Thanks for the technical data there - those settings have worked well. Looking forward to seeing some more close ups from the garden soon ...

Many thanks for that great informative post. I'd love to meet one if these zooms one day, but guess they are a rare breed now.

Here's a few with the 18-55 AL WR, and a few with the 'M' 75-150 .... This is Heathfield House & Garden on Gravel Hill between Croydon & Addington (along the tram line). Its very near to Coombe Wood & Gardens where my last set of photos was shot. I only took those two lenses as I wanted to put the kit lens through its paces. I'm considering the Tamron 28-75, or an upgrade to the kit like a 17-70. All shot with the K7.

Let me know here what you think of the 18-55 performance. Let me know what you think of the shots as well ! All handheld, SR activated, generally the wide zoom images were fairly wide at about f8.0 - f10. The telezoom images were shot at f4.5. This will be the first of a couple of sets showcasing this beautiful spot in South London.


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Thanks for seeing these and for all your comments and thoughts.

It all makes sense - if you see yourself in that 'serious' category, and you want to use and learn about the camera and get the absolute most out of your photography, then yes, you might 'grow out of' the K50 failly soon. Good luck finding your new camera!

Well, the angle to the sun is very different between those ones, and the processing choices would have been different too. I prefer the deeper blues such as 2 & 3, they are more my preference, but the skies on those others where its a paler colour were really too brightly exposed I think.

OK - the two models are targeted differently. The K5 series, like the K7 before it, was pitched quite highly at the 'serious enthusiest' market ... many of us here would fall comfortably into this decription. What does it mean? It means having had experience of photography and its fundamental techniques, that understanding of how to take control and what aspects of the technology will influence the final result, and how to optimise that.

This also involves personal preferences, and shooting styles, and thats where the custom settings come into it - personalising the camera for yourself or for different specific photographic situations. Do do that effectively requires the experience of what are the key issues to consider. The K5 ofers many more choices because your enthusiest will know more things that they can control.

And finally, the serious enthusiest will be thinking about each shot and wanting to take quick control over the camera - the physical levers, switches and buttons on the K5 series make this more direct and on hand.

There will not be scene modes on these 'enthusiest' models because your enthusiest will know how to optimise the settings themselves for best effect. The scene modes on the models targeted below this are designed to allow quick successful images (hopefully) where the photographer may not have instant knoweldge of how to set the aperture, ISO etc to optimise each particular type of image. But you can still learn and check the settings after, and the K50 still offers manual control and all the other 'Auto Exposure' modes (aperture priority etc etc) if you want to use them. And the K50 lacks so many direct controls, again because the designer assumes that the user will not be so proactively adapting and selecting things dynamically - but rather will let the camera's electronics get on with it ....

Its a very rewarding place to explore photographically ... question is how have you done? .... Its a place full of details, and that colourful character is caught at a nice angle, and colours are bright. The others don't offer much of interest I feel.

That leaves the first one with some potential for a bit of C & C ... firstly surely it should have been shot just a bit wider? It feels a bit too casual with the tree-top cut off and the pathway at the bottom as well - then theres the lovely round window blocked by a tree-trunk. A small repositioning would have sorted all of this.

Shadows are a clear problem here also - it is a high contrast scene and the base exposure (midtone pitching) looks about right, but there's too much detail disappearing into murky shadow, all doom and gloom. The K5 is suppossed to be legendary for its DR - could you get something back out of those black holes - I know you use JPEGs ... does that mean you've lost it already? Or would the shadow recover feature have been able to improve it at capture?

Finally it's crying out for some more saturation, not on the trees and grass, but the buildings, just to make them punch out at you!

All the smoke trailing ones make great action shots, lots of drama and well captured.

Thanks, glad about the colour. It may be the Samyang 14mm what's done it ... I should adapt to it really. I have tended with these shots to perform my usual set of sharpening defining steps, mainly with big prints in view. But with the Samyang I'm starting from a very sharp place already ...

I remember some testing that was done on the K511 / s question ....

Buts thats another matter - if you've got the money then get a K5II or s - the Autofocus is better. Any reason you've discounted the K50?