[alphan]

Originally Posted by Musoman

Having got it in the actions list, clicking the PFK doesnt seem to do anything - what is it i'm doing wrong

Took me a few attempts to get the PFK into actions folder but once done, it was so easy. Just a few click and viola... Here's what I did to your Pheasant and only took me just about 5 seconds.

[Paul Corfield]

Originally Posted by alphan

Excellent one Paul. Took me a while to get everything right but the results are "WOW"... Just can"t belief my eyes....and it was so easy.

Does that means we can all start collecting non ED scope of different sizes, use whichever one suit the circumstance then just use the PFK to get it right or are there other catch to it. Non ED scopes are so cheap.....

It's possible I suppose. Also important is the resolving power of the glass (how much detail the scope can resolve) and some manufacturers do say what the figure is for their particular brands. Also field flatness etc.

Paul.

[alphan]

Originally Posted by Musoman

Having got it in the actions list, clicking the PFK doesnt seem to do anything - what is it i'm doing wrong

You only missed a tiny part. After you clicked Purple Fringe Killer, go to the bottom of the box, you'll see the "Play" symbol as with any media player symbol, you actually see the "Pause", "Stop" and "Play" symbols. Click the play symbol and it's automatically done. Then if you still see more, give it another run LOL.

[FernandoBatista]

Originally Posted by alphan

Does that means we can all start collecting non ED scope of different sizes, use whichever one suit the circumstance then just use the PFK to get it right or are there other catch to it. Non ED scopes are so cheap.....

No, not really. ED scopes will still be the right choice.
Removing CA in software is nothing more than a clever way (some more than others) to desaturate the colors that are OOF for a given lens, roughly speaking.

But the real issue cause by longitudinal CA won’t get corrected. If you check RGB channels of an image shot with a non ED scope, you will see that each color channel is at a different focus point, mostly the blue channel will be very far off (in scope anyway). You can desaturate it all you want at the problematic points, making it less noticeable on the overall image, but the focus will never be in place for that given channel. The result from this will be a softer image than a shot from an ED lens, because the percentage that makes part of that channel will be out of focus.

Don’t know if I was able to make this clear but I have an hard time explaining this in English. I can show some samples of this if you wish.

[Musoman]

I will give that a go Paul and Al ..

Fernando, your english is perfect - no problem with your explanation.

Al, i wouldnt buy non ED just because of cheap cost. I'd rather have ED glass, but i'm very limited on finances.

[bluedubius]

Tree Swallow
Celestron 80 ED refractor
Nikon D2X camera
1/800 sec @ ISO400
less than 10 feet away

[Musoman]

I had a play with the Pheasant using the instructions from Paul / Al, and i really like this PFK action.

Alph, your attempt is good, but has lost the colour of the blue/green feathers around the neck so i tried to in a way that would keep them in

[bluedubius]

Tree Swallow - uncropped
Nikon D40
Celestron 80ED refractor
Kiron 2X teleconverter stacked with a GSO 2X ED Barlow
around 3600mm equivalent focal length (35mm)

From around 20 feet. The front of the head seemed to be more in focus than the back. Is that just due to the extremely narrow depth of field or my focusing?

Rick

[Musoman]

I would say at 20ft with 3600mm , you were going to lose DOF big time. The eye seems sharp, so your focus was excellent.

Lovely IQ with so much magnification. Even with just one 2x TC on my old 80ED, IQ looked awful

[Paul Corfield]

Originally Posted by Musoman

I would say at 20ft with 3600mm , you were going to lose DOF big time. The eye seems sharp, so your focus was excellent.

Lovely IQ with so much magnification. Even with just one 2x TC on my old 80ED, IQ looked awful

I'm surprised you let him get away with quoting crop factor musoman

Good photo Rick. The close distance means narrow depth of field plus the teleconverters/barlows will also narrow it some more.

Paul.

[bluedubius]

Originally Posted by Paul Corfield

I'm surprised you let him get away with quoting crop factor musoman

Good photo Rick. The close distance means narrow depth of field plus the teleconverters/barlows will also narrow it some more.

Paul.

Notice, I avoided that term . At least I didn't say it was like using a 3600mm lens on the camera...haha

[Musoman]

Well of course we all know its 2400mm in reality

[Paul Corfield]

Three different TN's on show here. All from around 9m (30 feet) range and all three TN's mounted close to the camera. All photos are uncropped.

1st photo - Canon 100-200mm TN - 1/640sec ISO800

2nd photo - Canon 80-200mm TN - 1/320sec ISO800

3rd photo - Miranda 75-300mm TN - 1/200sec ISO800

Paul.

[Musoman]

The feather detail is just fabulous in all 3 shots. Assuming you were in the same spot, as you say you shot from about 30ft, then what was the difference in the closer shots ?

Is it the telenegs giving more mag as the initial number goes down ? EG 100 / 80 / 75 or did the birds keep getting closer

[Paul Corfield]

All three from the same spot and same range. The mag goes up on the telenegatives with each photo. It's as you noted, that in general that the mag of the TN goes up as the first number in the lens size goes down. I've had some lenses that didn't follow this rule but in general most lenses do.

Paul.

[Paul Corfield]

Here's a couple of hovering Drone Flies taken with the SW80ED and Canon 100-200mm TN (1.5X mag), taken from around 6 or 7m range (20 feet). 1/250sec ISO800. Both are cropped about 50%.

Paul.

[bluedubius]

Originally Posted by Paul Corfield

Three different TN's on show here. All from around 9m (30 feet) range and all three TN's mounted close to the camera. All photos are uncropped.

1st photo - Canon 100-200mm TN - 1/640sec ISO800

2nd photo - Canon 80-200mm TN - 1/320sec ISO800

3rd photo - Miranda 75-300mm TN - 1/200sec ISO800

Paul.

Nice and sharp. Love the combination of colors. I still have a couple of telenegs to test as soon as I find something to mount them in.

Rick

[tbc]

Back to the PFK software issue, is there such a function in GIMP? Please advice.

This morning I went shooting, discovered that the centre focus point had somehow became retarded. I was aiming at a bird with black head and brown body basking in the morning sun (sunny day) right at the top of a bush. The background was like 15 metres away so I reckoned the contrast between the subject and background was good enough yet the AF confirm chip failed to fire off the shutter. Any explanations? Is there any setting issues here?

tbc

[Paul Corfield]

Originally Posted by tbc

Back to the PFK software issue, is there such a function in GIMP? Please advice.

tbc

A quick google search turned up a couple of possibilities.

Try here and here

Paul.

[Paul Corfield]

A Blue Tit with a mouthful of nest building material. I have a pair in the garden currently setting up home in a nest box I put up this year. They move in just a few hours after I put it up.

Literally just grabbed the scope and took the photo without having time to check the shutter speed so I had to do a lot of work in Lightroom to recover the RAW file. Quite like how the background came out though.

Uncropped from around 3m (10 feet) range.

[tbc]

Originally Posted by Paul Corfield

A quick google search turned up a couple of possibilities.

Try here and here

Paul.

Hi Paul,

Thanks a lot for pointing in the right direction. I will find time to download and test it out. Hope to salvage some shots.

tbc

[FernandoBatista]

Two shots from last weekend:

The beeeater is with the scope alone close to F/8, at 1/1000, ISO400. Right after sunrise.
The stork had the 2X TC, ISO400, 1/400 about half an hour later.

[Paul Corfield]

Took all of these using the front cover on the SW80ED stopping it down from 80mm to 50mm or F/12. Range for all of them was around 4m (13 feet). Robin only cropped very little and the drone flies are cropped a fair bit. I had 120mm of extension in the rear of the focuser to allow focusing down to around 3m.

Drone flies were all 1/640sec ISO800 and Robin 1/500sec ISO800.

[FernandoBatista]

Those flying flies are amazing, Paul. The first looks really good with that background.

[FernandoBatista]

Three flying storks from Sunday.
All with the scope alone. F/6, ISO 400, 1/3200.