That really is quite impressive Dave. I must invest in a decent bird hide and get out there with my K-3 to take some wildlife shots!

Regards
David

My 55-300 gets used a lot for landscapes and mountains! It is great for isolating parts of a landscape, or for compressing perspective which works well for certain types of shot. I never leave home without it.

Regards
David

There's nothing wrong with that Gajan, we all 'see' images differently and once you've posted a few on here you will find that out very quickly! What I said only represents my personal opinion, which I am certain will be disagreed with by some and agreed with by others!

The only other thing I would say is that if your intention was to show the main subject in the background (the building), but include the foreground subjects as additional interest (skaters) then you would have been better taking a few steps back so that the foreground subjects were fully in view rather than being cut off at the knees. The fact that they are not fully included tends to unsettle my eye a little.

Of course, I wasn't there and I don't know if you could have stepped back at all, so please excuse if I'm writing rubbish!

Regards
David

Who knows? I might go Nikon like a few of our other friends on here have done Joking aside, if I wanted full frame, this is what I would have done rather than getting a K-3.

I like technology but I'm not usually an early adopter and I don't change my gear very often. For example, the Marantz Cinema amplifier I have hooked up to my TV I bought second hand for £70 on ebay about seven years ago, my Sanyo Projector is 7 years old but still produces a fabulous image that I'm very happy with. Cameras have been the exception for me and I think the changes I've made so far are because I wasn't quite happy with the combination of build and picture quality I wanted. What I have now feels right and I will keep. I'm more interested in getting the right small collection of quality glass.

Getting back to the topic of this thread, none of the technological stuff I own has been bought on the strength of reviews, it has been what suited me at the time, the best quality I could get within the price range I could afford. Once I have something, I am fastidious about getting it set up correctly, to squeeze the best possible performance from it and I think this is more important than the very small differences between the specification and performance of similar items from competing brands.

Regards
David

Hi Paul, for your budget I would recommend the newest K-5IIs you can find. There have been some (and probably still are some) for sale on this Forum at or just above the £500 mark.

Regards
David

I agree with what you're saying Matty, but you can only compare like for like and some of the other products you are probably thinking of are not APS-C DSLR's. I would think that the K-3 is probably the best APS-C DSLR out there and if what you want to buy is a APS-C DSLR, then the K-3 is probably a good bet for you.

I don't know whether you are in this mindset, or whether you want something different, I suspect full frame may be at the top of your list. For me, APS-C works just fine for now, so I'm very happy!

Cheers
David

If we all believed everything we read in reviews we would not be able to decide what to buy as there is so much rubbish and contradiction in them. In almost every review you only get the opinion of a single person who has had limited experience / use of the product he or she is reviewing and may also be biased or may be receiving payment for expressing certain views / opinions.

Herein lies the other problem. Interpretation of the written word with no ability to identify the context behind it. No visual cues. If I read that I would take it as a positive statement, whereas others interpret it differently.

There are other methods of making decisions about the merits or otherwise of a particular product, Smeggy reminds us constantly about downloading comparison images and that is certainly a valid method of comparison providing you can be sure that the images were shot under identical conditions (which invariably you can't).

So, in conclusion I usually maintain that the only reliable method of deciding if something is right for you is to actually use it and be able to compare it in everyday use with something you are familiar with. The problem with this is that unless you have a friend or acquaintance who is prepared to lend you theirs for an extended period, the only way of being able to do this is to buy one! That's the route I took, based on the camera specifications and since then I've been able to compare it with my K-5iis for the past month and a half. Conclusion? The K-3 is a great camera and suits me down to the ground.

Regards
David

Hi Gajan

Not a bad one for your first upload! Exposure looks good and it is nice and sharp. The only constructive comment I have is that I struggle to see a particular focal point in the image, i.e. my eye is not sure where to settle first and where the image leads the eye after that. This is more of a compositional comment, but is also influenced by the aperture chosen for the shot, as everything in this image is in focus. Sometimes it's better for the main subject to be in focus and other elements to be out of focus, for example here you could have used a tighter framing and focussed in on one of the skaters, using a wide aperture. This would have given the shot more interest.

Hope this is of some help!

Regards
David

Hi Roger

It's a nice image, I like the contrast between the white of the flowers and the black background. There are a few comments I have, which I hope are constructive:

- The white levels could be increased to give the image more 'punch' and contrast

- Although not out of focus, the image is not quite razor sharp enough for me, possibly down to the lens choice (18-55), but I'm not sure if this is the reason

- I would have liked to see a bit more detail in the shadow areas on the stem and leaves of the plant, whilst retaining the inky blackness of the background

Hope this helps, thanks for posting the image and inviting comment.

Best wishes
David

I don't think there's a medical term, but there are probably some interesting general descriptions, such as 'obsessed', 'mad', 'strange' etc. I'm actually very lucky as my wife is very accommodating of my camera obsession, but she must have thought it a little odd that yesterday I set up the tripod outside the back door and proceeded to take multiple photos of road signs with different lenses to make sure the AF was calibrated properly!

I justify it by saying that I've spent a lot of money on the K-3 and I need to make sure I get the best out of it!

Cheers
David