Interestingly Dave, I met up with a fellow Pentaxian (JVS) a couple of weeks ago as he was having real problems with his K-5 and DA*300 in the focussing department. Having the opportunity to compare, we immediately identified a problem with the lens and John was quite staggered to see how quickly and accurately my DA*300 focussed on both the K-3 and the K-5IIs, but the K-3 in particular. The lens has now gone back to the manufacturer under warranty and John has bought a K-3!

I would suspect there must be an issue somewhere with your K-3 or your lens for you to experience the variability you are describing. I simply haven't experienced this at all with mine, it has been unerringly accurate at all times, especially with the DA*300 lens.

Regards
David

Absolutely not. For me, the AF is superb. It is very accurate, very reliable and better on all lenses than any other body I've had, including the K-5IIs. I have been using my DA*300 a lot lately, both on the K-3 and the K-5IIs. It is very noticeable how much more quickly and reliably it locks focus with the K-3 than it does on the IIs. It hunts less (hardly at all) and almost always nails the focus. I am surprised by this, considering the K-5iis is a very good focusser. On small subjects it is less liable to focus on the background than the IIs is.

I cannot comment on the tracking as I don't use it, I don't feel the need for it, I would not be surprised if the tracking is garbage compared to a Nikon D7100 for example, but tracking is only one aspect of AF and one that is maybe less important to a lot of us.

Where the AF really gains ground is in poor light, with wide aperture lenses. Here it outperforms anything else I've ever used and also comfortably outperforms its Canon and Nikon counterparts.

Regards
David

PS: There is often a lot of confusion over the AF capability of recent Pentax bodies, in particular the speed they focus at. The truth is the K-3 is a rapid focusser. It is the design of the lenses that is the limiting factor, not the camera. Many of the Pentax lenses, including the SDM versions, are very slow to focus and there's nothing the K-3 can do to fix this.

Well done Neil, I love the Hoverfly shot and I notice you got a pic of one of the blue Dragonflies. I didn't get any of these, I wonder what species they are?

Regards
David

It's great Neil, it oozes personality and charm!

Regards
David

Hi everyone, David Trout has kindly asked me to be the 'five in a row' person this week, so I will be putting up for your critique five of my shots. To me, this is all about pushing the limits a bit and provoking some thought and comment, so you will not necessarily be seeing my 'normal output'. I may put a couple on that you would recognise as mine, but I will also try to give you some that are a bit different. So, here goes, the first image tonight, that I am fully expecting will get an absolute slating from you!! I will do my best to explain the thought process behind each shot.

1. Focussing on the little things whilst still seeing the wider picture

A lot of you will know that I like my macro! I take a lot of 'bug' shots with all manner of lenses, of late the DA*300 with or without tubes or Teleconverter has been my preferred weapon. I also do a lot with proper macro lenses or 50mm primes on tubes and then there's the butchered zoom! This one is different, it's shot with the Sigma 17-70 F2.8-4 HSM OS which focusses amazingly close for a mid-range zoom. For this shot I deliberately opened it up to max aperture and widest zoom and got as close as possible to the main subject, which is a Greenbottle fly on Chicken Poo! The result is wafer thin DOF and our garden (complete with Tibetan Terrier) in the OOF background, hence the rather long title of this image.

OK guys, here's what I do with the MF technique. I've learned very quickly that when trying to photograph flying insects, be they Bees, Dragonflies or Damselflies, the camera's AF system has virtually no chance, (a) because they move too fast and too erratically and (b) because they are often quite small in the frame and the AF doesn't know what to focus on. So, if you are trying to take pictures of insects in flight, I think manually focussing is the best bet, particularly with a lens like the DA*300 which is so lovely to use in MF.

- I watch the insects and try to get a feel for where and how they are flying, i.e. how far from the camera, what direction they go in most often, how long they hover (if they do)

- I set the focus on the lens to approx. the right distance

- I wait for the insect to be in roughly the right area

- I get the insect in the viewfinder and try to keep it there while I constantly move the focus back and forth to get a sharp image

- I hit the shutter button whenever my instinct tells me it is sharp

- I use 'single shot' mode, not 'machine gun', there is a very good reason for this which is that I have become attuned to knowing almost instinctively when the subject is in focus and when not, and I seem to have the ability to time the shutter press at the right moment

The image below (one of my favourites) is another example of this:




Don't get me wrong on this, there are a lot of shots wasted that are not in focus, but I'm sure my keeper rate is hugely more than it would be if I were focussing in AF.

Regards
David

Very nice set Barrie, the second one is my favourite, but I also love the Heron image. Where did you take the Heron shot; I didn't see one that close?

It was great to meet you yesterday, thanks also for bringing the Sigma 17-50 as it prompted me to solve the problems with my 17-70!! All is now good!

Cheers
David

Hi Barrie, yes both of those were using manual focus. I don't think it would be possible to get a successful shot using AF, unless you were extremely lucky. I have practiced a lot with the MF technique and also use it for things like Bees visiting flowers. I think even the Canon and Nikon users would struggle with AF on Dragonflies because they don't fly in a single predictable direction, they zig-zag all over the place as you saw yesterday!

Regards
David

Yes, it's true! They are Dragonflies of course, all images shot today at RSPB Old Moor, a lovely reserve near Barnsley.

These are all shot with the K-3, DA*300 and 1.4 Pentax TC, about half of them with the assistance of a Monopod, the rest hand held.

1. Hawker





2. Perching Darter





3. Landing Gear Down





4. Resting Darter





5. Taking a bit of Sun





6. Mating





7. Darter on Plantain




CC Welcomed, as usual.

Regards
David

Thanks to you all once again for your kind assistance.

Cheers Andy, but I met up with Barrie Forbes today at RSPB Old Moor and had the chance to try out his lens. This prompted me to have another go at solving the colour issues on my Sigma 17-70, and hey presto I have the answer. The lens came from AndrewA with a B+W skylight filter attached and I had forgotten this was on the lens. It turns out this is the cause of the problems and after removing it all of the out of kilter colours disappeared completely. Images are sharper too!

Now that I have this sorted I will be keeping the lens.

Best wishes
David