Welcome Peter You made a good choice.

I don't begin to understand all the mathamatics of it all and don't consider myself an expert on the subject.

My understanding of 1.1 is exactly as Stefan described it.

Personally I would have purchased the extension tube with it. After using it for a while you will be looking to get even more magnification and adding further tubes to it.

Have fun with it and post some pics.

Thanks for all your comments.

I never considered a mono version and too be honest I think the colour version works best.

I do like Martins crop and cloning out one of the dogs, it works for me. Tahnks again.

I spent a few days at the beach over the X-mas break (sorry I don't mean to rub it in :wink

Took this with the 77mm ltd
How would you crop it : or would you leave it as is :

[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x261/ClarkyinAus/f92eb679.jpg[/IMG]

Thats a pretty good effort at 830mm handheld.

I think the SR only goes as high as 800mm :

Welcome mera.

Do I understand right, you used 2 TCs for this shot : very impressive.

I plan to get a few shots of the moon with my recently acquired 500mm

What about a Pentax A 50mm f1.4. They can be picked up rather cheaply on E-bay and its a superb lens.

Those 2 examples are in somewhat better condition than mine but they still command pretty good money by the looks of it.

Check out this monster I found today in a second hand store

A Takumar 500mm f4.5 M42 screw mount. Came with original carry case and original front and rear lens caps. I also got a Pentax S1a camera with it.

It looks in great condition, Glass is spotless and focus and aperture rings work as they should.
This beast is almost 600mm long with the hood extended and weighs almost 3.5kgs.
Now I just need to upgrade my tripod to handle it and hire a camel to carry it around.

I picked it up for AU$220 (100quid) which I thought was a very fair price. Not sure what these will usually go for as I have never seen one for sale before:

[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x261/ClarkyinAus/ee96d082.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x261/ClarkyinAus/17cc8415.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x261/ClarkyinAus/6ddee78b.jpg[/IMG]