K5IIs and K3 Write speed.

I'm using the K5IIs & DA300 as my main combo and the K30 with the Sigma 70-300 as "back up" when shorter focal length is required or when the K5IIs is refusing to fire until it has finished processing data. I have checked the most recent sd card reviews and tried some cards to get the best out of the K5IIs but noticing hardly any difference. I shoot raw only and avoid continuous burst (my hit rate is higher when I shoot refocus and shoot again anyway). It can be infuriating when the camera is not just slowing down but refusing to fire and become unresponsive (after only a few shots quickly taken!). The rear screen goes black and the red led comes on which can take up to approximately 30 seconds. In the case when the subject has run off or flown away during this process so I'm not start shooting again immediately I'm often still need to wait till it let me review the shots after the camera has come back to life again.

My fortnight holiday has arrived and I've been out already and looking forward to lot's more wildlife shooting, just my luck.. the K30 has given up yesterday so looking out for another body. Just wondering how the K3 is performing in processing data, is it much faster compare to the K5IIs?

[quote:3496ace15f="Unlocker"]I'm sure I read somewhere that the bottleneck is the write speed, being limited to around 45mb/s. If thats true, then there's nothing else you can do if you already have cards that fast.

Thanks for your reply.
Yes I read something like that as well, I tried to get these official specifications from the Ricoh site regarding the K5 and K3 series before I posted my question on here but can't find it.

I have already saved up to upgrade my Sigma 70-300mm. If I'm going to invest in a super-telephoto zoom lens and now I need to replace the K30 anyway I might as well looking into other systems.

You must be using really rubbish cards

SanDisk Extreme PRO UHS-I/U3 SDHC Flash Memory Card with up to 95MB/s
should be a big improvement

See test here in a Nikon D7100

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqv-AldrnM0

Using 2 cards will also slow things down.

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Using 2 cards will also slow things down.

The K5IIs has only one card slot.

Thanks for you reply anyway.

I always shoot raw with all "correction in camera" settings switched off.

(well I just double checked to be sure :mrgreen thanks! ... but no there's nothing unnecessarily running I believe.

I've been having the same problem recently, I use the same cards I've always used (including sandisk extreme 2)
Do cards get slower with age? I never used to have this problem

Interesting, I have also experienced slow writing/processing issues with the K5-IIs using the 55-300HD. In the end I put it down to built in noise reduction as I was shooting bands at a festival.

I was was sandisk extreme pros 95ms.

I have used the K5 since.

I don't know if cards get slower but I tried some new expensive high spec ones to be sure it's not the card what's holding the camera processor up.

I have considered to update the firmware but decided against it as I always use it with the same lens (DA*300). No difference either with genuine Pentax batteries or after market ones. A camera full reset didn't help either.

Unfortunately my other body the K30 gave up yesterday (the well known under exposure thingy problem:cry so I'm not too happy at the moment.

I did edit my post but it didn't seem to save. It was meant say 'I haven't used the K5IIs since'. But I have used the same cards in the K3II with out problem.

I'm shooting a gig at the weekend, if I can feel like taking 3 bodies with me I might give it a try.

I've found a post over on DPR that includes a statement that the K5 bodies write to memory cards at c20mb/s. No source, so no idea how accurate the figure is.

Update: still no source, but multiple references to slow write speed attributed to a slow camera bus.

Thanks John, it doesn't look like something what can be solved easily. Guess I better contact a repairer after my holiday.

I'm heading off for a trip tomorrow morning so just have to do with a camera which is really sluggish ..at least this one is still working.

I've just tried all my 4 cards in both K5's I have with all settings the same.
I took 5 shots in continuous mode.

The Sandisk and Ultima cards wrote all photos in 5 seconds, the PNY and Transcend cards took 20 seconds!
The Sandisk and Ultima cards are 'class 10', the Transcend is 'class 4' the PNY has no 'class' marked on it.