The instant before touchdown, a very lucky shot; also bluebird aerodynamics, another lucky shot.

[Fumesucker]

I can't believe how good this shot of a Tufted Titmouse is, an M42 Vivitar 135mm f2.8 on a 2x Totally Off the Wall M42 teleconverter running at about a total f11 (f5.6 on the lens), 1/1250 at ISO 400 on my Sony A100 with an M42 adapter. Cheapo lens, cheapo teleconverter, flabbergasting shot. I was just goofing around and expected nothing but Gumby soft images from this combination, imagine my surprise when the results were this good. (actually, with the Vivitar wide open the shots *were* pretty darn fuzzy).

Take that, equipment snobs, a Vivitar. ;)





Going through some of my old shots I found this one that shows an Eastern Bluebird also coming in for a landing, the curved aerodynamic shape of his wings is plainly evident in this image. This was also my A100 1/240 at ISO 200 and I'm not sure of the lens or f stop, probably my Sears M42 200mm f3.5 at about f7 or so..

And yeah, I know I processed it a bit too much, I'm on another computer and don't have access to the original at this very moment since I suck at networking and haven't got the wireless client bridge on our image processing computer working yet and the shop is locked up right now.



Edited fer stupidity on the part of the poster.

[mth44sc]

1. Wowzer

that fisrt one is suck a keeper!

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Those are great.

I love the first one especially.

[Dallas Dem]

3. Another wonderful landing......

........we may have to start calling you Captain "Sully." :-)

I always like seeing your pictures, since we use the same camera.......it's fun to see what can be done with it, in someone else's hands. And you never disappoint.

Thanks!

[Fumesucker]

7. -Blush-

I just push the shutter button a *lot*.. I burned over thirteen gigs of images to DVD the other day and that was just since the beginning of the year.

Have I mentioned how much I like digital imaging lately?

Back in the film days I used to count every shutter press, today I rock 'n roll on it. :)

[Celebration]

4. That first picture is AMAZING n/t

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. we have equipment snobs here?

they must keep their heads low, because for a photography forum, this one is amazingly free of measurebators

[Fumesucker]

6. Actually I don't think we do..

Hence the smilie..

To me the results are all that counts, how you do it is important, what you use I couldn't care less about if the results are good.

I put in what I use to show that equipment really doesn't matter all that much in order to encourage those without elaborate and expensive gear.

[Celebration]

8. once I remember someone asked you

how you got a particular shot. So, since then you have sometimes included the information in your original posts.

It's all above my pay grade, so to speak, but I bet it means something to some people here.

I appreciated the tip about my blackbird picture. I think we are all here to learn.

[Fumesucker]

9. I looked up your camera..

That's actually a very nice piece of equipment..

I learned something about high end point and shoot cameras like the one you have a little while back, you want to leave the "in camera" sharpening turned on because the manufacturers tailor the sharpening to the specific lens that goes on the camera. Not all lenses act the same in terms of how they degrade the light that passes through them, if you know exactly how a specific lens degrades the images you can compensate for that degradation in software (or firmware as the case may be). This is done routinely in astronomical image processing and the techniques are well understood (not necessarily by me :) ).

I'm in the process of readying a post on how we can use astronomical image processing freeware to compensate for image degradation by a particular lens combination on cameras with interchangable lenses, it will involve lasers, Christmas ornaments and of course computers. To me this sort of thing is exciting because it will allow those of us with less than stellar equipment to equal or near the performance of very high end gear with a little extra effort.

http://astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm

[Celebration]

10. Something just came to me suddenly

You are a................CAMERA GEEK. :)

[Fumesucker]

11. Scratch "camera"

Just "geek" is more accurate.. :)

Intermittent combustion engines, audio gear, computers, pretty much anything technological.

And it's usually about getting the most bang for a meager buck.

[NashVegas]

12. Ha!

Only Vivitars I ever used were their 28 mms, used to be all over eBay. Got one cheap, thought it was okay, but nothing to write home about. That's a gorgeous shot, though.


You have inspired me, though, to finally get off my backside and get an adapter for my Fujinons, which have been sitting on a closet shelf for two years - so thanks for that.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

13. still the very best macro lens available

at least many consider it so is a vivitar....

it came in a few variations, some more expensive because they had the designer's name on them, Lester Dine... but the vivitar series 1 105 2.5 is a substantial chunk of glass, and is no joke

[Fumesucker]

15. My best telephoto right now is a Sears, of all things..

A 200mm f3.5 in M42 mount, it's a bit soft wide open but very sharp stopped to f5.6 .

I have my eye on a 300mm f4 Super Takumar, also in M42 mount. The prices on modern APO lenses are enough to give an old cheapskate like me a conniption fit. A bit of reading on the 300 f4 reveals that it is very sharp at f4.5, that's fast enough for my purposes.

Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to sell to raise the money for a new lens. :)

[Mira]

14. I would have so very much wanted a camera in my hand, to take a picture of your face,

when you realized what you had in that first shot.
YES !

edited for clarity of sentiment

[Fumesucker]

16. Yeah, my jaw dropped and then I started hopping up and down in my chair, squealing like a kid.

Here is the full frame and then a full res crop.

My brother says I should send the shot to Birds and Blooms magazine, they print reader images regularly. I dunno, after looking at some of the shots there I feel a bit intimidated. :o

http://www.birdsandblooms.com/default.aspx?r_d=y