Thank you both

Thanks very much everyone for such kind comments - it is very encouraging. Special thanks to Don for groan of the morning!

Cheers

Many thanks Stuey and Techno

Both of these threads have some magic shots - top quality stuff. I think if you can find a sigma 100-300 f4 it might be the autofocus lens you are looking for...:

Cheers

Beautiful shot! would make a great postcard too.

These are great! I really like the first and the last. Great colours too.

Hello all. Having been on two falconry days recently, I have ended up with a stack (hundreds!) of pictures of some rather beautiful birds of prey. I already posted a couple of threads from my first day out a couple of weeks ago. Here are some from a day spent at a small falconry centre in the New Forest. This was a more 'hands on" actually handling and flying the birds rather than a purely photo op... but I took the opportunity to take a couple of gigs of pictures in any case For anyone interested, the centre was called Forest Falconry and I cannot recommend it enough. The people there are very friendly, passionate and knowledgable and it made for a really good day out. A spot of sun in the terrible weather (remember that a couple of weeks ago) was a blessing too. The day (which was a gift to me) included plenty of flying and a pub lunch (and we took a Gyrfalcon to the pub with us too!:shock

This is a hybrid Peregrine/Lanner Falcon getting excited in the morning



Red Tailed Hawk adopts a jaunty angle



Barney



Oi! Harris Hawk attracts attention from the ground...



...and up a tree



I think this is a Peregrine Falcon



Talons! these are from a rather magnificent Golden Eagle called Morgan...



...and here he is ready for the hunt



Hedwig? Snowy Owl comes into land



and finally, a spot of cuteness. This is the chick of a Falcon which is being hand-reared. I am sorry I can't for the life of me remember what species, although I know he will be very darkly plumed when he grows up, so maybe a Sooty Falcon



I hope you like these. Any C&C welcome as ever. I promise that the next thread I put together will not be birds! (well mostly:wink. There are loads more on my flickr stream if anyone wishes to see more. All of these were taken with the K5 and either the DA*200, or the Sigma 100-300 f4.

Cheers

Hello. Pretty much any macro lens will be capable of giving razor sharp close up pics, and the sigma 50mm will be no exception I expect. The key aspect to consider if this is going to be the right lens for you is what you want to photograph with it. If you are looking to take pics of things you can get very close to (and especially if they are still) - plants and faces etc., then it will be great. If you are trying to get insects which are easily spooked and other things which move when you get close to them, then you may find that a 50mm lens means you have to get too close to get a frame-filling shot - i.e as you compose the shot you scare off the subject. Of course you could be very stealthy, or there are other focal lengths for macros in pentax fit - 90mm, 100mm, 105mm, 180mm and 200mm which I am aware of - they would give a longer 'working distance' than a 50mm lens I think - is there any way you can get to a shop and try a few out?

Cheers

Are you shooting full frame on a film camera or a DSLR with the cropped sensor. If the latter then the pentax options are the DA*16-50 which has a constant f2.8, and the DA*50-135, also a constant f2.8. In my view both are beautiful lenses and yield great results. There are also offerings from tamron and (I think) sigma at 17-50 with constant f2.8. I believe all of those lenses are designed for the DSLR cropped sensor so are probably not suitable for full frame.

If you are shooting full frame, then the FA* you have in mind is ideal I suspect. I think sigma also do a 24-70 or thereabouts which may be a full frame lens. I am not sure...

Hope that helps (a bit)

Ah... Disregard my last then. Although I would expect the latest siggie 70-200 to be high quality.