Thanks for that John. I've seen it but not tried it but I will definitely give it a go now.
Dave

I am getting better results now I think. One possible problem I may have had was the DA* 300 was new at the same time. Now I tend to hold the camera body in my right hand and support the lens underneath with my left. Due to increased weight all round and this lens having quick shift I wonder if after getting the focus and then when pressing the shutter I was fractionally turning the focus ring with my left hand. With my other long lens the Sigma 150-500 I always either held the (much better) tripod mount or the lens body but past the focus ring. The K30 grip is also less comfortable for me than the K-r - sticking out much more and not suiting my fairly small hands so well.

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Could you expand a bit on this John as I use spot metering a lot for my wildlife shots.
Dave

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts. I accept now the Jay picture isn't so bad and of course I would normally make quite a few pp adjustments to the raw output to get the best results. I'm hoping to do some swaps with NeilP who has a K5 and DA*300. I will bide my time but the combination of the K-30+ the 300 DA* is not maybe the revolution I was expecting. I have a couple of decent shots now taken in good light but seeing some of the other comments I wonder if the Amazon batch are not quite up to scratch? Further tests with NeilP will help. Perhaps I was also sold on the hype a little of the K-30 being IQ wise the same as the K-5 but my experience is I can't see any difference to the K-r really so perhaps the reality is it is a small K-r upgrade and not a cheap K5!
These two are the best taken from a batch of shots taken with the K-r and the lens quickly swapped to the K-30. The light was average, all are F4 and ISO 400, hand held, 1/350 the with the K-r and 1/500th with the K-30. Identical pp and sharpening except the K-r shot is actually cropped more as it was slightly further away.

K-30



K-r



But all is not bad - taken in brilliant light with the Sigma 150-500 at 440mm.

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I did, from Amazon!

This taken through my scope indoors from about 25 feet.




Using this - made by putting a cheap 40.5mm filter in a piece of plastic pipe which conveniently is a perfect fit over the eyepiece and screwing the other end onto the Q.

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I wouldn't quite say that. Definitely a bargain buy though at £299 used from SRS. By the way the comment was referring to the OP's K-r not mine as the buyer withdrew after 4 days for personal reasons.

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I have both. Not had the K-30 long enough to rigorously test it but on comparitive performance so far I can't see much difference and the AF with the DA*300 is no different in speed.

Thanks David. Yes , I have a friend with a K5 and a DA*300 as well so should be able to resolve it by combining those . The tests for front focusing didn't show anything, not at close distance anyway. I still have my K-r as the Ebay buyer didn't pay up so I can do identical shots with that I guess to eliminate the camera. I'll let you know how I get on.
Dave

There is something odd going on. Can't put my finger on it at the moment. Did a lot of front and back focusing tests and everything seemed fine with all lenses at wide aperture and minimum or near minimum focus distance. But in the field I just can't get my usual results. I'm no novice and all of my upgrades from K-m, K-x, K-R have been a slight improvement. This image is like one I have taken so many times.Just resized from raw and about a 40% crop. This is with the K-30, DA*300, f5.0 and is ISO 400 and 1/2500 sec with SR on!! It was AF spot and the central square gave a solid bleep when on the eye. OK it was handheld but 1/2500 although that seems odd in the Exif, it was sunny but at f5.0 I would have expected a 1/500th ! I could beat this quality with my K-m and 55-300mm. I mean what is in focus?


I just can't think what is causing this. A problem with the new firmware not going in right? A couple of shots out of 30 in superb light were slightly better but the resolution looks down, not up to me.
Or do I just need new glasses??!!