Hin's Photo Corner: 600mm

Showing posts with label 600mm. Show all posts

Pentax Long Lenses and Teleconverters

2010-02-05 Posted by Hin Man

1/1600 sec, f/6.3, 420mm, iso 400, 0 Ev

K10D, Tamron 70-300mm Di LD f/4.0-5.6,
Tamron Pz-AF 1.4x TC

It is an old picture from my purple monster zoom and the Tamron 1.4x Pz-AF TC. Everyone including myself try to avoid TC as much as possible with zoom. Knowing what I know, I don't think I can re-shoot this picture again as I will be afraid of the unknown. The past lucky pictures sometimes remind me to be rebellious to the common thoughts and trends.

1/1600 sec, 600mm, f/6.3, iso 2000, O Ev
K20D, Pentax FA* 300mm f/4.5, Kenko 2x Pz-AF MC7 TC
manual focus as the TC dragged down AF

1/1000 sec, f/8.0, 500mm, iso 640, 0 Ev
K20D, Pentax FA* 300mm f/4.5, Pentax AFA 1.7x TC

1/250 sec, f/---, 350mm, iso 800, +0.3 Ev, K20D
Soligor 200mm f/2.8 M42 + Pentax AFA 1.7x TC

1/20 sec, f/8.0, 600mm, iso 800, +0.7Ev, K20D
Pentax FA* 300mm f/4.5 + Kenko MC7 2.x TC

Pentax FA* 300mm f/4.5 + Kenkon MC7 2.x TC

Though all the disadvantages with image degradation and light loss, I have been using tele-converters on birds and moon shot. And I have made many mistakes in hand-holding the shots with a TC. I will have to try it again on mono-pod and other means in bracing my shots. TC has been essential to me in reaching out to far objects. I have much more bad pictures than good pictures but I use the blog post to remind myself to keep trying to find the right setup and settings while reminding myself that with practices and patience, the chores in using a TC will become less of a problem and that I can enjoy the hard work in pursuing birds and animals.

Few random notes to share:

Among my TC, the Pentax AFA 1.7x TC is my favorite as it works well with manual focus lens. My next favorite is the Tamron 1.4x TC
Using an M42 TC on an M42 lens is much harder in focusing due to the closing of aperture blades and the loss of light with a TC mounted. I rely on focusing at wide open aperture and then stop down in aperture change before shutter release. And the whole process can move the focal point easily.
I should have kept my copy of Promaster 1.7x AF TC as it is reported by others that the Promaster TC can work with DA* 60-250mm f/4.0 with AF
Promaster 1.7x AF TC has less CA than that with Tamron 1.4x TC but the Tamron TC is faster in AF
My Kenko 2.x TC is not too bad but when it is mounted on my F* 300mm f/4.5, it becomes ridiculously slow in AF, I find it more usable to use it with manual focus.
With AF TC, camera SR focal length is always not factored into SR calculation and SR focal length is grayed out in the menu option for changes. Here the Pentax AFA 1.7x TC shines in that the camera will prompt for registration of SR focal length at start up and one can input the correct SR focal length for proper setup.

Pentax 600mm setup with Kenko 2x AF TC on Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5

2009-09-29 Posted by Hin Man

Pentax 600mm setup with Kenko 2x Pz-AF Teleplus MC7

I was about to sell my new Tokina/Kenko branded Pz-AF 2x Teleplus MC7 converter. I bought it new about $90.00 and I used it last with some reasonable moon shots with Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5. I don't have a reliable setup of tripod and ball-head and I test the same setup further in a birding tour with Don Edwards SF wildlife refuge. I brought along the setup and before I knew it, a Pelican fly by filling big part of my view finder and I take few shots hoping for a reasonable shot to convince myself to keep the TC.

I spotted the White Pelican from a good distance
from the 600mm rig
1/1600 sec, 600mm, f/6.3, iso 1600, O Ev

I missed 2nd shot in the framing and the 3rd one is
the sharpest of the bunch with no editing
1/1600 sec, 600mm, f/6.3, iso 2000, O Ev

1/1600 sec, 600mm, f/6.3, iso 1600, -1/3 Ev

They all landed in an area far away from me
the 600mm rig kept me in a good distance from the birds

Next come the black necks

leaving the Pelicans behind

A candid shot on the marsh landing plants

with focal b&w

Impressions & Notes

Not the best in IQ but very much hand-holdable setup that I can shoot without a tripod
If you expect AF to work reliably, don't buy this TC as you may get disappointed. Though it has the power zoom contacts that look like the SDM contacts, it is not found to work with Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 in auto-focus.
Though the TC worked with F* 300mm with AF, the motor noise and AF seem to take a long time to travel to focal point, I ended up shooting all birds flying shots in manual focus mode along with TAv where I set the shutter speed to a fast shutter as in 1/1600 sec and set Av to f/6.3, probably the lowest that is allowed after the TC is mounted.
Unlike the time that I shot the moon with this set up, the manual focusing seem to work better than AF as I can get more responsive to the birds movement in MF. With the moon, the AF pretty much stay about the same spot not changing. With the birds, things around the birds as well as panning their movement kept the focusing to re-focus and somehow make the shot more difficult to do in AF than MF. Shame, I don't know how to explain it well, it is an odd feeling why MF works better than AF in this difficult shooting scenes with the birds.
I had similar bad experience with AF on the F* 300mm f/4.5 without the TC that I divide my shots to have a balance between AF and MF subject to the scene and shooting conditions. There are many times that the AF foul up on me especially with AF.C and panning birds with distracting backgrounds or background with low contrast. And I can hardly rely on the semi-working AF for panning the birds movement.
I am going to keep the TC as I find it worth keeping for $90 to bring my 300mm into a workable 600mm lens. Of course, there are many cons that go with the TC approach in degradation of IQ. My approach in assessing the usefulness on the TC is making the shot with compromises and the TC does let me stay at a good distance in not disturbing the wildlife.

Moon Shot with Kenko Pz-AF 2x teleplus mc7

2009-09-01 Posted by Hin Man

I saw clear sky on Monday night driving home. I thought about the lunar images that I see from others. Last attempt was totally ruined by my ball head that is failing to hold the lens and camera in place. And I have this Kenko/Tokina PZ-AF 2x teleplus MC7 that I have not used it since I bought it from ebay.

First, few quick snapshots about my setup

Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5
Kenko Pz-AF 2x Teleplus MC7
Friend's Linhof Ball-head
Dynatran Carbon tripod

moon shot with Kenko Tokina PZ-af 2x teleplus mc7, pentax f* 300mm f/4.5 and pentax k20d

I shot it around 10:30pm and the clouds moved in after first few test shots. I was initially getting a clear shot with shutter speed in 1/125 sec with f/8 in iso 400. As clouds move in, I slow the shutter to 1/20 ~ 1/60 to get a reasonable shot of the moon. I would attempt it with more needed research and a clearer sky to shoot the moon.

#1
1/20 sec, f/8.0, 600mm, iso 400, +0.7 Ev

#2
1/60 sec, f/7.1, 600mm, iso 400, 0 Ev

#3
1/30 sec, f/7.1, 600mm, iso 400, 0 Ev

Impressions & Notes

Not too bad if I don't blow it up in larger size
Focus point is actually not in infinity
With the 2x TC, I can actually use AF with the Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5. I am surprised
The 2x TC won't AF on SDM lens with Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8
Teleplus, MC7, Tokina, Kenko are on the label of the TC
The cloudy sky poses the most problems in the shooting
I use 2 sec timer, I should have used the wireless remote trigger
I crop about 50% on the view from the 600mm lens setup with the 2x TC
The Linhof ball-head still moves a bit. I will retry the setup.

Hin's Photo Corner

Pentax Long Lenses and Teleconverters

Pentax 600mm setup with Kenko 2x AF TC on Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5

Moon Shot with Kenko Pz-AF 2x teleplus mc7

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