Yes Bill such a beastie exists. I have one that I regularly stick on my z-1p and use mainly with a Tokina 300mm f2.8. It is a great way to get a fast 510mm f4.5 AF lens. It is best used with lenses of f4.0 or faster, but can be used up to f5.6.

The overall image sharpness is naturally degraded, but not by very much. The Tokina 300mm f2.8 lenses are very sharp on their own, and with the 1.7x AF converter, it is difficult to tell the difference once the set-up is stopped down to about f6.7 or f8.0. At f8.0 it is almost as sharp as the 300mm f2.8 on it's own. Wide open though it is a bit soft, as is the 300mm on its own.

Focusing is fast, once you get the hang of altering the point of focus on the parent lens to where you are aiming. For instance, on the 300mm (mainly because of limited DOF), when it is set to infinity it will only focus from about 20 meters to infinity. Focus manually roughly near your point of interest, and let the AF do the rest. It is very quick and intuitive once you get the hang of it.

I photographed a bike race and bocce tournament on Saturday, and was able to focus and shoot any subject at any speed on the day. Mostly at about 1/1000th at f11.0, so images should be sharp as a pin. The one thing that surprised me was my z-1p/ 510mm AF setup focusing on bocce players releasing the bowls, and having no trouble with all the movement. I also got some shots of a Kangaroo and joey, so it will be a nice couple of test rolls to get back.

I have done the brick wall test with the 510mm AF setup, and with the 300mm on its own, and I am very happy with the sharpness and clarity of the resulting images. You wont be disappointed Bill, even if you only use adapter with a 50mm f1.4 lens (which makes an 85mm AF f2.4).

Cheers


Shaun

wide open

Bill Lawlor wrote:
I saw something recently on the Pentax.com site about an autofocus adapter
to get AF with manual lenses. Now I can't find it again. Is there really
such an animal? Anybody used it?

Thanks, Bill Lawlor

.


--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Shaun Canning								
Cultural Heritage Services 						
High Street, Broadford,
Victoria, 3658.

www.heritageservices.com.au/

Phone: 0414-967644
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]


My images can be seen at www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=238096
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



Reply via email to