I might have missed something in the thread... but in the garden bench images you said jpeg from camera compared to sharpened jpeg - does this not imply that the problem lies with the default jpeg sharpening setting within the camera?

If you can sharpen the jpeg to produce the image you want I would have thought, in my unknowledgeable way, that the image info has been correctly captured by the lens.

I would agree with David's above comment that you should experiment with shooting raw?

Distance makes a big difference to success with insects - especially butterflies.

I have the sigma 70mm but often find that is not sufficient distance to avoid disturbing them and usually resort to the tamron 70-300mm which, for butterflies, I find hard to beat as there isn't usually a purple fringing problem.

However, I'm currently waying up the Pentax 100mm - unless Sigma finally produce a Pentax 180mm

When I was at 'Focus' I finally decided to become a member of RPS but am still wondering if this is a worthwhile idea.

it seems to me they are relying rather a lot on the 'Royal'tag without backing it up with much substance and I wonder what other forum members think?

Yes, there are awards that they offer to give you some letters after your name which is something people might aspire to, but I'm not sure just how worthwhile these are - if someone is thinking of employing a photographer the first thing the will (should!) do is look at that person's work.

Have other members who have joined subsequently cancelled membership - or are there benefits I need to search out a bit more?

Of course, you're right - that's really what I meant. But I bet a lot of people don't think about whether they should move themselves, rather than zoom in or out when taking the picture - and I suppose the same applies to fixed and zoom lenses - change focal length or position.

After much tribulation with parcelforce, I've finally managed to acquire the above Kenko converter. Primarily to try with the DA*300mm

Incase anyone is interested in this combination I've posted a couple of images on flickr I took with it as a first attempt.

I'm not sure, yet, how it will compare to a crop from the DA*300 - that's part of the weekend project, together with a try with a sigma 120-400mm to see what the effective 600mm is like - I guess pretty awful! but I might get a surprise!

Focusing is not perfect - hunts a bit and needs final manual adjustment, but doesn't seem bad so far.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned with zooms is that we tend to forget about the effect on perspective that different focal length lenses have -

I think people generally (me included!) tend to use a zoom to frame compose the shot they want from where they're standing - rather than think about whether they should zoom out and move closer or zoom in and move further away. I've got a very old Kodak book that shows some great examples of the effect of different focal lengths and it does make quite a difference.

Of course, I agree that for some subjects you don't have time to move and any shot is a good one!!

Martyn

Yep, first for me too. I started to get quite carried away with HDR using photomatix but haven't dabbled for a while.. but now I've started thinking about it again.........

As said above - the K5 will make by FAR the biggest difference to your wildlife photography - I upgraded from a K10D and am now able to take SO many pictures I couldn't do before, as most are in shaded woodland and low light.

For two years I've used a Sigma 120-400mm non-os with reasonable results, but have recently acquired a DA*300mm, which hasn't been off the camera since I got it. The actual difference between 300 and 400mm isn't that great - and the resolution of the DA*300 is such that a crop is often better than a larger image from the 120-400mm

I'm just (today as it happens!) waiting for a Kenko 1.5x converter to arrive for me to try with it, giving 450mm. I'll also give it a try on the Sigma to see what 600mm with that looks like - I suspect very soft.

But I'd certainly say K5 first then maybe the DA*300mm - which, incidentally is great for butterflies and flowers too, as it has such a close focus distance (and a great bokeh!).

Well I've noticed that the DA*60-250 from SRS on e-b has gone up from £939 to £1112 and it's £1,189 on the site (I think it was under £1K before). That's an 18% increase.

I'm glad I got the DA*300 when I did - just wish I could 'stock up' on the others on my 'wanted' list!!

Oh well.... it might make the price of the 560mm seem less expensive when it comes out.

I don't recognise the name of the manufacturer - It's not the Pentax made 1.7x is it?