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Pentax F* 30mm f/4.5 on BIF, Portraits and Bokeh

2016-04-22 Posted by Hin Man

My copy was pretty beaten up by Kerrick James as he was the original owner with frequent usage. When I asked him about why he sold his lens over eBay before the purchase, he mentioned to me that he replaced the F* with the DA* 30mm. Yes, the tripod mount on F* 300mm is very unique and sturdy but I normally use this lens hand-held as it is not-too-bulky and quite compact for a 300mm. I love the yellowish white color on the lens barrel. It is not the grey-color as in the FA*. My copy is collecting dust in one of my bags tucked into a corner. A Shame, I should find excuses to take it out.

Pentax F* 30mm f/4.5 on BIF, Portraits and Bokeh

I don't shoot long lenses lately as I have more photos on street-shooting and traveling. I couldn't believe it myself that I never have used my DA* 60-250 1.5 years after purchase. In light with cutting my lens to the bones, I let go my DA* 60-250 3 months back in PF and I don't want to look back for the rational. That 60-250 is a beauty and pictures have the same tonality and color like the 50-135. If anyone likes long zoom, the 60-250 is high on my gear to highly recommend. BUT! Between the zoom and the prime in 300mm, the prime has more of my vote as sharpness and lighter weight sway the prime to my favorite likings.

The color, bokeh and sharpness really pop with F* 300. I am a casual shooter and many of my old shots were straight out in jpg. This one was likely with K20D

Likely one of my better hummingbird shots was made at ease with this prime

f/6.3, iso 500, 1/1000sec, 300mm, hand-held with K20D

I likely have shown this picture before. Please allow me as it is the bragging rights. I exaggerate a bit again on the 'shooting with ease' on hummingbirds as it is combination of luck, patience, and repeated trials until an okay shot that is found worth editing.

I was not paying attention to its color and contrast. I take it for granted and miss appreciating what I have in my bag. There is always a tendency to upgrade and forget about the actual picture taking. I re-examine some of my old shots in 2009 and I have been pleased with both the sharpness and smooth bokeh. Maybe all longer lenses give better smooth bokeh and I don't know the exact reasoning. This picture below was shot in f/6.3, iso 400, there are some shadows around the lower left on the background that distract a bit but I think it is shadow of the trees around. Overall, the lens is great.

I have been thinking long and hard on K3 or K3 II as an upgrade to my dependable K-5. When that happen, I will use it for enthusiast type of nature shooting as in shooting the hummingbirds, terns and landscape in hiking. If you have either K-3 and K3 II, please share your thoughts if K-3 is much or slightly improved on AF especially on the tracking. I was always dizzy in panning and I find tracking is very difficult on K20D or K-5, I hope the K-3 has been improved for enthusiasts in shooting wild life.

I am pretty sure the DA* 300mm has inherited most if not all the goodness from this old prime and with WR and better.

Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 On Terns

2009-05-11 Posted by Hin Man

My family visited Mountain View Shoreline Park and for the first time, I met this unfamiliar bird that hovers over the air like an helicopter. Others have told me that this bird is related to "Terns" and it may either be Common Terns or other variants in Bay Area as in Forster's Terns. It flies very fast and circle around area above a lake looking for food. Once it hovers a spot, it dive down to the water and quickly come back up and nowhere found in my viewfinder.

My skills, AF.C, auto select AF point, center focus all foul up on me with this bird. There are moments that I seriously worry about the AF motor from the nervously grinding noise from my Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 and Pentax K20 D in obtaining focus. And there are moments after few shots, the AF motor won't AF at all. It goes as if the AF halts after 4 shots are taken. I have been shooting in single drive and it is probably my first time hitting the focus halt problem in daytime shooting. I have to point the lens down to ground and half press to reset things to normal.

There is a lot of "damn it", "good grief", "you silly bird", "bummer" that go with each shutter. The birds ability to fly and hover over water for feeding are very much breath taking. If you live in bay area from California, you have to come to Mountain View Shoreline to look for this bird. I have the most excitement with this bird, I need to re-shoot the series in another time with more study on taking smaller number of shots with better precision. I ended the shootout in shifting to manual focus as the tree and some neighboring background have confused the AF and the less noise from the AF motor keep me calm in picturing the birds

Impressions & Notes

AF.C with auto select AF points work reasonably better than center focal point when the background has no distracting objects as in trees and background mountain.
AF motor tend to grind more in Auto Select focal points. AF actually grind down to a halt in a series of shots, I don't really know what happens. Half-pressing has no movement from AF and I end up pointing my lens to ground floor and half-press to reset focal point.
The noise from the AF motor bother me quite a bit in the shooting
AF has a difficult time to get focus on first shot.
I find manual focus does a quicker job in obtaining the first shot in focus. But when I am shooting, I can't mix the mode together quickly as I have to toggle Auto Focus ring to MF and switch on body from AF to MF. I am in either mode but not mix in between the two.
In MF, I lose the trap focus capability. I only manage to hear the beep for focus confirmation. I mostly hit the shutter after the beep and there is undoubtedly some delay in the reaction to the shot
I turned off SR in all shooting and make sure shutter is close and faster than 1/1000 sec. I shot mostly in f/6.3 to f/9.0 in iso 400 to iso 640.
It is easier to picture the bird in a horizontal flying path. If the bird is approaching me heads on, I have more problems in both AF and MF mode as the bird are moving at a rapid pace. The bird is just way too fast and when the bird is really close, I mostly cut the bird by the wings. I need to practice on the timing.
In MF, I can hardly rely on pre-focus on neighboring objects as the bird move in a large area. The best time to pre-focus is perhaps the time when it hovers over water for few seconds. I should attempt MF for the diving sequence when the tern is going straight down for the feeding.

Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 On Humming Birds

2009-05-05 Posted by Hin Man

1/500 sec, f/6.3, 300mm, iso 500, 0 Ev, SR OFF

1/800 sec, f/6.3, 300mm, iso 500, 0 Ev, SR OFF

1/1000 sec, f/6.3, 300mm, iso 500, 0 Ev, SR ON

1/1000 sec, f/6.3, 300mm, iso 500, 0 Ev, SR OFF

1/1250 sec, f/6.3, 300mm, iso 500, 0 Ev, SR OFF

I bought my most expensive used lens with Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 with the desired intention for the capturing humming birds in a photo. I love shooting humming birds and it demands the best from my concentration, patience, and luck. They are so small and tiny and they disappear in a split of a second in my viewfinder and reappear when I am about to give up.

It is much easier to wait for them in a bird feeder with exact location when they will show up frequently. With flowers, they can dance between spots and it is next to impossible to guess where they are heading. The best moment is catch them when they are about to stay still for a moment in getting their food from the flower. Unlike a humming bird feeder, they seldom stay still with the flowers.

Impressions & Notes

The series of photos with humming bird makes the lens purchase all worthwhile for the money spent.
Color and sharpness is amazing from this old prime of Pentax
I still need to crop the photo a bit to see the bird in detail
Again, I used AF.C with center focus. I have not used auto select focal point due to a few failed attempts before, I am not sure if neighboring branches will be interpreted wrong by the AF system when I pan the little bird on its movement. I should give that a try.
With 1/1000 sec, I turned off SR almost completely and it seems to do well for me
The AF from this lens make the shooting much easier than my previous attempt with Photosniper Tair-3 PhS 300mm f/4.5 (m42) on Humming Birds
The first AF confirmation around the head of the humming bird is critical to the AF.C. In order to freeze the wing movement, shutter need higher and closer to 1/1000 sec.

Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 BIF Practice Shots

2009-05-04 Posted by Hin Man

Though I have problems getting close to the birds, I have been using my Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 for birds in flight shots. If I manage to practice more, the results will be better. These are taken quite far away and cropped down and lighting is too dim around 7:00pm after work, hence the lost of detail. But I have the most fun with the mallard pair as I enjoy seeing them gliding in pair.

1/1250 sec, f/5.6, 300mm, 640 iso, 0 Ev, SR off, AF.C

In high shutter speed, having SR off seems to do okay for me and the AF.C is working quite well for the shots as long as I manage to get AF in the panning the first moment that I see the birds approaching. I would like to get closer to the birds and I think with practice and more trials, I would learn to find a better location and find a better lighting as in blue sky and well lighted scene. More to come from another day with better lighting.

Another set is from a previous day with better lighting. Again in sunset lighting around 7:00pm. I may have the wrong setting as I pushed ISO too high in 1000 and I think I forget to turn SR off

1/4000 sec, f/5.6, 300mm, iso 1000, SR on, AF.C

Impressions & Notes

When shutter speed is over certain shutter value such as 1/1000 of a second, it seems that turning SR off has more benefits than turning SR on. The sudden movement in panning can trigger overcompensation from SR resulting in double edge pattern in the wings.
I love the F* prime for its compact size and weight and it allows me to be mobile and move my position as close to the birds in flight as possible
I need to learn about the mallard's pair gliding pattern, I find it the easiest to shoot them when they are not flopping their wings but gliding along their flight path
The initial AF confirmation is important for AF.C to work.
When I first see the sight of the bird, I tried to aim and half press and pan the bird movement hoping it is in an obvious direction and get 1, 2 or 3 shots out of the panning
I have used exclusively on AF.C with center focus and pan for the movement in a series.

Photosniper Tair-3 PhS 300mm f/4.5 Humming Birds

2009-04-21 Posted by Hin Man

Some test shots on hummingbirds with this lens wide open in f/4.5 in using the lens alone without the gun stock. This lens is the most difficult lens that I have used

Due to blades in manual diaphragm, I can't confirm focus at f/8.0 and bigger apertures.
The focusing knob is underneath the lens barrel.
The preset ring serves as a cocking mechanism for the lens.
Once cocked, the aperture is wide open, slighter wider than f/4.5, maybe f/4.0, and I can focus but the catch is having to rely on the gun trigger to stop down the lens
Without the gun stock, I can still stop down by tapping the diagram release bar underneath the lens barrel

#1

#2
shadow and too dark to freeze the motion

#3
user focus error
again a bit too dark

#4

#5

Promaster 1.7x AF Teleconverter Pentax

2008-07-29 Posted by Hin Man

Promaster Spectrum 7 1.7x AF Teleconverter Pentax

I bought this item brand new from ebay store Wolfes-Camera and the price I paid was fairly decent for $69.99. I doubt initially if the AF would work at all when I purchased this item. And I tried it on both of my Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 and Tamron 70-300 Di LD Macro and auto focus works though there is more obvious focus hunting for the long Tamron zoom in the long end

The TC has all the 7 electrical contacts on the rim outside along with two golden SDM contacts inside. It has 4 groups with 4 elements and it has MC coating as noted in the specification.

Auto focus is slower than the Tamron 1.4x Pz-AF MC4 TC. Perhaps the field of view is narrow at 510mm, a busy surrounding and low light will have it hunt for focus. Once target is in focus, it is not as bad. And I am more than thrilled to have a 510mm for bird photos from a good distance. Some test shots with Tamron 70-300 Di LD Macro in ISO 400 and mostly f/8.0.

Hummingbird with Tamron 70-300 Di LD, Pentax K10D,Promaster Spectrum 7 1.7x AF Teleconverter Pentax

Impressions & Notes:

AF obviously works and I have tried it successfully on Tamron 70-300 Di LD and Tamron 28-75 f/2.8
AF is slower in Promaster 1.7x as compared to Tamron 1.4x TC
I am extremely surprised that PF/CA are not seen yet with the TC. I shot the similar locations when the bird is resting with backlighting branches, Tamron 1.4x TC all end up in purple tree but not so with the Promaster 1.7x. I am hopeful that this TC works better with PF/CA control.
Color and contrast are a bit flat but reasonable in the shot
510mm is very achievable with the TC and IQ are yet to be confirmed with more use
I am happy as a clam to get a 510mm rig with this TC
The Promaster weighs 4 oz and it is not that much bigger than the Tamron 1.4x TC and hand-holding with Tamron long zoom is very feasible. Though SR stays at 300mm for the long end and my short trial seem to have reasonable sharpness.
Most of my initial test shots range from 10 to 15 feet away from the birds, a longer distance testing will help to judge the TC.
IQ with shots in close range shorter than 30 feet seems very good, SR at 300mm in long end still helps in shorter distance shooting.
IQ at full extension to 510mm with subjects at far distance seem to have more problems with blur images.
In all testing, AF works effectively in good lighting condition.

Tamron 1.4x Pz-AF MC4 Teleconverter

2008-07-23 Posted by Hin Man

Tamron-F AF Teleconverter

1.4x Pz-AF MC4

Out of 2 month of searching everywhere, I finally found this item sold by another Pentaxian as an used item. This item has been out of production from Tamron and it is a rare item that doesn't show up frequently in eBay and local store. In a way, I take that as real luck on my part in getting this item.

Here are some tele shots taken mostly at 300mm (or 420mm) using the adapter with my Tamron 70-300mm Di LD Macro.

Picture taken with Pentax K10D, Tamron 70-300 Di LD Macro & Tamron 1.4x Pz-AF MC4 Teleconverter

Impressions & Notes:

AF stays on and it is utmost important to me in shooting tele-shot as I need all the help that I can get in focusing.
Test shots don't reveal big loss of light and picture quality
PF/CA happens more frequently with Tamron 70-300 Di LD Macro
With adapter, my Tamron long end comes out reasonably sharp in 420mm. I would expect better sharpness with a tripod. The PF/CA is bummer and I see more at f/8.0 and f/11.0 in the test shots.
Physical noise from auto focusing can be pronounced. Once focused around target, noise and speed in auto-focusing is not an issue.
Relatively inexpensive way to get to 420mm in good lighting
An overall satisfactory purchase, a definite keeper and an highly recommended item from me
More information can be found in this long discussion in Tamron 1.4x TC converter pictures
Another similar choice is Kenko 1.5x with auto focus that is about half the price of the Tamron. I hear mix reports with some user complaining on inability to autofocus.
AutoFocus is key with the Tele especially to catch up with birds movement that need fast action. As much as I love manual focus, I need as much help as I can get from the gear in shooting birds in flight.
My version has 7 electrical contacts and 2 inside contacts for the SDM. It has the MC4 in the model.

Related:

BIF with Tamron 70-300 Di LD Macro

2008-06-17 Posted by Hin Man

I have tried to shoot birds in flight (BIF) with Tamron 70-300 Di LD. All are cropped to get closer to the birds.

1/800 sec, f/8.0, 300mm, iso 400, 0 Ev

1/1250 sec, f/8.0, 160mm, iso 400, 0 Ev

1/1250 sec, f/8.0, 300mm, iso 400, 0 Ev Flickr Slideshow

Focus & Meter:

I use the default multi-segment metering
I use AF.C exclusively
I normally use the selective AF with focal point in center but for the BIF, I turn to the complete AF with multiple focal points, I let the AF system work while I pan the movement hoping the AF system find the closest focal point to match the bird
I use ISO 400 and Av mode on f/8.0 and half press to check the shutter to be at least 1/500 sec
I should have tried Tv mode with 1/1000 sec but I don't trust the Tamron on anything lesser than f/8.0 in the longer end
I pan all shot in moving along with the bird and let the multiple AF point and AF.C work with the bird in the frame
I pan the bird to be in the frame and adjust zoom from 300mm down for better sharpness and hopefully better IQ if bird is not too far

Teleconverters:

And I am gathering inputs for a TC that maintain AF and metering, I am basically looking at two choices

Tamron 1.4x AF (no longer manufactured by Tamron)
Kenko 1.5x AF (available in various places)
Promaster Spectrum 7 1.7x AF TC

Hin's Photo Corner

Pentax F* 30mm f/4.5 on BIF, Portraits and Bokeh

Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 On Terns

Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 On Humming Birds

Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 BIF Practice Shots

Photosniper Tair-3 PhS 300mm f/4.5 Humming Birds

Promaster 1.7x AF Teleconverter Pentax

Tamron 1.4x Pz-AF MC4 Teleconverter

BIF with Tamron 70-300 Di LD Macro

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