Fantastic Alan, that last one in particular must be the best image I've ever seen of the Aurora. Living where we do there is too much light pollution and I couldn't see anything at all last night, I am very jealous!

Regards
David

The M50 F1.4 is fabulous for portrait work, as is the A50 F1.7, I use them both quite regularly.

Regards
David

I think you've set yourself a difficult task here Alistair, trying to manually focus with the K-5 at wide-ish apertures. The problem with these shots is the focus inaccuracy (they are mostly back-focussed), not surprising given the circumstances. It might be worth you looking at a K-01 - the focus peaking on this model makes using a MF lens a breeze - I have no difficulty focussing at F1.4 with a M50 lens on mine.

I find it difficult to offer any constructive criticism on these, purely because of the focussing, but I agree with Mark that No.3 is the best.

Regards
David

There are no problems with real world photography and the K-5iis, moire is almost a 'non-issue'. Do not worry about this being a problem for you, it won't be. I've had my K-5iis for a year now and never seen any moire, I also have a K-3 with the anti-moire simulation filter turned off and it has not been a problem with this camera either.

Regards
David

As Mike has said, I think you would find that the accuracy on the K-5II would be so much better, more especially so in low light, where the MkII variants will lock on in situations where the MkI has no chance. I found that I really struggled with the Mk1 at wedding shoots, particularly during the evening celebrations when the lights were down low. With the K-5IIs it was a different ball game altogether, no problems focussing at all.

Regards
David

Good work Barrie, I especially like your second go at the one with the white vignette. It works very well indeed.

Regards
David

I don't wish to get into the 'noise' debate again on the K-3 vs. K-5 question, but if I were to sum up the K-5iis vs. K-3 my thoughts would be that noise is roughly equivalent at the ISO's I would use (up to 6400 max) but that the K-3 wins in every other area, i.e. metering, speed, colour balance, IQ due to increased resolution, focussing speed and accuracy, better rear screen, twin SD slots and so it goes on.

However, from what I've read and what I understand, for Jon's stated use the K-5iis would be the way to go I think as the type of shooting he intends it would the job just as well as a K-3 so there would be no point in spending more money.

Regards
David

Hi Alistair

No3 is the obvious choice, but not the one I would go for. The stand out for me is the Church shot, but I would give it completely different processing. If it is HDR, I would ditch this approach and process it as a normal image, assuming you have a decent RAW file to work from. The straightening bit is easy - you need to ensure that a vertical line drawn from top of the steeple passes straight through the middle of the Church Door, job done.

I would add some drama to the sky by introducing a subtle graduated fill and then emphasise the shadows in the grass leading up to the church to draw the eye in more effectively. I would increase the contrast and give selected areas of the image a subtle high pass sharpening.

I suspect that your original file of this shot may have some issues, i.e. the sky being a little blown behind the church, but this should not be a showstopper if you process it carefully.

Regards
David

Welcome to the forum - you are right that this is a good place for advice. Do you still have all 6 Pentax DSLR's? If so why? It's great to have a backup but 5 backups seems a bit excessive!

Best wishes
David

The build quality of my 17-70 is excellent, as is the image quality, no complaints at all regarding this. I would also say the build and IQ of all the Sigma lenses I own is also excellent, although I'm not a fan of the finish that Sigma employ as it's too prone to marking and scuffing.

I think Pentax are well capable of releasing a DA lens with excellent IQ, they have proved this with the 17-70 and the 18-135, both of which seem to suit most of their owners in IQ terms. I too suspect the lens will not be FF capable, not a big issue for me. My suspicion is that if and when Pentax go FF, it will not be with a DSLR. BTW, I base that not on any known facts, just a gut feeling.

Regards
David