Biobliz

annie_r asks, " What is the bioblitz? did I miss something?" To which i must admit only a mind reader had a chance of knowing what i was talking about. National Geographic sponsors a bioblitz once a year, this year in the Golden Gate Recreation Area. Wonderful chance for that networking, etc.

But i'd rather go to table mountain (Flickr images).

And it seems registration for the bioblitz is closed, so i may have been disappointed had i decided otherwise.

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This morning a 500 mm reflector lens is up for bid at a starting price of $1. I bid so that the sum of the shipping and price would be $100 and beat the other two bidders, driving the price up to $2 something. I do not at all expect to win this lens as they usually go for $500+. However, maybe the "acceptable" condition instead of "good" will chase away the high price bidders. I recently read an article about how many visible issues with lenses have little to no effect on the quality of the images, so i'm happy to keep my fingers crossed.

A reflector lens has mirrors, so it can be dramatically lighter than many other similar telephotos and it doesn't have the chromatic aberrations. Apparently contrast is not as good. The main complaint seems to be the donut bokeh, where the out of focus points of light become rings instead of circular disks. This thread has an example of donut bokeh behind a sparrow -- my goodness what a beak on that sparrow!