Wider isn't always better as distortion is not your friend and WA lenses will always have a degree of distortion. Also wide and fast are almost always mutually exclusive ! You don't need fast for your intended use anyway.

You are using an APS-C camera so no need to confuse yourself with what the Full Frame 35mm equivalent FoVs are. Whatever mm the lens says it is ... it is. A 35mm is a 35mm and the FoV will only appear different on a FF camera.

Check out distortion on some of the Sigma's, 24mm or 28mm. Anything around 28mm will give you far less (almost zero) distortion compared to a WA lens. There are plenty of sharp older MF 28-35mm lenses that would do a stellar job for you (sorry couldn't resist) for £50-80 you could also consider !

This is excellent .... but you should call it Commando not Zombie ... he looks far too alive for that !

And +1 on the set-up.

OMG ... I'm doomed

I've just ordered two more lenses from the USA this evening .... which was swiftly followed by a call from my credit card company, obviously concerned at my regular excessive expenditure at photography retail outlets. Is this LBA or something quite different ...... CCE perhaps ? *credit card excess* ?

Love the subject and some of the entries are great (the 3 Lilly chose were also my favs - along with that of Dark Skies) but unfortunately between the rain and work I had no chance to get out and get an entry in for this one.

This is one I baked earlier but couldn't enter as it was taken a while ago ! Couldn't enter it but I feel better now

Pa - I'm seeing more and more reports on the X10's problem with 'white orbs'. And it seems Fuji is unable to fix this.

Google it.

Just to emphasise what Trickletreat said above as this was the biggest issue I found when I started using MF lenses :

Focus Confirmation = you can see this in your VF - it is the little green hexagon. When lit it shows you that the subject is in focus. Note however that there is a 'range' (also with AF) so it depends on whether you are focusing from Infinity DOWN to your subject or from minimum focus distance UP to your subject. For each lens one direction will always give sharper shots (and it does vary from lens to lens though for most of mine it is Infinity DOWN to the subject). This is easy to check on the K7/K5 by taking one shot from each direction and then using the side-by-side review mode and zooming in to see which is sharper, do this a few times and you will now be certain which it is.

Take a look at this link too : link

Thanks Alan .. found it now.

Those would be my choices too. Wonderful shots !

How far from the Nuthatch were you and what FL did you shoot this at ? The EXIF is missing so can't tell without asking. I'm really interested to see if the 150-500 (or 50-500) have better IQ at 500mm than the DA*300 cropped to an equivalent FOV.

I was playing around with the DA*300 / AFA x1.7 and Tamron 500 BB at the weekend to check (again !) just how much difference there is in IQ after cropping the DA*300 shots to a 500mm FOV and between the 300+AFA and Tamron 500.

Until you get to 200% the DA*300 alone holds up very well against the 300+AFA. The Tamron is just a little below them in IQ but still pretty damn decent assuming you don't crop.

Beautiful shot Danny. Personally I might crop this a little closer, which would lose the very slightly distracting branches on the left and a little of the water in front. Definitely keep the undergrowth behind the birds.

Well that's pretty definitive !

I've bookmarked that - off to bed now but I'll watch the whole clip tomorrow. Thanks.