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First 'go' with the K-50, Oh! Dear!

Mike-P
Posted 17/10/2014 - 18:26 Link
Chrism8 wrote:
That's what I've been doing,

Keep them both pressed at the same time, the auto focus follows the subject much much quicker and accurate, you'll still need to nail your exposure which may mean manual, compensation or metering from the grass or similar.

I'm guessing not with a 55-300mm though?
Chrism8
Posted 17/10/2014 - 18:29 Link
Pjy123 wrote:
May I ask what camera setting your using as I have a k500 with that lens,have to agree it hunts a lot and my pics do come out dark a lot of the time too.

Hi pjy123,

I'd upped the ISO to around 800, the K5 iis is excellent at that sort of setting, using a sigi 70 - 200 F2.8 at around F5.6 / 6.3 with a shutter speed close to 1/1250 sec.
Chris

www.chrismillsphotography.co.uk

" A Hangover is something that occupies the Head you neglected to use the night before".

-------------------------------------------------------------
K1 - Sigma 85mm F1.4, Pentax DFA 150 -450 F4.5 / 5.6, Pentax DFA* 24 - 70 F2.8

Samyang 14mm F2.8, Pentax DFA* 70-200 F2.8, Pentax A 50mm F1.2

K3iii + K3ii + K5iis converted to IR, Sigma 17 - 70 F2.8, Pentax 55 - 300 F4.5 / F5.6 PLM
Gedski
Posted 17/10/2014 - 19:18 Link
Chris, I've just been through your shots as well and very good they are too. Were they taken using a 55-300mm lens?

This thought just entered my mind. If I put the K-50 into 'auto' mode, or 'P' mode, shouldn't I then get a decent shot regardless? Then by using the settings as a guide, then get another decent shot by using manual? Or does it not work like that?

I'm back out in the a.m. around 08:00 at a local park and boating lake. I intend to stay for about four hours or until I get at least one wretched shot correct. I can't believe the K-50 and the 'new' 55-300 lens can't do better than today's efforts.

Jan.
Edited by Gedski: 17/10/2014 - 19:18
Chrism8
Posted 17/10/2014 - 19:56 Link
No, as mentioned above a sigi 70 -200, u would be much better in TV, shutter priority and upping the ISO to at least 400 and looking from there, go to 800 if required.
Chris

www.chrismillsphotography.co.uk

" A Hangover is something that occupies the Head you neglected to use the night before".

-------------------------------------------------------------
K1 - Sigma 85mm F1.4, Pentax DFA 150 -450 F4.5 / 5.6, Pentax DFA* 24 - 70 F2.8

Samyang 14mm F2.8, Pentax DFA* 70-200 F2.8, Pentax A 50mm F1.2

K3iii + K3ii + K5iis converted to IR, Sigma 17 - 70 F2.8, Pentax 55 - 300 F4.5 / F5.6 PLM
McBrian
Posted 17/10/2014 - 20:11 Link
Chrism8 wrote:
u would be much better in TV, shutter priority and upping the ISO to at least 400 and looking from there, go to 800 if required.

Is that not what TAv mode is for?

Set the auto ISO limit to 100-3200 (or whatever noise limit you can live with) and you have complete control of aperture and shutter as long as a correct exposure is within the set limits.

I'm not a great bird shooter but I've had some decent results with my old screw driven Sigma 70-200 (was Mike-P's) with and with out the HD1.4x, it is faster focusing than both my DA*300 and Sigma 150-500.
Cheers
Brian.
LBA is good for you, a Lens a day helps you work, rest and play.
Edited by McBrian: 17/10/2014 - 20:17
Pjy123
Posted 17/10/2014 - 20:49 Link
I use tv mode and 800-3200 iso with the 55-300 lens have a look at my red kite pic. Hope this helps
Pjy123
Posted 17/10/2014 - 20:52 Link
Just looked at your pics Chris there very good
spinno
Posted 17/10/2014 - 20:56 Link
Gedski wrote:

percy, I can't see anything in the manual that refers to turn off shutter half press. Are you saying that I fully press the shutter at the same time as the AF button but do not half press the shutter first?

Jan.

what you have to do is assign the AF function to the AF/AE-L button. This then stops the shutter button from autofocussing... unfortunately I no longer have the K 50 but on the K 500 it's in Button Customisation which is on page 4 of the camera shooting settings on the camera (turn the camera on, press the menu button, go to page 4 with the camera icon, enter Button Customization and select AF/AE-L enable AF1. If you enable AF 2 this disables the shutter button)
hth
David
richandfleur
Posted 17/10/2014 - 21:07 Link
With this stuff there is both not much to adjust and an awful lot to adjust

Basics, we'd want a fast shutter speed, and an aperture with a wideish depth of field to make focus less critical. Thinking 1/1000 and f 8 - f 12 sort of thing. Too closed down say f 16 - f22 and there wont be much light coming in and a slower shutter speed or higher ISO will be required.

ISO should be safe in the 1600 range, maybe 3200 but I wouldn't go any higher than that.

Pick a mode that gives you the control over all of this. TAv sounds a nice fit, with the camera floating the ISO to suit the metering.

Now, from there we're onto the small but critical stuff.
Focus points? Maybe auto 5, which selects from a bit wider than just the middle?
Metering modes. I'd go centre weighted, as spot can be quite risky at times. Override this if centre weighted is still too dark, +1 for instance.

Speed set to high burst, RAW only should allow you to pull something back if the metering is not spot on.

Basics of support and stance when you take the shot to reduce movement. Movement can show as not in focus if you're not careful and vice versa.

Personally I wouldn't have any UV filters on the end of my lens either, but that's just me. In fact all of the above is just me, and I'm fully open to ideas from others who shoot birds more than me. I have the K-30 and the above are some ideas based on my experience, with a lesser quality Tamron lens than the Pentax 50-300 also.

Focus ability though is unfortunately not the K-30/K-50/Pentax in generals strong point against the competition. There is very little predictive tracking ability, which does rather make this sort of thing a bit tricky. Other lenses have focus limiting switches to limit the hunting to just the area that's likely to be required from the outset also.

Good luck.
Pjy123
Posted 17/10/2014 - 21:12 Link
Thanks spinno and richard
Gedski
Posted 17/10/2014 - 21:32 Link
Pjy123 wrote:
I use tv mode and 800-3200 iso with the 55-300 lens have a look at my red kite pic. Hope this helps

The red kite shots are super. They have given me encouragement to keep going. Thank you.

Also my thanks to the rest of you guys. I will get back to you all over the weekend.

richandfleur, you've given me something to soak up there.

Jan.
percy
Posted 17/10/2014 - 21:40 Link
Gedski wrote:
percy wrote:
Quote:
Try shooting with your thumb on the AF button, on the right of the screen at the same time as your forefinger the shutter release, I've only tried this technique recently and have achieved the best in flight shots I've ever achieved and shot a motor rally last week with 100% accuracy.

That's a technique I've been using recently, and I'm finding I seem to be getting more consistent results - but unfortunately not in the same league as Chris's shots though. I need much more practice
Don't forget to turn off the shutter half press if you try this.

percy, I can't see anything in the manual that refers to turn off shutter half press. Are you saying that I fully press the shutter at the same time as the AF button but do not half press the shutter first?

Jan.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the K-50, but I'm pretty sure it has an autofocus button on the back. I would guess that if you go through your camera's menu you'll find a button customisation option, which will allow you to turn off the half press for auto focus on the shutter release button.

Many people seem to prefer that setup (and it's one which I'm starting to prefer) because it makes it easier to focus and re-compose your picture without having to keep the shutter half press held down. In also find it works better with continuous focus when tracking a mocving subject.

There are a number of discussions about this if you hunt around, such as http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/249868-disabling-shutter-relea... which may help, and probably help explain it better than I can.
spinno
Posted 17/10/2014 - 21:51 Link
percy wrote:
Gedski wrote:
Quote:
Chrism8 wrote:
Try shooting with your thumb on the AF button, on the right of the screen at the same time as your forefinger the shutter release, I've only tried this technique recently and have achieved the best in flight shots I've ever achieved and shot a motor rally last week with 100% accuracy.

That's a technique I've been using recently, and I'm finding I seem to be getting more consistent results - but unfortunately not in the same league as Chris's shots though. I need much more practice
Don't forget to turn off the shutter half press if you try this.

percy, I can't see anything in the manual that refers to turn off shutter half press. Are you saying that I fully press the shutter at the same time as the AF button but do not half press the shutter first?

Jan.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the K-50, but I'm pretty sure it has an autofocus button on the back. I would guess that if you go through your camera's menu you'll find a button customisation option, which will allow you to turn off the half press for auto focus on the shutter release button.

Many people seem to prefer that setup (and it's one which I'm starting to prefer) because it makes it easier to focus and re-compose your picture without having to keep the shutter half press held down. In also find it works better with continuous focus when tracking a mocving subject.

There are a number of discussions about this if you hunt around, such as http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/249868-disabling-shutter-relea... which may help, and probably help explain it better than I can.


see my answer further up the page..
David
walt
Posted 17/10/2014 - 22:41 Link
I've been shooting with pentax for over 30 years and a couple of years back was tired of missing birds in flight shots, so I had a brief foray into Canon world to see if it was me or the Pentax. I can say from that it's definitely pentax, the Canon would nail shots I could only dream of with Pentax. Even with it's cheap consumer 55-250 lens it was amazing, plus metering seemed better for them also. I'm back with Pentax now, K-30 and it's an improvement but still struggles to match birds in flight with the Canon (30D). However it's still something I very much enjoy so I persevere with the following settings (which I've saved in one of the custom modes):
Turn off SR
Assign AF to the rear af button and disable from shutter release
Use TAv dependant on birds I'll vary shutter speed but for the quicker ones around 1/1600 is a good start
Metering tends to be multi with a bit of +ev dependant on lighting
AF-C, drive mode Hi
Single (centre) af point
Then get the bird in the viewfinder, half press the shutter release to start metering etc, but don't press the af button until the bird is over the centre spot, this stops the lens hunting and usually heads straight to the bird. If it does hunt or loose focus keep the af button pressed and move the camera until the out of focus bird is over the centre spot and it will usually lock on and then stop hunting. It's a lot easier if the background is sky it's much trickier if the background is trees etc.
This is the technique I use for my faster focusing lenses, i.e. the Pentax FA*300 4.5 and the Tamron 70-300 LD Di. However with my new Pentax 55-300WR the lens is so slow that if it starts to hunt I stop af, turn the focus ring to infinity and try again. Actually I also started to use manual focus a lot more with this lens and birds in flight, with the added bonus that the FPS gets a lot closer to 6FPS.
I do hope BIF's are not what you gave up Canon for though.
Walt
My newer photos google photos
My older Flickr photos Flickr
Even older ones Picasa
dcweather
Posted 17/10/2014 - 23:16 Link
As I said before when you were asking - the K50 is a great camera but it is a pipe dream to think it will focus like the budget Canon 700D I go birding with my friend all the time and he has the 700D with a Sigma 150-500mm and he gets better shots consistently than I do with a K3 and the same lens. It doesn't mean you can't, it is just much harder. If you look in the gallery I got some good shots of Red Kites today but they are not that challenging to capture being slow flying and he still got more action shots.
Don't be discouraged though, the K50 has other benefits and you will get great shots. Check my gallery (or Blythmans's or others for encouragement)
Dave

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