Just thought I'd share an idea which my Dad has had for a lens cap which is difficult to lose, specifically for wildlife situations where speed of cap removal is paramount, but protection of the front element remains important.

They say a picture is worth 1000 words, so here is a 3000 word essay on the subject

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/thatguypinchedmyname/IMGP8766.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/thatguypinchedmyname/IMGP8767.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/thatguypinchedmyname/IMGP8774.jpg[/IMG]

The cap is a "bushwacker" optic cover designed for a rifle scope, and the largest available size is just right for a 58mm front element like the one on the 55-300 as well as quite a few other Pentax lenses. Securing it in place is a bit of a pain, but can be achieved fairly successfully using a cable tie. Dad says "it will come off if you pull hard enough", for example when enthusiastically removing the camera from a tight fitting camera bag, but for the most part it stays put.

We showed this to Chris@SRS this morning and he reckoned it's a pretty good idea so we thought we'd share it.

BTW, lighting for two of the above shots was provided using a "Rogue" flash bender supplied by Chris this morning. Thanks Chris! works like a charm!

thanks for all the replies everyone! very useful info.

We'll be staying in a tented camp but there is electricity available at least during the day. If I have space I'll probably pack my *istDL2 as a backup/short lens body.

Particularly thanks for the DEET warning Gwyn, I didn't know that!

So it's looking like

16-45 f/4
50 mm f/1.4
55-300 or 80-320
105 macro

I'll probably take a couple of sets of Lithium single use batteries for the DL2 and 3 or 4 batteries plus charger for the K10, plus oodles of memory cards and my eeePC for downloading to.

Hi All,

It's been a while! I've been crazy busy finishing my PhD thesismso little time for internet forums or photography, but hopefully that will now change a bit.

My wedding is coming up in Sept, and my fiancee and I have decided to take ourselves off on a safari in Kenya as part of our honeymoon.

Clearly I'll be packing the K10D and as many memory cards and batteries as I can physically carry, the question is what lenses to take. I've never been on anything like this before!

I have a few options:

1. my Tamron 300 f/2.8 prime.
2. my FA 80-320 or convince my Dad to lend me his DA55-300
3. Hire a DA* 300 f/4 from SRS
4. Hire a DA* 60-250 f/4 from SRS

The questions which I need to answer to decide this I think are multiple

1. How close do you actually get to the animals on these safaris? Am I going to be cursing a fixed 300 prime for being too long or will I want all the length I can get and more?

2. Are the DA*s better than the DA/FA/Tammy by enough to make it worth the hire cost? I suspect if it comes down to DA* 300 vs Tammy I'm basically deciding if the hire cost is worth the weight reduction and AF.

Answers on a postcard! I'm particularly interested to hear from anyone who's been on a safari trip in 4x4s to know how close you get.

got a car to fix first, but Dad and I are really hoping to be there later on. We want to play with the 645D!

PS little sisters K-x is fantastic, she loves it. I suspect she'll be back in for a macro prime as soon as she can gather the necessary resources.

as as person with absolutely 0 knowledge of flying, I find the most alarming thing about this facinating panorama to be the "fire buttons" on the control sticks.

I'm sure they have a perfectly reasonable use, but they really do look like fire buttons.

I really like #1.........actually I like them all but #1 made me go "oooo I like that", nice panning.

you did, sorry I didn't mean to offend but felt it was simplified to an extent which could cause misunderstanding.

my version is still simplified since I've glossed over what tone curves and white balance do, darn this stuff gets complex if you let it!

The 18-55 MkII is a fine kit lens, if you've got a good one I say hang on to it and get yourself something which expands your abilities rather than duplicating AGAIN a range which you already have twice.

TBH even the MKI 18-55 is unusually good for it's class.

I upgraded my 18-55 MkI to a 16-45 and I love that lens, but I didn't consider it a straight swap, I bought the 16-45 because I wanted the wide angle capability. I think if you make that substitution JUST for image quality reasons you'll find the value for money is suspect at best.

If you're going to upgrade something in your range for IQ reasons, I'd go for the 55-300 to give you a better quality long end than the 18-250.

that isn't strictly accurate.

RAW files are 12 bit compared to JPGs 8. In english, RAW pixel values run from 0 to 4095 where JPG pixel values are 0 to 255.

RAW to JPG processing works by throwing away some of that information. Depending on the settings, it will be somewhere between picking 256 levels out of the 4096 available, and re-scaling the full range so it fits into 256 levels.

In reality there is also a tone curve applied, and white balance which is essentially applying a slightly different tone curve to each of the three channels.


The ability to apparently tweak exposure on RAW files comes from the fact that the RAW to JPG conversion almost always looses information of both ends of the exposure.

It's always best to get it right in camera though, boosting exposure in RAW conversion amplifies noise while while trying to reduce the exposure often results in blown highlights.

no, you weren't unclear, I just managed to miss that word in your original post somehow. Oops!

welcome to the forum, I hope you buy a shiny new Pentax or at least dust off that MZ-5 (it's still a fine piece of kit!) and stick around.