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

Gedski
Posted 18/10/2014 - 11:36 Link
walt, reading your post made me think that I have done the wrong thing. Oh! too late now.

Right, I got out ay 09:00 this morning and rather dark and overcast it was to. I have posted three shots in my gallery and they are also in the wildlife gallery.

They are a vast improvement on yesterday's efforts but still a long way away from what I have been used to. The main thing I noticed is how high the ISO seems to have to be to get a shot.

I started off trying the AE lock button but I think I made a mess of it. I then put the camera into 'scene, moving target' mode and things got better. I made a note of these settings and then went over to Tv mode and the better of the three shots were taken in this manner.

I am sure that I have made a lot of mistakes this morning but I am finding it difficult to get the AE lock thing going. It really needs someone to physically show you how to do something a couple of times and then you are off.

One last thing. On my K-50 screen I got this message. 'Unable to write to memory card', I think that was right. I didn't have anything to make a note of it. I know it means that a picture has not been recorded but what does it mean in terms related to the camera and or my picture card? I am using Transcend 8GB, class 10, 600x, SDHC cards.

PS. All shots are shewn as taken with no 'additives'.

Jan.:
Edited by Gedski: 18/10/2014 - 11:39
stu62
Posted 18/10/2014 - 11:40 Link
Gedski wrote:
walt, reading your post made me think that I have done the wrong thing. Oh! too late now.

Right, I got out ay 09:00 this morning and rather dark and overcast it was to. I have posted three shots in my gallery and they are also in the wildlife gallery.

They are a vast improvement on yesterday's efforts but still a long way away from what I have been used to. The main thing I noticed is how high the ISO seems to have to be to get a shot.

I started off trying the AE lock button but I think I made a mess of it. I then put the camera into 'scene, moving target' mode and things got better. I made a note of these settings and then went over to Tv mode and the better of the three shots were taken in this manner.

I am sure that I have made a lot of mistakes this morning but I am finding it difficult to get the AE lock thing going. It really needs someone to physically show you how to do something a couple of times and then you are off.

One last thing. On my K-50 screen I got this message. 'Unable to write to memory card', I think that was right. I didn't have anything to make a note of it. I know it means that a picture has not been recorded but what does it mean in terms related to the camera and or my picture card? I am using Transcend 8GB, class 10, 600x, SDHC cards.

Jan.:

the more i read of this the more i am determind to fight the insurance company over my claim and get a k5 varient
JohnX
Posted 18/10/2014 - 13:49 Link
Just looking at the bif shots you've posted in the Gallery, are you using centre focus?

If so, it's really only the blackbird shot that has the target dead-centre.

Could it be that focus mode on your K50 is set up differently to how your Canon was?
Edited by JohnX: 18/10/2014 - 13:51
Gedski
Posted 18/10/2014 - 14:43 Link
JohnX wrote:
Just looking at the bif shots you've posted in the Gallery, are you using centre focus?

If so, it's really only the blackbird shot that has the target dead-centre.

Could it be that focus mode on your K50 is set up differently to how your Canon was?

JohnX, I started out using spot focus but then went over to centre weighted. All my shots this morning are with centre weighted. I'll go back to spot and see what happens.

I would imagine that the two cameras focus modes are set up differently but I don't really know.

stu62, Forgive my ignorance but what is a k-5 variant?


Jan.
Edited by Gedski: 18/10/2014 - 14:45
JohnX
Posted 18/10/2014 - 15:36 Link
It could be we are both on the same page, but 'spot' and 'centre weighted' refers to metering; I'm talking focus
johnriley
Posted 18/10/2014 - 16:04 Link
Quote:
Forgive my ignorance but what is a k-5 variant?


It's just shorthand for the K-5, K-5 II and K-5 IIs models.
Best regards, John
Gedski
Posted 18/10/2014 - 18:15 Link
[quote:3496ace15f="JohnX"]It could be we are both on the same page, but 'spot' and 'centre weighted' refers to metering; I'm talking focus [/quote

Oops! I wonder if that is part of my problem. I'm a little confused about how to set up metering as distinct from focusing, if you see what I mean. I don't see spot focusing in the manual although I'll bet that it is there, somewhere.

As today as progressed so some of my shots have. I'll put one or two in my gallery. Many thanks for your assistance. I'll get there in the end, won't I?

Jan.
Gedski
Posted 18/10/2014 - 18:16 Link
johnriley wrote:
Quote:
Forgive my ignorance but what is a k-5 variant?


It's just shorthand for the K-5, K-5 II and K-5 IIs models.

And I wonder why I struggle! Thanks johnriley.

Jan.
spinno
Posted 18/10/2014 - 19:27 Link
On a camera there is generally speaking
Spot metering, partial metering, centre weighted, and evaluative (they're the 4 I know best)
With focusing it's a case of choosing how many points and which points you use. You could choose just one point, albeit on any of the Red Arrows in what Mrs S calls the Red Arrow formation of AF points in viewfinder, or you could use a multiplicity of points if your camera is geared up to do so.
You could even focus manually
David
walt
Posted 18/10/2014 - 21:28 Link
Gedski wrote:
walt, reading your post made me think that I have done the wrong thing. Oh! too late now.

Right, I got out ay 09:00 this morning and rather dark and overcast it was to. I have posted three shots in my gallery and they are also in the wildlife gallery.

They are a vast improvement on yesterday's efforts but still a long way away from what I have been used to. The main thing I noticed is how high the ISO seems to have to be to get a shot.

I started off trying the AE lock button but I think I made a mess of it. I then put the camera into 'scene, moving target' mode and things got better. I made a note of these settings and then went over to Tv mode and the better of the three shots were taken in this manner.

I am sure that I have made a lot of mistakes this morning but I am finding it difficult to get the AE lock thing going. It really needs someone to physically show you how to do something a couple of times and then you are off.

One last thing. On my K-50 screen I got this message. 'Unable to write to memory card', I think that was right. I didn't have anything to make a note of it. I know it means that a picture has not been recorded but what does it mean in terms related to the camera and or my picture card? I am using Transcend 8GB, class 10, 600x, SDHC cards.

PS. All shots are shewn as taken with no 'additives'.

Jan.:

The weather never plays nice when I have a new camera or lens to test either.
I don't have the K-50 but maybe its similar to my K-30 menu. On the rear af button settings, under 'button customization' select enable af2 (af with shutter release button is disabled so af is performed with the af/ae-l button). I use it this way other than the cancel af modes others use because I find it more logical in my brain to press to af rather than release to af.
About the card error I've never had that, but if you haven't already I'd reformat the card in the camera, after you've saved the photos of course. Don't reformat on the PC only on the camera.
With regard to the centre af and metering questions: on my K-30 if you press the info button when in any of the P,Sv,Tv,Av,Tav,M modes the info screen allows you to set the 'AF Active area' to spot, select, auto 5 and auto 11. This info screen also allows you to set the metering mode, AE Metering, to Multi-segment, center-weighted or spot. I know spot is the term used in both, which doesn't help!
As I now use Pentax again you'll see I think it is still better overall than my Canon, the summary of my reasons are
Camera and Telephoto lens combo are smaller with Pentax
Lifting the shadows is far better in pentax which is often required for under the wings of birds in flight against the sky etc
All models have AF micro adjust for lens to camera calibration, Canon only provides this for top end models.
Walt
My newer photos google photos
My older Flickr photos Flickr
Even older ones Picasa
richandfleur
Posted 19/10/2014 - 05:06 Link
Agree, I have a K-30 and there are centre modes for both metering and focussing. With both you have to be right on the centre with your target for it to meter and focus from it correctly.

Frankly I find birding on the Pentax tricky, and focus systems and smarts (such as tracking/predictive) quite poor compared to the major two of Canon and Nikon. There are plusses in other areas, but if I'm honest, I don't think Pentax fares very well in this regard across any of it's models. The K-3 made a big song and dance about it's new and improved focusing abilities but the vibe around this seems to have died down once people have started using it.

I also agree about needing to crank the ISO up quite high to get the shutter speeds I need for this sort of thing, but I'm unsure how this could be any different with other brands with the same sized sensor?

VERY keen to hear how you get on, so I can copy the results
I don't get out enough to refine this quickly myself. I tried taking some shots of swallows, who were fast but flying in predictive paths. It was a nightmare and I got quite angry out in the wetlands with that one!

For larger stuff I haven't had a problem with the K-30's focussing ability, but for me it struggles with birds. I'm travelling to
Queenstown in a few weeks and am really looking forward to taking the K-30. I'll be looking at mostly static objects, so there's no other camera I'd rather be taking. (Well Pentax camera at least).
Gedski
Posted 19/10/2014 - 12:39 Link
Wow! walt and richandfleur. Thank you very much for the information. I shall come back to it after the 'footy' on the tv.

For now, I've been out this morning and took 218 shots. Of these around 190 were BIF. I got only around five in focus. I have posted my best 'still' and 'moving' shots, only one of each, into the galleries.

Just one question for now. When I'm doing BIF shots I have the camera anti shake option on. I have a feeling it should be off. Help!

Jan.
Gedski
Posted 19/10/2014 - 18:39 Link
Ok! Back again.

walt. I now have metering set to centre weighted and AF focus to spot. I also have seen the shadow and put mine onto medium, does that make sense? Thanks for the assistance.

richandfleur. Birds in flight. I have only got to this stage early this afternoon.

1. I have turned off the in camera shake reduction. I think that is correct. Up until then I had it turned on. What I found in the dozen or so shots that I took can be seen in my gallery. It is a seagull landing facing away from the camera. This bird was about eighty yards or so away. I have zoomed in by about 30%, otherwise the shot is as taken.

2. I have also found that on the first attempt to focus with the Pentax 55-300mm lens, the lens will hunt. Let it do it and on the second hunt it will focus. Keep your shutter button half pressed and when the subject is in the screen, take the shot.

I've only done this a few times so I'll have to have another go to make sure. It seemed to work with the seagull shot. Thanks for your help as well.
Jan.
JohnX
Posted 19/10/2014 - 22:42 Link
Quote:
I now have metering set to centre weighted and AF focus to spot.

I'd try setting focus to AF [5 AF points]-see page 104 of the manual.

Unless you can hold your 'target' in the dead-centre of the viewfinder whilst panning then you'll likely miss focus using 'spot'.

Looking at your photos in most cases your subject - a bif - is off centre, so if you're using 'spot' focus that may be why you're missing focus so often.
richandfleur
Posted 20/10/2014 - 01:25 Link
Yeah if only the very centre focus point is used then it simply has to be on the object in question, likewise with metering. I agree with JohnX that the auto 5 is definitely worth a go. For something very small then full autofocus is likely to nail the background or sky most of the time, so you do want to try to limit it down a bit. Likewise with the metering. In both cases I wouldn't opt for full screen, and would chose a centre weighted option.

If not it's very likely to try to focus to infinity each time, as this is essentially where you're pointing it.

There used to be some very good comparisons between Pentax and other brands with regards to focusing times/abilities. That info is now quite old and I haven't seen any recent work done on this front.

For a while it seemed Pentax was prioritising accuracy over speed, which meant that it would often overshoot and then back up to be very precise with the final focus. By contrast others would go straight to the spot in one quick movement, but test results showed they were often off target by a certain distance. However, with a wider depth of field selected this often didn't matter. Pros and cons to either method, even more so when speed really is the priority with your subject matter.
Edited by richandfleur: 20/10/2014 - 01:27

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