Bag received safe and sound, and in great condition - many thanks!

Ta both - I appreciate the lens isn't up to the speeds of the later D-FA, I may just look to M43 for the moment.

sadly both the 150-450 and 70-200 are significantly outside budget, hoping they might drop a bit in price but think it'll be a few years yet!

To be honest, most are due to my operator error.

A few years back I drove all the way from Edinburgh to the RSPB site just north of Aviemore, and it was only when first turning on the camera I found that I'd forgotten to bring a memory card.

My pet peeve is when the Af bunces about on what looks a routine shot, ad the subject flies/runs away before the AF gets its act together.

Hi all

I've got a few decent telephoto lenses but not sure the AF response on my K3 is as good as might be - would I see significant improvements with a K3III? I'm particularly focused (pardon pun) on birds and small wildlife.

My main lens is a DA* 300mm F4 along with the 1.4 HD teleconverter, but I also use a screw-drive Sigma 70-200 F2.8. The 150-450 is a pipe dream at present!

Am I likely to se much uptrickt if AF, particularly with tracking? I find the AF loses birds in flight with any change in background, and it just can't recover. I'm sure my technique not perfect, but could do with some help from the camera! I ask mainly as there appears to be significant improvement in AF performance over the K3ii, according to reviews.

It's certainly not cheap, so I might keep eyes for a battered second-hand model - otherwise I might go for an Olympus EM1-x to go with my panyleica 100-400, but really do prefer DSLR to mirrorless.

Thoughts appreciated!

Is there much difference, optics-wise, between this lens and the later HSM ones?

Quick update the 1.4x AW arrived yesterday, I used amazon as I had a few vouchers to put towards it and it was a good price - maybe too good, as noddy inspection suggests it's an open-box despite being sold as new. The teleconverter is immaculate and looks new, just things like the paperwork was badly folded. I've had issues with amazon doing this before, I bought a smartwatch that came with fingerprints all over the screen, so it might be me being over-sensitive!

Anyway, the teleconverter works well enough, I'm just back from a trip to Tentsmuir where I wish I'd had a little more range so I'll make another trip and try it out. It's added a bit ore weight to the lens but better than adding a 400mm lens to the bag.

Ta all - I'll keep an eye out for a 1.4x DA.

Hi all

I'm after a teleconverter for a 300mm lens, is the 1.4x DA AW the one to go for or are there other options to consider?

I've ended up with two 300mm F4, the DA* and a dated Sigma APO, I was considering a sigma TC but not sure of performance of 3rd party on Pentax lenses. I'm also keen not to 'undermatch' the DA* and get a converter that doesn't bring the best out of it.

The reason I'm asking is that the Pentax ain't cheap, and TCs don't seem to appear on the used market very frequently, so any decent priced options would be appreciated!

(I had a 2X-s but managed to lose it, I'd prefer shorter and faster and to keep the AF in any case)

Sorry, never finished this off - the dealer sent the lens away for repair and all is good - sharp as a tack, I had a a fair few issues with front/back focus with my Sigma 300 APO and I've had none of this with the DA*.

Very pleased with the lens, shame about the photographer!

One of these for sale at SRS, not quite that cheap though!

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