I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments about this being good for Bill and good for Pentax , especially with the release of the K-3 imminent, it should be a golden opportunity for some good PR. However, it's the image that attracts me, not the make or type of camera it was taken with and I just feel that I've seen many better ones than this.

I'm not trying to detract from the achievement of winning this competition - it's fantastic, but the winner cannot be everyone's favourite!

Regards
David

Yes it is better Alistair, there's very little colour cast now. However, You won't be able to recover the blown highlights in the water and the overall image doesn't justify you spending a lot of time trying to tease more out of it in post processing. This is just my opinion of course and others may disagree - after all I thought the Countryfile 2013 winner was a bit average!

Regards
David

I can understand why you've done this Shaun, if ultimate IQ is what you need then this may be the right decision. BUT, the D800 is double the price of the K-3 - will it take images with double the IQ? I don't think it will but you will be the best judge of whether or not you've made the right move, after using the Nikon for a few weeks. I can't wait to see some shots with the D800 - it would be good to see some direct comparisons of the same images shot with this and the K-5iis to see how much better the Nikon ones are.

Regards
David

What Shaun is saying here is that despite the £150 price premium a lot of people bought the K-5iis instead of the K-5ii. I think the point he is making is that a lot of people would also pay more for a FF Pentax camera.

I can understand this and I can also understand your desire for a FF camera Shaun, but I have to say that the K-3 looks like one hell of a piece of kit to me and I think it will have a lot of non FF Nikon and Canon shooters interested. It will probably also attract some people who currently shoot FF if it is as good as I think it will be.

Lets wait and see what the proper reviewers say and what the IQ is like. I would be amazed if it's not the best APS-C camera out there and I am very interested in buying one.

Regards
David

Hi Maria, it just goes to show that we all see things very differently and this is what makes art and photography so interesting. Both tend to polarise opinions and clearly I'm in a minority when it comes to the winning image.

It would be very boring if we all liked the same things!

Regards
David

I have to say Dave that I'm stunned too! I don't know the location but when I saw the shot in the finalists my first reaction was that it was rather average. I'm amazed it has won and despite viewing it lots of times I really can't see what is so stunning about it. Either I don't have a clue about what's a good photo (almost certainly true) or most other people don't!

Does anyone else think it was a bit average?

Regards
David

Beautiful shots Mat, 3 and 6 for me are the ones that really strike home.

Regards
David

Thanks for the observation Steve, you are probably right, just tried something different for this one, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't!

Thanks also Stuey.

Regards
David

Hi Shaun, it's very difficult for me to give you feedback on these, knowing you as well as I do! I'll give it a go though!

The first one is my favourite, it has a lot of detail and is very sharp in the right areas. The problem with it is that the Dragonfly is facing the wrong way, not your fault but it would be a lot more effective if it was 'head on'.

The third is my next favourite, BJP is right in that the focus is slightly behind where it should be - it's sharpest on the wing behind the insect rather than on the eyes.

The first and second suffer from being against a background that doesn't show off the Dragonflies to best effect - it might help to lift up the shadows a bit, also the second one is a little bit back-focussed.

If these are your first serious attempt at Macro I think they are an excellent set - my first macro images were nowhere near as good as this.

Regards
David

Really sorry Alistair, but it isn't working for me. There is a colour cast caused by the filters and the image looks a little indistinct and not focussed on anything in particular.

It also looks to be sloping quite a lot down at the right which always unsettles the eye where a lot of water is included in an image. I think also that the shutter speed used falls 'inbetween' - it doesn't blur the water enough to be abstract, but is not sharp enough to retain any detail.

Apologies if this appears to be negative, it's not intended to be and I'm just giving you an honest appraisal of the picture as I see it.

Regards
David