My K3 Experience

[edutilos-]

Yes DR is very impt for landscape. If you didnt show this link I didnt know the DR of K3 is so bad compared to K5 series.
For birding, yes I enjoyed the increase MP, focussing speed and accuracy, the higher fps and also greater buffer of K3. The dual SD slots is definitely a very good feature.
However the battery life is pretty weak comapred to K5 series. During the last outing I shot abt 400 shots and the battey icon is blank and flashing!

Actually it is not bad amongst APS-C.. Just that we've all been spoilt by the K5. I guess contrary to what I said earlier I'll wait for a while... In the meantime maybe update my portable storage device. During my latest trip (just came back this morning) my old Vosonic took 40 minutes to backup 13 GB of data.. :sweat:

 

[kengoh]

Actually it is not bad amongst APS-C.. Just that we've all been spoilt by the K5. I guess contrary to what I said earlier I'll wait for a while... In the meantime maybe update my portable storage device. During my latest trip (just came back this morning) my old Vosonic took 40 minutes to backup 13 GB of data.. :sweat:

Becos of this, I'm keeping the K5-IIs for landscape while the K3 for birding.
40mins is way too slow...
Just now I transfered 13.4Gb of yesterday's D&D shots from the Sandisk Extreme Pro 32Gb into PC via USB3.0 card reader, it took about 4.75 mins.

 

[kengoh]

However the battery life is pretty weak comapred to K5 series. During the last outing I shot abt 400 shots and the battey icon is blank and flashing!

Just an update on the K3 battery life. I fully charged and use it on yesterday's D&D event.
That night I took about 1300 shots with external flash and was surprised the battery still left 1 bar.

 

[poseur]

More strobing experiment with the K3. trying to push it to the limit
Throttle my Metz 58 AF2 with HSS , Haida ND Filter 3 stop shoot wide open DA*1650 with my K3.


Basically what i am doing is fighting with the noon sun with my flash with HSS. Its always not easy to do strobing under the sun here my result. please dont nose bleed....

Full body : see if HSS flash is able to capture whole body

Half Body : testing HSS to capturing half body shots

Head and shoulder : testing HSS on head shots

conclusion. HSS with ND filter is good for half body and head shots. for full body under the knees is a little dark.

 

[easyFinger]

its always not easy to do strobing under the sun here my result. please dont nose bleed...

Just wondering if you tried similar flash setting on K5 series and what is the difference with K3?

As for "nose bleed", the model pose seem awkward, and it doesn't come across as sexy.. nose not "bleeding"

 

[Zenten]

Just wondering if you tried similar flash setting on K5 series and what is the difference with K3?

As for "nose bleed", the model pose seem awkward, and it doesn't come across as sexy.. nose not "bleeding"

..... lol ..........

 

[P3ntx]

I find the photo doesn't promote k3 strength in reading..also i feel the nd filter does not actually makes the photo better.. i hope u don't mind, our honest comment..I am not any better and equally critical of my own photo.

 

[poseur]

I find the photo doesn't promote k3 strength in reading..also i feel the nd filter does not actually makes the photo better.. i hope u don't mind, our honest comment..I am not any better and equally critical of my own photo.

Oh well. I not here to win prize in posing or fashion awards. I merely wants to test out all various strobing techniques n share my results on the k3, what it can do n what it cant do. since its so new. Hopefully people can have shorter learning curve. The idea is sharing within this small cozy environment. I shared because others had help me once to start off.

 

[P3ntx]

Oh well. I not here to win prize in posing or fashion awards. I merely wants to test out all various strobing techniques n share my results on the k3, what it can do n what it cant do. since its so new. Hopefully people can have shorter learning curve. The idea is sharing within this small cozy environment. I shared because others had help me once to start off.

No problems we all learn, so to avoid pitfalls. I find shooting in groups speedup learning also..maybe should arrange strobing outing to learn from each others.

 

[poseur]

Just wondering if you tried similar flash setting on K5 series and what is the difference with K3?

As for "nose bleed", the model pose seem awkward, and it doesn't come across as sexy.. nose not "bleeding"

Yes bro. I tired it on all my bodys. But some one feedback their k3 with hss seems werid. That why i post this result so other can see. At the same time test it on my k3 as i never done it before.

 

[SyncGuy]

Yes bro. I tired it on all my bodys. But some one feedback their k3 with hss seems werid. That why i post this result so other can see. At the same time test it on my k3 as i never done it before.

Don't mind me but I don't quite get it.. From your images, are you trying to show the weird-ness of K3 with HSS?
What's it that's weird? Still new to strobing here.

 

[easyFinger]

Yes bro. I tired it on all my bodys. But some one feedback their k3 with hss seems werid. That why i post this result so other can see. At the same time test it on my k3 as i never done it before.

Thanks for sharing... HSS outcome doesn't seem weird to me. guess it works..

 

[poseur]

Don't mind me but I don't quite get it.. From your images, are you trying to show the weird-ness of K3 with HSS?
What's it that's weird? Still new to strobing here.

Not weridness. Just want to see how k3 perform using various strobing techniques.

 

[pinholecam]

Not weridness. Just want to see how k3 perform using various strobing techniques.

I have read that with a HSS flash (like your metz) and the YN560II set to S2, the YN560 can also fire off (off-camera) in HSS mode.
Its not really in HSS, but is able to fire off because its 'seeing' the flash from the flash with HSS (ie. the metz).

Maybe you can give it a try.

Unfortunately, my Metz48 is spoilt and HSS is no longer possible, so I can't verify this.

 

[fengwei]

Just an update on the K3 battery life. I fully charged and use it on yesterday's D&D event.
That night I took about 1300 shots with external flash and was surprised the battery still left 1 bar.

Yes, it's same w/ mine. One charge can easily take over 1k shots, and that's w/ quite some reviews and live view (love it!). Wonder how come some guys have battery issues at Pentaxforums. But I can see quite some people have all kinds of problem w/ K3 there, which I never noticed myself. Sometimes I wonder if we are haveing the same K3 or not

 

[pinholecam]

Yes, it's same w/ mine. One charge can easily take over 1k shots, and that's w/ quite some reviews and live view (love it!). Wonder how come some guys have battery issues at Pentaxforums. But I can see quite some people have all kinds of problem w/ K3 there, which I never noticed myself. Sometimes I wonder if we are haveing the same K3 or not

Aiya!
You know, those loose lemon laws in US.
Lots of ppl buy just to try try then return for all sorts of funny reasons.
I have no doubt lots of those 'tried' and 'sour' units gets passed around.

Thats how so many got a chance to try out all sorts of stuff over there, but in the end, they don't really intend to keep most of them.
Just play around, get the bragging rights of first use, then move on..

I do think those who have studied/lived overseas are familiar with those stories of ppl 'buying' a suit for D&D, leaving the label on, and returning it after the dinner on a 'no questions asked' return policy.
(Or it could be a video cam, camera, PS3 for a Friday night bash, etc)

 

[fengwei]

Aiya!
You know, those loose lemon laws in US.
Lots of ppl buy just to try try then return for all sorts of funny reasons.
I have no doubt lots of those 'tried' and 'sour' units gets passed around.

Thats how so many got a chance to try out all sorts of stuff over there, but in the end, they don't really intend to keep most of them.
Just play around, get the bragging rights of first use, then move on..

I do think those who have studied/lived overseas are familiar with those stories of ppl 'buying' a suit for D&D, leaving the label on, and returning it after the dinner on a 'no questions asked' return policy.
(Or it could be a video cam, camera, PS3 for a Friday night bash, etc)

Yes, this kind of things do happen a lot there. Their return policy is second to none, and sad to see that many people take this for granted. That's why there are so many 'refurbished' goods for sale there, and some shops just put those returned goods back on shelf and sell them as new. That's some risk we'd have if we buy from the US.

Back to K3, I do think we have one of the best prices globally right now, we can get it in shops for $14xx. For such a fantastic camera, it's really a great price.

 

[fengwei]

Becos of this, I'm keeping the K5-IIs for landscape while the K3 for birding.
40mins is way too slow...
Just now I transfered 13.4Gb of yesterday's D&D shots from the Sandisk Extreme Pro 32Gb into PC via USB3.0 card reader, it took about 4.75 mins.

Don't think we'd see any obvious difference between EV13 and 14, especially for the majority users who still prefer using JPG (which can't take the full advantage of the great DR range of our cameras anyway). It's more on paper than on actual photos. I bet if we take the same high DR scene w/ both K3 and K5IIs in RAW, with proper post process, we won't see much difference in DR, but K3's 24mp does have its advantage when making bigger prints.

Actually if Pentax put ISO80 in K3, its EV range might be as good as K5IIs. Why they took it out of the new camera is beyond me though.

 

[poseur]

I have read that with a HSS flash (like your metz) and the YN560II set to S2, the YN560 can also fire off (off-camera) in HSS mode.
Its not really in HSS, but is able to fire off because its 'seeing' the flash from the flash with HSS (ie. the metz).

Maybe you can give it a try.

Unfortunately, my Metz48 is spoilt and HSS is no longer possible, so I can't verify this.

I do know of this approach. Its good for indoor n solo shoot. Outdoor in mass shoot. Many ppl will hate you. Ahhhha...

 

[edutilos-]

Don't think we'd see any obvious difference between EV13 and 14, especially for the majority users who still prefer using JPG (which can't take the full advantage of the great DR range of our cameras anyway). It's more on paper than on actual photos. I bet if we take the same high DR scene w/ both K3 and K5IIs in RAW, with proper post process, we won't see much difference in DR, but K3's 24mp does have its advantage when making bigger prints.

Actually if Pentax put ISO80 in K3, its EV range might be as good as K5IIs. Why they took it out of the new camera is beyond me though.

Yar, I think it's more applicable to the occasions where you need to recover the shadow details from a single shot that can't be replicated.

Beyond that, 13 vs 14 EV, both ranges are excellent in all honesty. Most blending workflows would not be changed by a 1 stop diff.