Doesn't everyone? Actually, thinking back, I am not really being fair to the Tamron 400mm. The shot with that was through a double glazed window. The others were not.


Indeed, yes, but it was supported on a (sort of) beanbag and I did pick the best from several shots.

Nope, I didn't - but even a quick glance seems to confirm that I have made a good decision.

I have a few more lenses that I need to test it against before I decide quite how far I can take the decluttering - a Vivitar (Komine) 200mm f/3.5 and possibly the Pentax SMC M 75-150mm f/4. I don't often use the Vivitar, so that's a likely candidate to go - but the 75-150mm just might be too good and have to stay.

Andrew

I received the Pentax DA 55-300mm from SRS a couple of hours back - and took a few test photos out of a bedroom window.

This is the image taken by the Tamron 400mm (same image as first post in the thread, repeated for convenience), taken at f/11:




This is a shot of the same door (around 80m distant), using the Pentax DA 55-300mm also taken at 300mm, f/11 but resized to (roughly) the same image size as the Tamron shot.



I reckon that the nice but eccentric manual focus Tamron 400mm f/7.5 has just been retired.

This is a 100% crop from the photo of the door taken by the DA 55-300mm



and this is a 100% crop from a photo of the same door taken a few minutes later, also at 300mm, f/11 by the FA 100-300mm f/4.7-5.8



The FA lens is clearly bested by the DA 55-300mm but does stand up rather better to the comparison than I thought it might.

The FA lens is now retired and is available for sale at a very reasonable price, as also is the Tamron 400mm f/7.5 and probably also a XR Rikenon 300mm f/4.5 APO prime. I am going on holiday this weekend, but will post these in the Classifieds section when I return.

Andrew

No, it's P-TTL (as is the K30)

Andrew

Too late to worry about such stuff now - just ordered a DA 55-300mm lens from SRS.


Andrew

I already have some Jessop's cheapo manual extension tubes. I agree that focussing a long MF lens, with or without teleconverter and/or extension tubes on fast moving objects would be nigh on impossible.

Coppering up for a DA 55-300m has to be a priority.

Andrew

Yes, I agree with that completely. This birding business is strictly experimental. I tend to take way too many "landscapes" (aka holiday snaps) and need to widen my photographic interest a bit.

Yes - and that's another reason for getting one. The closest focus distance for my old Tamron 400mm is about 9m!! Mind you, I suppose I could always use extension tubes.

Indeed, yes. I remember once, many years ago, being parked on the sea front at Penzance and seeing gulls dive bombing someones lunch through an open car roof.

Andrew

The old Tamron prime outperforms it at 400mm.

I think I'm quite sold on the notion of using a DA 55-300mm. It has a very useful range and could replace a number of lenses. Quite apart from a foray into birding, I think it would have long term value to me, if it is as good as everyone says.

It's time I had an extensive declutter to fund the purchase. Keep an eye on the classifieds.

(BTW, I rather like the photo - despite the obvious lack of sticks)

Andrew

This suggests that I should think of club photo competitions as being a bit like an Olympic diving competition, where degree of difficulty (in obtaining the photo) has a substantial effect on the judges score. I must admit to a bit of difficulty with the idea.

I don't think the work of David Bailey, for example, had a particularly high "degree of difficulty". No getting up at 3am to wait for a sunrise; no mountains to climb; no freezing his bits off in bird hides - and I suspect that the models he shot would have been quite co-operative. I wonder how his photos of the Shrimp would go down in the average club photo comp - probably pretty well, only being outscored by the odd "bird on a stick" photo maybe.

Andrew

One obvious difference is that the 55-300mm seems capable of taking photos that are sharp at the long end, at a sensible aperture, whereas the FA lens isn't. Photos taken at 300mm with the FA lens get sharper as the aperture gets smaller, all the way to f/16 and possibly beyond - the hallmark of indifferent glass.

Andrew

What I was really pondering about was why it is that a photograph of just about any bird, sitting in a tree and doing nothing in particular, seems to score more highly in inter-club competitions than I would have expected.

Maybe it is my expectation that is at fault - but it does seem to me that if a photo of anything feathered is sharp and tolerably well composed, it is assured of a high score - which doesn't seem to be true of any other subject.

Andrew