Thank you Sally, much appreciated.

Regards
David

Excellent shot, just as good as the stacked chairs shot!

Regards
David

Hi Andy

Looking at the kit you have available my best advice would be:

- Put the lens you will use the most on the K-5IIs body; I would say the DA*16-50 or the DA*50-135 (personal choice)

- Ditch all the other lenses you have listed and take the K-5 with the one out of the two above that you have chosen not to put on the K-5IIs

I'm going to shout with the next tip, so please excuse me:

- MAKE 100% CERTAIN YOU HAVE PROPERLY CALIBRATED THE AF ON YOUR CAMERAS FOR EACH OF THE LENSES YOU WILL USE. For weddings it is critical to get accurate focus (this can be difficult with the K-5 mk1, especially in poor light, which you are likely to get in a lot of wedding venues). Poor focus accuracy will make your images look amateur if it happens, as it did to me with the K-5 on one wedding shoot. You will find the K-5IIs a lot more accurate and reliable at focussing, especially with SDM lenses, so bear this in mind for any shots in lower light levels.

- Try to avoid using flash if you can - don't be afraid to take the K-5's up to 3200 ISO if you need to. If you have to use flash I tend to agree with you on the Youngnuo, sometimes manual flash is easier to get a subtle effect and you will only want it to 'fill in' a little as anything more can look flat and unnatural

- Use auto ISO, especially indoors, so you can react quickly to changing light without having to think about making manual camera adjustments. You risk missing that magic shot if you're fiddling with the camera. I usually set mine to a max of 3200 or 1600 ISO depending on how much light the venue has.

- Be aware of backgrounds at all times and if necessary use the widest aperture you can to blur out distractions (I'm not too sure about the background in your last pre-wedding shot above). Bear in mind the previous point about AF accuracy when using wide apertures

I know a lot of this will be meat and drink to you so ignore anything that's irrelevant, but hopefully some of it will be helpful.

Cheers
David

Now, now, there's no need for sarcasm Nigel! I wasn't suggesting you had another lens, I was just pointing out that the TC does the shot no favours. It needn't cost much to buy a good 300mm lens - I have a mint Tamron 300mm F5.6 Adapt-a-matic which is very sharp if stopped down a little and cost me £20. I would guess that might be less than your TC cost on its own? I think a lens like this would take much better images than the 75-150 plus TC?

Regards
David

I can't understand what all the fuss is about. If someone likes colour pop images what's the problem with this? Personally it's something I hardly ever use, but I don't think we should get precious about it. I put some images on the forum recently that I shot in the Mediterranean and among them was an image that wasn't colour-popped as such, but was 1/3 colour and 2/3 black and white, with the sunset sky being in colour. I only posted this particular image as I knew it would provoke reactions and I was right!

Colour pop does nothing for the image above, but I have no objections to it or to most other techniques anyone cares to use. In fact I would much prefer a colour pop to a replaced sky as at least it is obvious it has been done without the photographer having to own up to it, which not many seem to do when it comes to adding in skies that weren't really there.

Regards
David

Just as an aside to this thread, water can get into the K-5 and K-7 bodies via the in-built flash housing and can run inside the body from there. Be careful about this particular area of the camera. It hasn't happened to me but I've seen it happen to someone else.

Regards
David

Sorry to hijack the thread Nigel, but I've had a go at processing the third one in high contrast BW. Not easy, as the file is small and a bit pixellated, but hopefully the idea comes across:




Regards
David

Why couldn't #3 be processed with more contrast? I think it would suit a high contrast BW?

Maybe a little harsh, but I understand where Smeggy is coming from and it is a little overdone for my taste.

I like #4 the best, it would be even better with a longer lens and minus the TC.

Regards
David

Great camera - love mine - buy it if it's a reasonable price! The K-01 is the biggest Pentax camera bargain of the moment.

Regards
David

Having used this combination a lot over the past couple of weeks I can say that I really like it. The size of the K-01 does not bother me in the slightest - it's more important to me that it takes all my lenses. It is nice to use with the 40mm pancake though and this little lens is something of a star performer - very sharp with lovely colours and contrast.

Even though the K-01 is quite big, it still seems to be less intrusive than a DSLR and is easy to use one-handed for street shots.

Regards
David