I can't say whether it's faster than 'normal' focusing or not, but I certainly appreciated the quietness when I was snapping a hedgehog.

Dan

Should do, my FA50 is gorgeous.

Dan

In your position I would be tempted by the new 17-70mm Pentax (if you can hang on a bit), and definitely a 50mm prime, probably the FA50 1.4 . Should only be about £500 for the pair I would think.

I know that leaves you a bit short at the longer end, with a gap between 70 and 100, but I don't suppose you'd really miss that. Depends what shots you take really, have a look through your photos and see what focal lengths you use most often.

Dan

I use mine on my K10D sensor all the time and it's fine. Certainly that looks like dust on the sensor, but it's not your new lens that's showing it up, just that you're using a small aperture, in this case f/16. The smaller the aperture, and the plainer the background, the more defined the dust spots.

Hold the camera face down with the sensor exposed for cleaning, then hold the rocket blower as close to the sensor as you dare (about 1cm or so for me), and give several sharp blasts of air. I've yet to have any stubborn dirt on mine in the year I've owned it. Tempting fate I know...

Dan

Went for a walk this evening, too late for any proper photography really, bit too dark, but I just took the DA*300. Ended up taking a few test shots, just to compare (a little) with Martin's Sigma pics. Basically I saw the electricity pylons...

Not as scientific as Martin's, these were shot handheld, so camera shake could affect sharpness with the stopped down photos. No sharpening applied to any of these pylon shots.

So here's the over all shot:




This 100% crop at f/4:



f/4.5:



f/5.6:



See any real difference between them?


Here's a shot straight into the setting sun. Any flare?



And a grab shot of a passing plane, f/4.5, 100% crop, no sharpening.



As luck would have it, we saw a passing Barn Owl, right across the other side of the field we were in. On the shady side of the hedge. f/5.6, 1/45s, ISO400, 100% crop. Nice to see though, first one in our local park since 2003 (that we've seen). Flew right off with that meal, so must be feeding young.




Peter, you're going to love this lens!

Dan

All the Extreme 3 cards (and possibly others) come with the recovery software, but when the offer was on they came with a card with a serial number for CO too.

I suppose you might get lucky with some older stock somewhere. I did have a spare licence, but I gave it to another forum member.

Dan

*istD, 16-45mm @ 45mm, f/8, 1/125s, ISO200, polariser.

Dan

I wonder if she has any trouble finding the hole for her ear rings to go through.

Nice shot, but yes, it does look a little odd with nothing in the background.

Dan

1.7x AF Converter is now sold.

Dan