Hin's Tech Corner

Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD in travel

I have the Tamron zoom for a long time and I still have it and put it into good use every time that I go for short trip. I normally would not like to bring more than three lens. For serious use on birding, I would use my better prime. For ease of use and lighter weight, I still use my Tamron zoom to a great degree. I use these 3-lens combination for casual traveling

to cover a focal range from 10mm to 300mm. And the Tamron zoom is always dependable in terms of sharpness and good close up for flowers.

travel shot with Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD Macro

Impressions & Notes

Quite good for traveling due to lighter weight
A good range only the Pentax DA 55-300mm will beat.
The close up for flowers and squirrel always come as a big plus for me in traveling
Speed is a bit limiting
What is annoying for me is the occasional fringing, mostly purple and sometime green. I see less fringing in K20D as others have suggested, but I mostly avoid it with f/8.0 and smaller apertures.
Another minor annoyance is the awkward switching back from macro back to normal mode. I switch to MF in body and turn focusing ring into normal focusing range and turn macro to normal switch on lens.

DJ shooting with Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4

DJ shot with Pentax FA 50 f/1.4 and Pentax K100D

I shot these DJ shots in a shopping mall where the DJ kindly let me take his pictures while he was serving music in a shoe store. I was using my Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4 and Pentax K100D. I was passionate in the shooting as I found the lighting extremely attractive. I wish I had more chances to shoot pictures for people. It was a memorable shoot.

Two years have passed. I still have the same passion in photography that I had before. I continuously find enthusiasm and excitement in the process of shooting people and nature. I am still very much the amateur like two years ago. But unlike the beginning, I am more confused than ever what I can afford to pursue in the passion. I worry too much and I can't follow my heart to do what I would like to pursue in life. I am obligated for financial support for my beloved family. And I am in a state of loss what I can try out next. I always look and quest for shooting better pictures but on the other hand, I lose touch with the purpose in the passion. Is it my destiny to be a photographer? Am I ready to take steps to become a freelance photographer? Would I be able to support my family? Would I get worse in spending less time with my family. I just have too many questions that I don't seem to have an answer with certainty, confidence and comfort.

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Labels: 50mm, DJ, f/1.4, fa, pentax k100d

hintheman website with iWeb

I managed to use iWeb to update my website within few hours of effort. There is minimal programming needed. I have not even touched a single line of HTML or JavaScript code. It is both nice and limited in terms what I can do in the page. Most pages are done in the nature of selecting a theme and duplicate page elements. I have used both the Flickr slide-show and that of Pictobrowser to compose Galleries. And I am experimenting similar slide-shows in the Portfolio section.

And I make use of Wowzio rss widgets to serve as a digest to my own authored blogs in Hin's Photo Blog and Hin's Tech Corner. I am thrilled with the results but I am a bit unsettled on the website for several important elements that are quite lacking in iWeb. Here are few of them:

No provision for sitemap.xml -- this will hamper search optimization
No editing option to add meta tags into html header
No support for guest book
No notion of a common header and footer where I can enter statcounter code properly

And here are few places that I have either found a solution and find tools and links that are worth visiting for iWeb related topics:

iweb-faq.org -- a great site with a lot of handy and useful tips
iTweak -- this will help the authoring of meta tags on home page
Adding guestbook to iWeb -- a great tip from iweb-faq.org
Adding forum to iWeb -- another great tip from iweb-faq.org

Labels: flickr, hintheman, iweb, pictobrowser, slideshow, website

Back Lighting with Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8

Beach Pictures with Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8

Pentax DA* 50-135mm is my go to lens when it comes to visiting beach in the weekend. I have forgotten to bring in my flash for fill-flash for earlier scenes when the sun's overhead position creates lots of shadows on portraits. When I see the back lighting scenes, I am all happy.

While in the beach shooting some dogs portraits with Mervy, I find a lot of missing bird shot opportunities due to the lack of rich in the DA* 50-135mm zoom. I love the DA* short zoom and I am thinking of the possibility in getting Pentax DA* 60-250mm, I would have made more shots with both the dogs and the birds in the visit if I have that longer reach to 250mm.

I should have brought in my flash for the fill light to lighten up the shadows on the face.

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Tamron Adaptall-2 P/KA Adapter

I have two copies of this P/KA adapter that works with Adaptall-2 lens. This PK/A can work with Auto aperture with Tamron adaptall-2 lens. My most recent copy is a brand new one. They are more expensive than the P/K adapter as they allow the Av mode saving the extra step in stop-down meterring. Though more expensive and harder to find a good copy to purchase, I will recommend this adapter over others.

There is one common caveat that happen to these PK/A adapters, I have problems with loose connection with both copies where the actual apertures in Av mode is not displayed and the maximum aperture that I can select in e-dial only goes to f/4.0 and not anything bigger. My first copy of the PK/A adapter refuses to go to f/3.5 for my 19AH zoom and I can't select f/2.5 for my 52BB macro. After many trials of cleaning the contacts, I gave up on my 1st adapter and sold it to others with full disclosure on the problems.

Many have reported to similar problems. Some reported success to perform minor scraping of screw heads with either a sharp knife or sand paper on the adapter. I have taken many trials and my problems is not totally gone as my problems of disappearing F/aperture still happens intermiddently with my 2nd copy of the adapter. The scraping may improve the connection between the electrical contacts with those in the K mount. With my 2nd copy, I manage to select f/3.5 for the 19AH zoom.

Many thought that there is a thin film of coating on the adapter that prevents the accurate connection with the electrical contacts. Others suggest a inaccurate mounting design that give rise to the loose connection. I still find occasional need to wiggle the lens mount to see the LCD display of the f/aperture in Av mode.

It is very unsettled to get an adapter that only goes to f/4.0 and I am yet to use the trick of adding a small piece of aluminum foil in between the adapter and the K mount and see if it improves the connection further.

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Labels: adaptall-2, adapter, p/ka, review, tamron