bit afterwards. It seems to have worked out OK(ish?)

Better?

Andrew

I don't think my photoshop skills are quite up to removing it. It's a shame it's 435 miles north from here.

Andrew

Wheelbarrow in #3? I see no wheelbarrow. Do you mean the trolley in #1 ?

If so, is this any better? I didn't move the trolley - but did take some a bit nearer the water's edge




Andrew

If I remember correctly, it is usual to control aperture on the lens mounted on the camera and have the lens on the adapter wide open. I do have a 52mm/52mm adapter somewhere, but its a few years since I last used it. I think they are only a couple of quid on Ebay.

Andrew

I spent a couple of weeks at Ardmair Point, a few miles north of Ullapool earlier on this month. The weather was pretty dismal most of the time.

1. Overlooking Loch Kanaird on one of only two days that the sun made an appearance in the evening.




2. More typical weather on Loch Kanaird




3. Three wise men guarding the remnants of a house at the ruined/abandoned village of Slaggan




4. A couple of buddies at Rhue near the lighthouse




5. Looking towards (left to right) Cul Beag, Stac Pollaidh, Cul Mor and Suilvan from a couple of miles south of Elphin.



All photos taken with a Pentax K30 and Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ALII kit lens except No 4 where I used a Pentax DA 55-300mm f/4-5.8 ED. All were taken as RAWs and processed in Lightroom 5.4. Microsoft ICE was used to stitch a couple of frames to create the panorama in shot 5.

C&C is always gratefully accepted.

Andrew

One thing I forgot to mention is that it has 16 aperture blades, so the aperture is almost a perfct circle at any f stop. Bokeh looks very good to me.

Andrew

I picked up a Tair 3A 300mm f/4.5 M42 lens a month or so back, based largely upon its reputation and the previous owners assurances about its condition. The 3A is the more normal looking and focussing version of this lens, not the Photosniper variant. It has a built-in tripod mount with both 1/4 and 3/8 UNC fixings.

First impressions are of a very solid, very heavy lens with a hugely stiff focussing ring, so stiff in fact, that I decided to dismantle the lens and re-grease the focussing helicoid. The focus is now a lot better but it's still much stiffer than on any other manual focus lens that I've used. The glass, though, looks very good. Oddly, when set to f/4.5, the aperture is not fully open. It does open beyond that setting and could be f/4 when wide open. It came in a very impressive, almost new looking, leather case.

This morning, I spent a little while taking test shots at each aperture setting over the garden fence towards a bus stop that is at least 100m distant. The shots were taken as RAWs using a K30 and processed pretty much as I normally would in Lightroom 5.3. I then exported full size JPEGs from Lightroom and used Elements to take some 500 pixel square crops.

This was the full frame, taken wide open



Crops at:

f/4.5



f/5.6



f/8



f/11



f/16



f/22



On balance, I think the Tair's reputation is probably justified. It seems to be pretty sharp at all apertures and, as might be expected, is best around f/8 or f/11. Although I haven't yet done the bus stop test with my Pentax 55-300mm zoom, I *think* that the Tair wide open just might be as sharp or sharper than the 55-300mm at 300mm, at any aperture. I'm also rather pleased that the amount of fringing is small and only rarely seen and that there is just about zero CA.

Anyone considering buying one of these Tair lumps should note that:

* There are a number of variants of this lens. The Photosniper variants pretty much always come with a fixed M42 mount, though I think one or two others might be available. The 300A version I have has an interchangeable Russian A mount. This is VERY similar to a T-mount, so similar in fact that a T-mount to PK adapter fits the lens well and allows correct focussing at infinity. The above shots were taken after fitting a T-PK adapter.

* It might be different for others, but I found it impossible to fit an M42 adapter to the K30 and then screw the Tair to the mount without introducing loads of dust into the K30 and onto the sensor. Since converting the lens to PK mount using an adapter, this is no longer a problem.

* The lenses are heavy - nearly 5lb when fitted on a K30, according to my bathroom scales. Use on a tripod or monopod is pretty much mandated for this reason alone.

* Focussing on all of these Russian lenses is very stiff, even when they are working as intended. I find it almost impossible to focus when hand-held, even after the strip and lube job - though it's easy enough, especially using focus peaking on the K30 when fitted to a tripod.

* Although metering on Av is possible on preset lenses, it only really works to some extent on the Tair. The full frame above is probably pretty close to an average scene, but needed +1 stop compensation when wide open. Progrssively increasing amounts of compensation seem to be needed at smaller apertures - but I took all the shots at +1 and pushed them in Lightroom, which explains the obvious increase in noise that can be seen at f/16 and f/22. You can see by checking the EXIFs for the crops that the shutter speed isn't falling as you might expect. Practically, I think I might use M mode rather than Av in future, meter wide open +1 stop compensation and then manually correct the shutter speed after stopping the lens down to take the shot.

The Tair is eccentric for sure and needs a number of accommodations to get it to work. Having said that, it's about 10% of the cost of a DA* 300mm but seems to provide much more than 10% of the DA* performance. I think it's probably quite a bargain.

Andrew