Answer: You can't. I've always understood that holding the camera against your face (i.e. looking through the viewfinder) contributed to stability. But... with shake reduction, holding a camera steady may not be as important as it used to be. And for video, monitoring on a screen seems to be the norm.

As for risking camera and phone, make that £3K for camera + lens and £1K for phone. And the lady in the picture is going against at least 2 and a half points in the Met police advice re protecting against criminals on bikes and mopeds:
- Look out for anyone on a bike or a moped near you. Look up, look out.
- Stand away from the roadside, close to a building or wall, so no one can come up behind you.
- Don't text while you're walking – you won't notice what's going on around you. (The Met advice clearly needs updating here to include using DSLR with phone, but the principle is the same.)
But when it's your camera, your phone, your money, you're entitled to take the risk - just as long as you don't expect sympathy if someone rides off with it!

Steve

Their relationship has been developing over the last few weeks. This morning, there was a lot of gentle (for a gull...) verbalising, then signs of physical affection. No doubt associated with the appearance of twigs sticking out from behind the nearby chimney. Pity the sky wasn't blue, but they didn't seem to mind so why should I?

Thoughts, comments etc. welcome as usual.




Steve

Well, it isn't just dotted bee flies now.

A dark-edged bee fly (bombylius major) dropped in yesterday. It flew onto a paving slab just outside the greenhouse where I was about to start doing things. Usually, they will fly off at the slightest hint of a shadow. Uncharacteristically, however, this one hardly moved for half an hour or more, not even when I stepped over it (again and again...). Presumably it needed to soak up a lot of warmth from the slab and sun before it could do any more flying. The chance of some pictures of a stationary bee fly was too good to miss, so here are a couple. The wings show that it's a dark edged rather than dotted bee fly - and the tail end of the body isn't black.

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Steve

Because if they didn't, a large part of the population would complain that they hadn't done it. Anyway, there seems to be a lot of sport on today, which no doubt makes many people happy even if my response is to find something more interesting to do. Each to their own, and there's always catch-up TV.

Steve

Impressive. They both work for me, but for different reasons.

Why is nailing the focus any more crucial with a mirror lens than any other lens?

Problems with seeing a rear screen are as old as photography. The original solution is still available link, albeit a bit inconvenient to use up a gum tree.

Steve

The pneumatic tyre didn't change the basic function of the wheel, but it was a significant step forward for the user.

I changed from K20D to K3 because the K3 seemed to offer some things that I was finding frustrating with the K20D (more like adding a pneumatic tyre than reinventing the wheel itself). Based on specs alone, I can't see the K3III doing the same for me. But if someone can provide photographic evidence that, with DA*300mm attached, its AF can track a skittish hoverfly at near minimum focus distance, then perhaps I could be persuaded...

Steve

For the last week or two, every time I take a few photos with my K3 I've asked a question: 'Would a K3III have produced better pictures, made it easier or more enjoyable, or enabled me to take a picture that I wasn't able to today?'. So far, the answer in every case has been 'Unlikely'. Looking forward to seeing some examples from all you early adopters that might change the answer to 'Probably' or even 'Yes'!

Steve

"We are offering enhanced part exchange values - better than anyone else - and you get reward points for future purchases.". It's in this thread.

Presumably they can't be more specific until they know the part exchange values that everyone else offering.

Steve

A second camera trap.

This one one will be taking on hedgehog duty at night, possibly bird feeder duty during the day. The first one, which has been around for a couple of years, is currently pointing at the patio, where a small and rudimentary 'water feature' is used as a bath by blackbirds, house sparrows, dunnocks and blue tits. Neither are Pentax, of course. But the K3 + DA*300 + TC is ready in the dining room in case anything more unusual arrives - and for following the progress of this year's herring gulls nesting behind the chimney of the house 2 doors away.

Steve

Curves, cusps, contrast - great stuff!

And plenty of chips when harvest time comes...

Looking forward to seeing how it changes as the spuds grow and are then harvested.

Steve