K-5 Anti Shake

Hi folks

I've always left the Anti-Shake on my K-5s. For a while now I've noticed some pics blurred even though I Know focus is spot on and shutter speed is very fast. 1/1000 or over.

I've now sussed out why ....

A lot of my shooting style is "See it, Autofocus it and snap it" - however after investigation it seems the AS can't keep up with this

To test I put the camera in live view so I could see the AS in action and swiftly moved the camera a few degrees. I watched the sensor overshoot and in a damped fashion take about 1 ro 2 seconds to centralise and become stable.

On Saturday I went to London and shot the Slutwalk, Naked Bike Ride and some in Hyde park ( pic sets to come )

I deliberately disabled the AS unless it was needed for slow shutter speeds. From a brief scan of the London shoot I can see a huge improvement in the number of keepers. Dammit I had to reject a large number of pics from my recent shoots

What the K-5 needs is a parameter to set the AS to only come on when the shutter speeds requires it. In the meantime must remember to turn it on and off as required.

If you're one of those peeps who takes their time to compose a shot I guess it won't affect you, but I literally point and shoot - Its' the movement from the pointing that throws the sensor into motion.

Hope that helps someone, and if it's common knowledge then oh well

Fair point, and of course SR does nothing for moving subjects either. We still need high shutter speeds to arrest movement, but at least the noise level is now lower so higher ISO values can be set.

I must admit I practically gave up on SR, especially when using a TC for wildlife on the DA*300 and the camera still works on 300mm instead of 450 or 510mm. I still use it for deliberately composed shots at slow shutter speeds such as this:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/photo/user-5966/mobile-shop-30163

I've been told that a lot of pro sports/wildlife photogs switch IS or VR off when working as it complicates the issue. You can't beat high shutter speeds IMHO.

John

Smeggy i've been annoyed by this issue too. Did you find the sensor took longer to settle down than it takes for the antishake hand symbol to appear, or is it just that the process takes longer than the autofocus?

I think being able to set the antishake to kick in on low shutter speeds is a fantastic idea. And wouldn't it be great to have an external antishake on/off switch?

I'd like a firmware update to manually override SR settings so I could set in a multiplier for SR, 4 options in the menu 1.4x, 1.5x, 1.7x and 2x. That should cover all TC's in use and optimise SR for the focal length actually in use

John

As someone new to dslr I had assumed SR would be a good thing and should be used whenever possible. Some of my pictures so seem soft on occasions, although this may be me! As a rough guideline what speeds would you suggest the SR becomes unnecessary?

It would depend on the focal length of the lens, the longer the FL the more any slight hand movement is magnified e.g. 300mm = 6 times that of 50mm.

John

I used to notice problems with SR on wide lenses 10-20mm, 12-24mm etc. so stopped using it on WA. Never noticed any problems with tele's though.

On the Sigma lenses you actually see through the viewfinder when it's settled.

Built in lens SR is not really a very good idea. For a beginner they will never even try to hold a lens steady and for the more advanced user they will eventually slip into poor holding technique

Algi, I think the in lens OS on the Sigma 150-500 is a fabulous tool. Can't understand why anyone would say its not a very good idea. It has enabled me to shoot at 1/20 sec on what is a monster lens.

As to the Pentax SR, it clearly states that you need to wait for the indicator to show in the viewfinder before taking the shot. If focusing, and re-composing, then it will slow it downas it has to try and do the job twice.

Alan, I like the Sigma SR, but it hides my bad technique
I'll never be able to hold a 500mm lens without it..... It's like learning to ride a bike using a 4 wheeler.... you'd never be able to ride a 2 wheeler

But thats a bit like AF, or auto metering, or post processing.

Think it would benefit most people if they went out with something like a Pentax MX without a battery, and a seperate light meter (or maybe not even a light meter at all). And shoot a couple of rolls of slide film.

If nothing else they may find that f/1.7 is a bigger aperture than f/16. so many don't appear to understand this fundamental fact.

SR mechanisms are fine when the camera is intended to be held still and the subject is still. They don't help at all with rapidly moving objects, panning, and probably much of sports photography.

Even a simple picture of a flower, which may be moving in the wind, can be an action photograph.

With close ups, limited DOF is the problem, so keeping the camera still with SR is still second best to using a firm tripod. We tend to waver backwards and forwards, so the point of focus shifts very easily when hand held.

Precisely! and how many people do you come across who can't MF without a split image screen or use a meter properly Even the people testing cameras in magazines can't meter correctly

The old rule of thumb is to use a shutter speed equal or faster than 1/focal length. E.g. for a 50mm lens use 1/50 s or faster.

I think once it has kicked in the SR works very well, it's just that half second when it starts up I think. Using SR in video mode or live view (where it is always 'on') you can really see how movement is dampened, and it has never caused an issue in Live View.