Some really striking shots here, a great result for the first time out with your modded K20.

Regards
David

Hi Nigel,

I would strongly recommend that you DO NOT carry out lens correction in camera as this slows down the frame rate dramatically when shooting continuously.

If you are shooting in RAW, it is easy to correct CA's and distortion in the Pentax Utility software supplied with your camera. You don't have to do all your processing in this software, just correct what you need to and save the file away for processing on other software afterwards.

The other advantage of doing this afterwards and not 'in camera' is that you have control over what corrections are applied, rather than leaving it to the camera's discretion.

Regards
David

They are all crackers, but number 2 definitely takes it for originality alone! I think you should seriously consider entering the Countryfile photo competition if you haven't already done so!

Regards
David

Hello Urs, welcome to the site - it is good to have another member from outside of the UK. Living where you do we will expect to see lots of landscapes and shots of the lake, hope you get the K-5 sorted out pretty soon. I have had no problems with mine so far - fingers crossed!

Best wishes
David

Another good one Shaun, although I'm not a fan of replacing skies, your image does look very 'natural'. Thanks again for posting these valuable snippets - for those of us who have not had tuition on Photoshop, it is quite a daunting challenge to learn it so your help is very useful indeed.

Regards
David

I would second what Neil (darkskies) says about the 55-300 lens. I have had two problems with it, neither of which were the lens at fault:

1. I couldn't get a sharp image - until I removed the UV filter and then hey-presto it was razor-sharp!

2. My K-x was seriously front-focussing so I applied an AF Focus adjustment in the debug menu and all was well. With the K-5, images with this lens are razor-sharp with no AF adjustments.

Also, the AF with the 55-300 is transformed when using it on the K-5 as opposed to the K-x. It hunts very little, is reasonably quick to lock on and produces accurate focus almost every time.

It's a great lens and one of my most used, I think you need to see if you can get it performing as you would expect before upgrading the camera, but if you decide on a K-5 you will not be disappointed.

Regards
David

Cheers Shaun, great tutorial, thanks for making the effort to post this and your other ones.

Regards
David

A high standard, the last one in paticular is very good.

Regards
David

This is all a matter of perspective and not attempting to compare apples with pears. You cannot compare a Ford Model T to a Porsche 911 Carrera!

As it happens, I bought a K-x in mint condition on ebay for £230 and paired it up with another mint buy bought on ebay, a £20 Tamron 300mm F5.6 Adaptamatic that is 40 years old. I have taken some pretty good wildlife shots with this combination that cost me £250. Can I compare these shots with any taken on a full frame Canon and a £6000 600mm lens? Probably not, but for £250 they are pretty darn good and I am happy with them. As mentioned above, the K-x and 55-300 is also a decent combination (K-5 with this lens is much better though).

It all depends on what you can spend (or what you are happy to spend).

Regards
David

It's a great image Dave, well done!

Regards
David