Re: birds and turtles
Herb, I didn't appreciate the technique/skill required to capture moving subjects with long lenses until I got my 600mm several years ago. I had done fairly well with my 300mm FA. My ratio of keepers to shots taken with the 600 is among the lowest of any lens I shoot. On top of that there are only so many catalog shots of wildlife that you can take. So it really is a stalker lens where you might invest a lot of time sitting and waiting for the wildlife to actually do something other than pose. I love my 600 and I have a real appreciation for those that capture great images with it. IMHO long lenses are in a different league than most other lenses (with or without autofocus). Kenneth Waller - Original Message - From: Herb Chong [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 8:47 PM Subject: Re: birds and turtles the point i was trying to make is that autofocus would have made it easier to get the shots with the right part in exact focus, not harder. Pentax has a gap in their current FA* long telephoto lenses with no FA* 400/2.8. the FA* 400/5.6 isn't of the same quality and the FA* 300/2.8 isn't long enough. right now, the FA* 600/4 is too pricey, but it's in the budget for October. Herb - Original Message - From: frank theriault [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 2:10 PM Subject: Re: birds and turtles I know how hard it must be to do what you're doing and nail down the focus of moving animals with the aperture wide open. Actually, I don't know, because I've never tried it. I can imagine it's difficult, though. As I indicated in my original post, many of the photos I did like, even ones where the focus was off just a tad.
Re: birds and turtles
Herb, I was just in a pissy mood last night, I think. I know how hard it must be to do what you're doing and nail down the focus of moving animals with the aperture wide open. Actually, I don't know, because I've never tried it. I can imagine it's difficult, though. As I indicated in my original post, many of the photos I did like, even ones where the focus was off just a tad. Just ignore me when I get that way. cheers, frank The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true. -J. Robert Oppenheimer From: Herb Chong [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: birds and turtles Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 06:46:51 -0400 manual focus wide open on a long lens. at 50 feet, the DOF is a couple of inches, barely a wiggle on the focus ring and very hard to see in the viewfinder. mostly, the subjects are moving and i can't move the focus ring fast enough to keep up. AF would have caught the right point, if it were available. i'm shooting at longer ranges and smaller subjects. i had about 10 seconds to aim my camera and focus before the beaver dived. i think my percentage would have been higher with AF. 10 seconds is the typical time i have to aim and focus before the subject has moved enough to require moving and refocusing. the swan and turtle pictures are where i could have stopped down to f5.6 and gotten a little more DOF. otherwise, the shutter speeds would have been too low and i would have gotten vibration blur. image stablization is something i am looking forward to. _ MSN Premium helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-capage=byoa/premxAPID=1994DI=1034SU=http://hotmail.com/encaHL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines
Re: birds and turtles
i have done only a few tests where i compared the two lenses side by side and then, only wide open performance under cloudy bright skies and focused moderately close, at about 30 feet. under those conditions, the A* 400 f2.8 is slightly sharper and slightly more contrasty. the sharpness may be a consequence of a brighter viewfinder and the resulting better ability to manual focus on the *istD screen. the Pentax L extenders on the A* are slightly sharper than the Sigma extenders on the FA* lens. BTW, the swan is a female mute swan. did you notice the turtle on the side of the nest? a whimsical caption would be Mom? Herb - Original Message - From: Mark Cassino [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 9:54 PM Subject: RE: birds and turtles Nice shots, Herb. My favorites are the reflected goose and sleeping Trumpeter (?) swan. How does the A* 400 compare to the FA* 400?
RE: birds and turtles
1) I like seagulls. Even though this one's impaled by a great big post, it still works, because the post is so nicely OOF. Nice sharp bird. Nice shot. 2) I hate Canada Geese. I believe I've mentioned that on-list before. I'm going to put that bias aside as best I can, however, and say that I like the shot ~as a photograph~, despite the subject. Nice composition with the reflection. Only tiny quibble is that the eye could be a tad sharper. The back feathers seem sharp enough, so maybe focus was off just a coupla inches or so. Still nice shot. 3) What is a beaver, Alex? Oh sorry, this isn't Jeopardy. Does anyone know that Alex Trebek is Canadian? Well, he is. He's from Sudbury, Ontario. And he got a B.A. in Philosophy from University of Ottawa. But I digress... Ah yes, the Beaver. Canada's national symbol. Cool shot. Again with the not really sharp focus - I'm sorry if I'm so demanding about focus on nature shots, but to me it's kind of part of the deal. Anyway, I do really like the concentric circles formed by the ripples around le castor (that's French for beaver). Another shot I like... 4) I really like the comp on this one. All those plants seem to have a sort of gentle symmetry, they really work with where the bird is. I like... 5) I may like this one even more than the last. The way he's hanging sideways from that branch is neat. Lovely bokeh of those branches in the background. Very cool lightiing - all you see of the OOF branches is pure light without form, if you know what I mean. My fave so far. 6) Missed the focus. The bill is sharpest - should be the eye. Not a bad shot, but I find the sharp beak distracting. 7) I like this one. The lighting's better, more interesting rocks and twiggy things and stuff. I think maybe the bill's a bit sharper than the eye again, but for some reason it doesn't bother me as much here. I think that's because it's a more interesting shot overall than the last one. 8) This one's not so successful, IMHO. Or at least, I should say it doesn't work for me. That branch directly in front of the bird really takes away from the shot. And, the bird isn't sharp enough, IMHO. 9) There's way OOf stuff in the foreground that detracts from this one for me. Not sure about the exposure either. The bird (a woodpecker of some sort?) seems a bit dark to me. 10) Again with the focus. It seems that the shell of the one on the left is the sharpest thing in the photo. I'd want it to be either of the turtles' heads. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. Otherwise, it's an interesting photo. I like the lighting, the bright dried grass (or whatever it is), nicely OOF in the background. Comp is nicely done - the shape of the rocks and the reflections of them work very well. 11) The turtle makes it! Neat! But, again, what seems most in focus is not interesting. It seems to be the back of the swan. It should be either the swan's face or the turtle. Otherwise, nice comp. Okay, individual critiques (or are they comments?) are over. I've gotta ask a question, Herb, are you using an autofocus camera? I only ask, because to me, many of the photos seem to miss the focus by a couple of inches, and since you are obviously shooting wide open with a very fast lens, missing by a couple of inches is quite noticeable, at least to me. Obviously, the camera's focusing on ~something~, but not the right thing, IMHO. I find it very distracting. Maybe I'm spoiled by some of the incredible wildlife photographers on this list, and maybe I'm being unduly harsh or overly demanding, but there's just something missing, something needed for these to be ~great~ shots. I'm not trying to be a jerk, so please take these comments in the spirit in which they're intended. And, yes, I'm the king of ~not~ focusing well. I realize the irony here... vbg cheers, frank The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true. -J. Robert Oppenheimer From: Herb Chong [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: birds and turtles Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:21:07 EST misc birds and turtles i took in the past couple of weeks. all with the *ist D and the FA* 400/5.6 or A* 400/2.8. i sometime used the Sigmal APO AF 2X extender on the 400/5.6 and the Pentax A2X-L on the 400/2.8. Hey Herb, are you going to provide a link? ;) sorry, Amita. the entire weekend was a big headache as allergies here are both earlier and worse than i can remember. Herb... http://users.bestweb.net/~hchong/temp/ _ Add photos to your messages with MSN Premium. Get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-capage=byoa/premxAPID=1994DI=1034SU=http://hotmail.com/encaHL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines
RE: birds and turtles
misc birds and turtles i took in the past couple of weeks. all with the *ist D and the FA* 400/5.6 or A* 400/2.8. i sometime used the Sigmal APO AF 2X extender on the 400/5.6 and the Pentax A2X-L on the 400/2.8. Hey Herb, are you going to provide a link? ;)
RE: birds and turtles
misc birds and turtles i took in the past couple of weeks. all with the *ist D and the FA* 400/5.6 or A* 400/2.8. i sometime used the Sigmal APO AF 2X extender on the 400/5.6 and the Pentax A2X-L on the 400/2.8. Hey Herb, are you going to provide a link? ;) sorry, Amita. the entire weekend was a big headache as allergies here are both earlier and worse than i can remember. Herb... http://users.bestweb.net/~hchong/temp/
RE: birds and turtles
Nice shots, Herb. My favorites are the reflected goose and sleeping Trumpeter (?) swan. How does the A* 400 compare to the FA* 400? - MCC At 01:21 PM 4/19/2004 -0500, you wrote: sorry, Amita. the entire weekend was a big headache as allergies here are both earlier and worse than i can remember. Herb... http://users.bestweb.net/~hchong/temp/ - Mark Cassino Photography Kalamazoo, MI http://www.markcassino.com -
PAW: birds and turtles
misc birds and turtles i took in the past couple of weeks. all with the *ist D and the FA* 400/5.6 or A* 400/2.8. i sometime used the Sigmal APO AF 2X extender on the 400/5.6 and the Pentax A2X-L on the 400/2.8. Herb...
