John when you say it works better are you talking about the AF performance in general? I thought the DA & DA-L lenses were optically the same but with minor differences, i.e quick shift, metal/plastic lens mount and lens hood.

Any advice/suggestions regarding lenses up to 300mm? I was using a DA-L 55-300mm on Saturday and was becoming somewhat annoyed with it towards the end of the day. I found that the AF was hunting a fair bit and I had to give it some help at times, that's where quick shift would have come in useful and I found the AF to be very noisy and slow at times as well. I was using the lens at an airshow and although there were no fast jets present the aircraft flying were "Flying Legends" so consisted mainly of Hurricanes, Spitfires, Mustangs, etc all fast moving aircraft.

Any suggestions please for any alternative "compact" lenses up to 300mm that might perform better with decent IQ? This probably only leaves the Tamron and Sigma varieties so any thoughts on those? I think I'm right in saying that they don't have quick shift either but what about their general performance compared to the 55-300mm? This focal length comes in handy on days when I'm travelling light, for example on a family day out but when I don't want to take an all in one lens.

Regards

Rob

I don't think so John, I'd only taken 4 images from when the aircraft started to taxi before it took off. This happened about halfway through the flying display and I had no problems beforehand.

Whilst using my K-5 on Saturday at an airshow I experienced a problem using the continuous shooting mode...I was photographing an aircraft taking off and was panning succesfully firing off a few shots when the camera "froze" - the AF points remained lit in the viewfinder and the camera stopped. I turned the camera off but the LCD screen remained on. I had to remove the battery from the body itself and everything was back to normal.

I was using an Inov8 battery in the body which I had fully charged the night before and an Integral 16gb Class 10 SDHC Card.

Has anyone else experienced this problem before? Was it either the card or the battery that might have caused this?

Thanks for suggesting this brand, I've read mixed reviews about them but am tempted to give them a go.

Just a question from me regarding Class 10 cards...apart from Sandisk and Lexar are there any other brands that are similar speed wise that folks on here use in a K-5? Those two brands are a bit pricey for me at the moment. Got a few airshows coming up in the next few weeks so the K-5 is going to be used a fair bit.

I'll be looking at 16gb as 8gb cards don't seem to last me during an airshow

Thanks for all your comments and feedback. I wanted to do well with this shoot as I believe that some of the photos might be used on the Police intranet and local press. Most of all I enjoyed the experience

Here's a small selection of images from the charity football match last Wednesday. Thanks to everyone for your advice, in the end I found the Sigma 100-300mm F4 with the K-5 was a good combination.



Stars v Stripes 145 by RM BRIGHT, on Flickr



Stars v Stripes 114 by RM BRIGHT, on Flickr



Stars v Stripes 149 by RM BRIGHT, on Flickr



Stars v Stripes 121 by RM BRIGHT, on Flickr

Comments/criticism always welcome either on here or on Flickr if you're a member as this was my first real attempt at photographing a football match and I've been invited back to photograph some matches at West Ham in the very near future

Rob

Thanks to all of you for your comments and advice

As a result of which I'm going to take both and start off with the Sigma 100-300mm F4 and see how I get on with that with the option of the 55-300mm if required.

All being well pics will follow after the match

Thanks for the comments and advice so far

I won't be far from the action, I might be in one of the stands or using a dedicated press area not far from the pitch.