Hin's Photo Corner: hiking

Showing posts with label hiking. Show all posts

Hiking with Tamron SP 500mm f/8.0 adaptall-2 55BB Mirror Lens

2010-10-18 Posted by Hin Man

I am finding my mono-pod having an important role in my hiking with heavy and long lens. Our family went to hiking in the same park on both Sunday and Monday. The Monday's hike had a purpose as my wife's lost one of the glass in the hiking trail and my younger boy vividly recall a piece of circular glass on the hiking trail. All pictures taken with Pentax K20D and Tamron SP 500mm f/8.0 adaptall-2 55BB on a mono-pod.

Hiking with Tamron 500mm f/8.0 adaptall-2 55BB Mirror Lens

It is easier for me to catch up with my faster family who ran ahead of me searching for the missing glass.

And my older boy has a tendency in avoiding and running away from my camera.

The lens allow me to see farther objects in a good distance as in 50 feet and it allow me to see a view with detail on interesting crop on unnoticed objects in a distance

The doughnut bokeh can be annoying to some and I find it distracting at times but there are few exceptions that I ran into recent shooting. You can see all the donuts bokeh rings about sunset timing and I quite like the doughnut bokeh in the sunset lighting -- very unique.

The off focus rendering can be artistic and I really love my inability to focus on MF on this shot

And I love these two shots of my older boy though they are not perfectly in focus, the off focus rendering is soft and blend in well without the distraction

And I can make a still shot of animals such as a goose in a distance

And close up with this mirror lens quite usable as long as the background is farther away from the subject. When background is too close, I do see harsh bokeh and sometime the doughnut bokeh do happen especially if you look for them.

Impressions & Notes

For readers who have an interest in mirror lens, I will try to sum up the experience and a caution to set the expectation correct

It is important to find the brand that is recommended by trusted sources. I will concentrate on Tamron 55B, 55BB adaptall-2, Sigma cat 400mm f/5.6 and 600mm f/8.0 and Tokina 500mm f/8.0 and perhaps few others
Doughnut bokeh are there. Some can be distracting especially when the background object is at a close distance.
MF is the key thing in getting the shots. The beauty in the mirror lens lies in small size and compact form factor. This misleads me to use it hand-held. However, the best pictures and better keeper ratio does come from the use with mono-pod. With the extra investment, you will enjoy the mirror lens UP a notch or two.
The speed at f/8.0 is not meant for fast moving objects. You will be disappointed when you compare the mirror lens to a good f/5.6 in 400mm in shooting objects in a distance with fast movement.
Lower contrast and flat color on pictures are some of the factors that turn people off from mirror lens. I will have some bragging rights on the Tamron 55BB as the color and contrast are at a different camp when compared to the Vivitar 500mm f/8.0 that I previously owned. Don't cheap out in getting a $80 mirror lens as it is not even worth $8.0 for the shipping fee.
There is no fringing in mirror lens as far as I know
Tamron 55BB is a later version after the 55B. And 55BB doesn't have a tripod mount. I find it alright to use the tripod mount on camera and it is an non-issue when I use my 55BB.
Perhaps more to come when I remember them

Hiking with Tamron 200mm f/3.5 adaptall-2 04B

2010-09-13 Posted by Hin Man

My family did hiking on the same park with Bayfront Park in Palo Alto for two consecutive days and we went on the 2nd time to help my wife looking for her left missing glass fallen off during the hike and we also visited Capitola Art & Wine Festival and had a great time both in the beach and the venues with art display and music events. In both occasions, I had my Pentax K20D with Tamron 200mm f/3.5 adaptall-2 04B and I find the small 200mm very much to my liking for a longer lens that is easy to carry due to its small form factor and smaller size compared to other 200mm that I know. Though it is not fast as in f/2.8, it has plenty to offer as a 200mm lens. This is a non-sp tamron adaptall-2 lens but I don't notice any difference in terms of color and coating.

I absolutely fell in love with the sunset lighting half way through our hiking. My family were ahead of me as I was overwhelmed as usual with the spectacular view that only lasted in minutes before the sun drops below the mountain horizon.

I purposely focused on the branches

I always enjoy running into dog's owner and I always ask for permission to take their dog's pictures. I love dogs and cats and I can't think of a pet that I don't like. But I am sure I will find one. As for Beca's case, it is unique lap dog as she is a lovely female lap for 11 years and she is mellow, kind but very active like a 1 year old. As soon as I learned about the age, I offered my amateur service for free as I would love the dog owner to have more portraits with Beca. And I shot a series with Beca and the photos are on its ways to the owner. They loved the preview of Beca's photos as some of them show a different smile and gesture of Beca. More in this flickr slide-show with Beca. I should have changed lens to the 43mm and had extra for the owner and dog portraits but my family was waiting for me.

This lens works well in music event that allow you to have a compressed view on the performer

And I use this lens to catch up with my family who usually runs ahead of me

Impressions & Notes

This lens is non-sp in the adaptall-2 lens series
I find focusing smooth but harder to obtain focus when I use it on film body. Best use of this lens is on a mono-pod
This is not the sharpest 200mm that I have used but very good in overall performance.
Best character in this lens lie in its small form factor and lightweight
It comes with a built in lens hood
It does have flare issue when aiming directly at the sun but reasonably good otherwise
Color and depth is great in shooting portraits from a distance. The bokeh is lovely at the right setting especially when background objects are farther apart.
Great color and contrast that I get from this lens.

Hiking with Tamron SP 28-135mm adaptall-2 28A

2009-03-19 Posted by Hin Man

I bought Tamron SP 28-135mm f/4.0-4.5 adaptall-2 (28A) from forum friend Ryanwho priced it low for me to enjoy my first adaptall-2 zoom lens.

Initially, I was not too impressed as not having a lens hood seem to yield picture of flatter contrast. I bought a 67mm 3-stage lens hood, added a Hoya UV filter and tried it again on the weekend. The lens is pretty decent and it has a very usable range. Sharpness is decent. And it allows A aperture if you have the adaptall-2 pk/a adapter. I don't see a lot of discussion on this lens, but I find it a good manual zoom that covers a good focal range. It is on the heavy side and though it has a 1:4 close up, its minimal focusing distance is about 6 feet and I wish it is shorter than that.