Gosh that's very impressive and an interesting technique. Thanks for posting how to do it.

Regards

Interestingly (perhaps) I have been shooting increasing levels of film and was keen to be able to use my Pentax lenses (I have been using a medium format Fuji rangefinder for film recently) so I actually bought a *ist (I have no idea how it is pronounced) on saturday - i have to admit I was lusting after a Pentax MZ-S but the *ist was (a) in my local camera shop window and (b) about one tenth the price of a MZ-S (according to the typical ebay listings for MZ-S). I have to say I am very pleased with it (accepting I have only had it a couple of days).

It is tiny! really small and unbelievably light - I would say maybe half the weight or less of my K-7 and noticeably smaller. The reason I think is because it is (and feels) plastic (although with a metal mount) - but don't get me wrong it doesn't feel as if it is going to fall apart. The functionality is pretty impressive for such a small package and everything is very familiar from my experience with Pentax DSLRs (just as well as there were no instructions!).

I have only run one roll of film through it which as yet is undeveloped so I haven't seen any actual results yet but I shall post some when I have some developed negs (assuming they're not all horrendous).

The *ist certainly has continuous AF (AF-C) and it has the mid roll rewind header out function (according to the link here: link
although I must confess I don't (yet) know how to activate the function.

Not sure what MLU is (maybe I am being dense (?)). Overall I would say the *ist looks like good value for money given that it can be picked up for a handful of tenners and enables functionality familiar to DSLR users (although not SDM focussing I guess).

Don't know if that helps at all?

Regards

Nicely taken stuff. I love the first 2 but number 2 gets my vote because that shrike is just so cool with his zorro mask! good set

That's a very cool shot IMO/ I rather like the greyscale mono conversion too. Nicely done

Regards

Now that's action! glad to hear everything is still working. I have seen folk doing this a bit at Sandbanks but never quite this close

Many thanks everyone for such encouraging feedback. I was back in the park this morning and all the Moorhens were absolutely sweetness and light! couple of coots nipping at each other though. As David suggests, I think I am just going to get out there and practice, practice, practice (I do a fair bit already)

Regards

Mainly primes for me - I have both zooms and primes but for some reason I would say ~90% of all the shots I take are with primes. I like their IQ, and the fact that they are generally pretty compact. The main exception for me is the 50-135 zoom which is a pretty exceptional lens I think.

Regards

That is a corker - it has a real feeling of a family about it - made especially so I think by the mouths of the parent elephants - they really look as if they are smiling and sending out encouragement to the youngster. Very cool.

Regards

Hello all. I've been a bit quiet recently on the forum. Seem to be drowning a bit in other things. However, I have managed to take a few shots over the past couple of weeks and thought I might post this series from last sunday morning. For a change it was quite bright and I encountered three Moorhens locked in a lengthy fight. Not sure whether they were males fighting over a female, or females fighting over male, or even just fancied a tussle... but they were really getting stuck in.

These were all taken with the DA* 300 on my K7. It was pretty early in the morning (8AM ish?) and whilst it was bright, I was still at ISO800 and f4 to get the shutter speed to creep over 1/300. Ideally I would have liked a little faster although I think I'll have to keep saving up for a K5 so I can push the ISO higher.

The real issue I had was focussing. The Moorhen were really zipping about, in all three dimensions, frequently flying into the air and then landing and racing around. I tried basic autofocus (AF-S) and continuous (AF-C) but found I had best results focussing manually, or fixing the focus at a known point and trying to catch the birds at that point. Suffice to say I took LOADS of shots and the vast majority were way OOF - including some with very cool poses, but overall I am quite pleased with the handful that I did get...

First up - a bit of a three way slanging match:



before the action kicks off:



One of the Moorhens seems to get a bit squished early on (ganged up on...):



The other two then get stuck in:



The defeated Moorhen feigns nonchalance whilst the other two fight on...



BANZAI!



Finally, the victor chases off his remaining rival:



I hope you like these. Any C&C welcome, and If any folk have any hints and tips for faster focussing I would be grateful to hear I think that if it had been a bit brighter so i could have used a smaller aperture with a greater DOF that would have helped a little - in fact I am sure a K5 with it's excellent high ISO capability would have helped here. I think any AF system would have strugled with these guys flitting about though.

Regards

These are great! it's amazing what a difference a bit of sunshine can make. I especially like the snow buntings. I think it's the attitude of the front bird staring right back, and that big block of blue all around - very nice indeed. None of them look too shabby to me. How do find using the 150-500? it looks like a bit of a big beast. Were these hand-held or off a tripod?

Regards