The 50mm F1.8 as you say is great for this type of work, but is a bit restrictive. I have a Sigma 17-70 F2.8-4 HSM OS which is brilliant, but also got great results when I had a Pentax DA 17-70, despite this only having a max aperture of F4. I find that you have to be careful with your depth of field on gig shots and often it's best to stick around the F4 area so you don't get lots of out of focus shots. Remember also, you need to expose for the highlights, not the general ambient light, otherwise all the bright areas will be burned beyond recovery, especially if LED lights are being used.

I go with John Riley on this one, use your higher ISO settings, up to 3200 is fine with a K-5iis or a K-3. This image is one of my favourite gig shots and is hanging on the wall in my music room at home, it was shot with a K-5 and DA17-70 lens at F5.6, ISO 1600:




Regards
David

The lens choice is a difficult one Peter, I like you have been struggling to come to a decision, but have settled on the DA50 F1.8, because it's AF and all my other primes are vintage MF models. I also like the bokeh on the DA50, whereas my other choice the Pentax-M 28mm F3.5 is poor in this regard. 50mm might be a bit tight, but I'll have to be a bit creative!

Hope you can make it on Sunday.

Regards
David

A lovely crisp set George, you've probably seen the comments I left on FB, so I won't repeat them here, except to say 4 and 5 are my personal favourites, but they are all very good shots in nice, clear winter light.

Regards
David

Hi Rob

Yes, the speed is consistent, I didn't notice it being quicker or slower from one end of the focal range. I'm out on Sunday with the Pentax crew and will use my K-3 with the DA50 attached. I will let you know how it gets on outside in good light, I expect no problems will be found.

I too am a bit confused that my lens doesn't exhibit the same behaviour as yours. Also confusing is why it is slower on the K-3 than it is on the K-5iis, as this is not the case with my other lenses! The only conclusion I draw from this is that my lens is consistent in focussing speed from both ends of the focal range, but differs in performance on different camera bodies. I suspect you have an issue, but I don't know if it's with your camera or your lens.

Regards
David

I think it appeals because it's quirky and it's good. Makes me smile anyway.

Cheers
David

Hi Ted

These are not bad at all and I don't think the noise is an issue.

The one thing that hits me with these is the focus is off on all of them, which makes them look a bit soft. I think it would have been easier for you with a K-5iis, or a K-3, both of which are demons at focussing in low light. Given that you had to use your K10D which doesn't have the low light focussing capability, you have done pretty well I think.

The first one is my favourite.

Regards
David

Here you go Rob:

link

Let me know if you can't link to it.

BTW, I did notice when doing this test that my K-5iis focusses faster with the DA50 than the K-3 does. Also please bear in mind the test was in dim light (it is quicker in good light) and my K-3 is a Mk1, not a Mk2.

Regards
David

PS it's my son's youtube channel, not mine!!

Good point Dave, I will be using mine on the 1 lens challenge day!

Cheers
David

I was lucky enough to win a DA50mm F1.8 in a recent competition and have used it on my K-5iis, but not yet on my K-3.

What I've found so far:

- It is very sharp, even at F1.8 and is much better than a FA50 1.4 I used to have
- It focusses quickly, have not noticed any speed variation across the focal range
- It focusses accurately, even in near darkness and at F1.8

Don't know if this is any help!

Regards
David

Sorry, but I totally disagree with you. I think Louise's responses above justify me raising these points. It is massive over-simplification to state that PowerDirector13 will run satisfactorily on an i5 with 64 bit OS. Yes, it will run better on a 64 bit OS, but not just because it's 64 bit and only if you have sufficient RAM, sufficient Graphics power and CPU processing power to go with it. My son has a 64 bit Windows 8.1 OS with 8gb of RAM and a processor equivalent to i5, but it DOES NOT run PowerDirector satisfactorily with anything other than very small video files. Anything of significant size causes stuttering, poor responsiveness and general poor operation, which BTW does not occur with other video processing software such as Sony Vegas Pro 11.

If Louise's laptop does not have dedicated graphics, does not have a SSD for example, then I think it might struggle with anything other than small tasks with small video files. There is a huge range in performance terms of laptops with core i5, Win 10, 8gb RAM and 2tb hard drive storage. Without knowing the specifics of the performance of her laptop and the type of processing she wishes to do, there is no way anyone can confidently state 'Yes' it will comfortably handle it.

BTW, my working life is spent working with PC's in a commercial environment.

Regards
David