Your hands-on take on the K-7

[airconvent]

Hi guys
Since we on the subject of handson for the K7, need to consult the gurus who upgraded from K20D...
I was at the Hair For Hope Hair-Shaving Charity event at Velocity yesterday and tried it out with *gulped"...an 18-250mm as well as the DA70mm. Took about 120+ shots but realised majority came out blurred even with SR on. I even tried the "green" mode to take the guesswork out of the scene. Most of the time I could not get a good angle and the people there were not sitting still but still was a little confused by the motion in the shots.

I also noticed that the photos came out with better exposures if taken in portrait mode instead of landscape. Very strange. I wonder if its due to the flaring from the orientation.

Also tried some shots using live view but the focussing mode is cumbersome and not accurate although it did allow me to take a few shots over my head because my front was blocked.

Here are some examples of the blurred shots. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[airconvent]

More blurred ones. Is it due to handshake? I had the SR on but can't seem to hear it working at all. I am able to hear it working on the K200D, so not sure if its because the SR is not working.:think:

This one the shavee was sitting still but still came out blurred.

 

[airconvent]

These series is the best amongst the entire crop. Still not razor sharp like what most of you commonly showcase...

 

[flowerpot]

shutter too slow... 1/20, 1/15, 1/30...

 

[airconvent]

Do share on where you think I went wrong. I tried Av and P modes (not familiar with M) and even tried "green" mode too. The worse as expected was the 18-250mm but again, the venue was not very bright either.

 

[airconvent]

shutter too slow... 1/20, 1/15, 1/30...

Thanks flowerpot.
I am not very good with manual...in fact hopeless, so I stuck to P mode mostly.
In your opinion, what shutter speed is considered fast in this case?
Cheers

 

[scorpioh]

For human subject, at least 1/60, 1/125 to really freeze, 1/250 for joggers. hand-shake is one thing that SR may help but not actual subject movement. Also, a flash would really help in your pics. Bounce it with a bounce card or use a diffuser or both.

 

[airconvent]

For human subject, at least 1/60, 1/125 to really freeze, 1/250 for joggers. hand-shake is one thing that SR may help but not actual subject movement.

Thanks scorpioh
That's a good tip I can remember! So the camera's algorithm is tuned for "still" objects?
But if I set the shutter speed higher, to prevent under exposure I would have to ensure the aperture is wide open or the ISO is much higher? I have limited it to 800 for this round.

 

[jjynwa]

There is a well known rule of thumb : "use a shutter speed that is 1 /the focal length used." It is recommend to shoot at for instance at least 1/200sec or faster when shooting at 200mm, and that to avoid any motion blur due to your own stability. This is of course just serve as a guide.. Hope it helps.. =)

 

[scorpioh]

Thanks scorpioh
That's a good tip I can remember! So the camera's algorithm is tuned for "still" objects?
But if I set the shutter speed higher, to prevent under exposure I would have to ensure the aperture is wide open or the ISO is much higher? I have limited it to 800 for this round.

Welcomed. <: SR is basically only effective for hand-shake. It doesn't stop motion blur. Yeah, so in a sense, SR is only for still subjects. You are right, open up the aperture or up the iso. Actually upping ISO is not as bad as it may seem. In fact, grain noise from ISO is less destructive than motion-blurred (due to low shutter) or out-of-focus (due to too shallow dof from big apertures). Anyway, for your k-7, you can go up to iso1600 quite safely. I am restricted by my k10d in this case (usually 640 max or worst 800). And one more thing: if you flash, your high iso noise is very much acceptable, they only turn out badly in shadow regions in available light shots.

 

[jjynwa]

Thanks scorpioh
That's a good tip I can remember! So the camera's algorithm is tuned for "still" objects?
But if I set the shutter speed higher, to prevent under exposure I would have to ensure the aperture is wide open or the ISO is much higher? I have limited it to 800 for this round.

yes.. to have the same exposure or the desired exposure with higher shutter speed... your iso definately have to bump up... or using a small f stop...

 

[scorpioh]

There is a well known rule of thumb : "use a shutter speed that is 1 /the focal length used." It is recommend to shoot at for instance at least 1/200sec or faster when shooting at 200mm, and that to avoid any motion blur due to your own stability. This is of course just serve as a guide.. Hope it helps.. =)

Yeah, have to take care of both freezing motion and the 1/focal length rule, limited to the higher one. But say you use ur 200mm, with ur SR, you could still manage some 1/125 comfortably on human subjects.

 

[creampuff]

For goodness sake, how are you going to take creative control if all you're doing is to shoot in Program mode or Green mode? If you're just going to use full auto exposure and let the camera determine the exposure, you're just going to get hits and misses.

Looking at the exif there is a consistent pattern of camera shake and/or subject motion on all the shots slower than 1/50 sec. You're also shooting at max aperture in just about every shot which means narrow DOF and any hint of motion and the picture won't look sharp. Since the lenses you were using aren't very fast aperture wise, you could have pushed the camera's ISO higher than ISO800 and used say shutter priority to keep the shutter speed at least 1/60 sec. The variation in exposure is due to the proportion of light and dark tones in the scene. On two of the images you were using spot metering, one was exposed correctly, the other was overexposed.

 

[airconvent]

Thanks for all the tips guys! Never occured to me to try shutter priority. Had been using my cameras for mostly family snapshots all along. First time trying an "event" and posting the results.
So the best start when using the DA70mm for live action is to have at least 1/70 s shutter speed (rule of thumb) and ISO of 1600. Will try this in future.
Thanks.....

 

[nik34]

Bro if you prefer to use "p" mode for this type of event,you need to push higher
ISO to gain higher shutter speed, for k7 1250-1600 iso no problem at all.
just my 2 cents worth.

 

[JavaBeanz]

think we need to multiply by 1.5 for cropped sensor? :think:

 

[icemangrafx]

Agreed, shutter speed is too slow. I appreciate TS for postings those images so that most of us can give tips for better phototaking. I appreciate and value most of the comments given... Learning everyday.

Thank you all :thumbsup:

Regards,
Jay

 

[flowerpot]

think we need to multiply by 1.5 for cropped sensor? :think:

no need to multiply... focal length never change even if its 10 times cropped, only FOV change...

 

[flowerpot]

eh Richard K-7 overkill la...pass it to me i help u take nice pics :bsmilie:

 

[Francis Lee]

Thanks for all the tips guys! Never occured to me to try shutter priority. Had been using my cameras for mostly family snapshots all along. First time trying an "event" and posting the results.
So the best start when using the DA70mm for live action is to have at least 1/70 s shutter speed (rule of thumb) and ISO of 1600. Will try this in future.
Thanks.....

Hi Richard,
You may really want to join in the regular outings & insist on finding out the Why's & What's of EV setting rather than the How's. 10 people can offer you 10 different preferences, their personal preferences that work. More important here is yours... Does it work?