That's an interesting one! How many of you would be prepared to sit and watch a 6 hour video on lens dismantling? That's at the very least how long it took me, spread over two days, to take it apart carefully and get it back together again with all the bits in the right place. It took about 7 or 8 re-assembling attempts before it was working correctly.

As an aside, if anyone fancies taking apart a Teleplus 2x teleconverter to remove the glass from it, that's a much easier task!

Cheers
David

I've recently acquired a DA*300 and 1.4TC. I don't class myself as a Wildlife Photographer, purely because I don't have the time to pursue it properly, given my job and home commitments. However, when I get the chance I really enjoy it and I want the best equipment for the job. Currently, in the Pentax World, my feeling is that the DA*300 and 1.4TC are the best available, barring spending a lot of money on a DA560. Yes, you lose the flexibility of the Sigma 150-500, but you gain extra light transmission (very important) and the ability to shoot at maximum aperture and still get razor sharp images (also very important).

The Sigma 150-500 is a truly excellent lens, as Alan and others have demonstrated it can take very sharp images, but it's not quite in the same ball park as the DA*300 and 1.4 TC combination, especially when the light is poor.

I've just sold my 150-500, the clincher for me was that I still own a DA L 55-300, this covers the shorter focal lengths if I need the flexibility. I couldn't justify keeping the Sigma as it would have got very little use, as good as it was. To counter this, I would still recommend the 150-500 for someone who wants to get involved in wildlife photography, it won't let you down and costs a lot less than a DA*300 plus 1.4TC.

Regards
David

Same from me as per the previous comments, these are 'a cut above' Simon. I'm not going to try to pick a favourite.

Regards
David

Thanks guys and girls for your feedback, I've been working hard on this and it's good to know I might be getting somewhere!

Hi Mike, the working distance on these is very small indeed, probably only around 2 centimetres with the reversed Pentax-A 50mm F1.7. This makes it quite difficult to stop the insects from flying off, in particular the Damselflies.

Dismantling and re-assembling the 28-80 was not a simple task, unless you are an expert in lens construction it can be a bit daunting and is 50/50 whether you end up with something that still works. Surprisingly, the FA28-80, which was to all intents and purposes a 'Kit lens' was very well constructed with mostly metal parts which required a fair amount of drilling to get some of the lens elements out. Luckily, I ended up with a completely empty tube with a working aperture!

I'm still waiting on the Nikkor lens arriving and things will not really take off until I get that.

Regards
David

Hats off to Charlotte! I think I can now see what she means about camera shake. Take the first image above and compare it with a similar one shot just before, that I haven't posted here. I've cropped the same area and drawn on it where I think there is evidence of movement. However, I don't think this is camera shake, it is probably due to the wind blowing the stem back forth as the movement indicated matches exactly the movement of the stem I was seeing as I tried to shoot these images:

No Movement (from a shot not posted here):





Movement (crop of first image posted above):




Charlotte's observation demonstrates to me how critical I need to be of the quality of my shots. Thanks Charlotte!

Also, the observations about 'hot spots' are correct, but after having re-checked this I think it is because I had the power turned up too high on the flashgun. I've checked some from last night with the power set lower and there are no hot spots on these, so this is due to 'pilot error' rather than my softbox I think! I'll try next time a lower power and also add some more diffusion to the softbox.

Regards
David

If you're talking about the same shots as posted above Alan I can see them too. If not, please ignore my ignorance!

Edit: Sorry, forgot to say they are great shots, very effective and ideal fodder for the camera / lens combination you used.

Cheers
David

The third one in this set is the stand-out, can't wait to see the rest of the sequence! I bet it was painful for the horse and / or the rider!

Regards
David

Anything worth doing is usually not easy Nigel! Also, if it's hard it follows that not many people do it, so I am cool with it being a steep curve!

I've been practicing hard at macro for several years, my problem before was that I wasn't using the right kit. The recent posts about butchered zooms etc. have really set me off down a path and I won't stop until I consider my shots worthy of comparison with the best.

Also, as mentioned in my original post, I'm not interested in the 'put it in the fridge', 'shoot it indoors' or 'shoot it dead and stack it' approach, I want only to take pictures of these creatures in their natural environment with all that entails.

Thanks for your input and also sincere thanks to CharlotteF for giving great advice and helping to push me along!

Regards
David

It's a beautiful view, a well taken and contrasty image that does appeal to me. Nigel has made some suggestions above, I'm not sure I would agree with all of them as I quite like the contrasty nature of the shot as it is, but no doubt there will be other opinions!

It has a great lead-in for the eye and lots of nice detail. I wouldn't crop the sky, it looks proportioned correctly to me. The light is lovely and the sky looks good, I would possibly reduce the blue / cyan a little in line with what Nigel said.

Regards
David

That's a great shot John, shows the value of having a decent camera with you at all times!

Regards
David