[saladin]

1 hour ago i walked into a camera store to get some prices, and ended up walking out with a k-5, a 150-500 siggy, a kenko filter and a 16 gig card


The aim is to shoot large-field sports. I'm a trifle apprehensive about IQ from the lens, but i didn't really want to switch away from Pentax - in fact i wanted the k5 to partner my old-favourite k10 - purely to satisfy the sports side when i'm more than happy with general use pentax photography.

So, here's hoping it's a good combination. I'll do a search on how to test for the sensor stains (should be fine but just in case), anything else i should check early-on?

[SteveM]

Woo hoo! Sounds like you're going to have a great weekend! You'll enjoy being able to have clean high ISO shots when you're using the 150-500.....

[mattt]

I think I smell the visa still smoking. Enjoy, and post some work product here, I like to live vicariously by another's purchase.

[JinDesu]

I like the whole idea of "walking out" with the k-5 and a Sigma 150-500 >.>...

/jealous

[lammie200]

I am not sure what else you can check for. There was one guy that had lock-ups after he pressed an unusual combination of buttons. Personally I was never concerned about it with my camera, so I never tried to mimic his problem.

As far as sensor stains go, they may take some time to show up. Evidently it is heat that causes them, so a (nearly) virgin sensor might not show anything anyway. Probably worth checking after a few thousand clicks though.

Another thing I can add is that you might want to make sure that you have the latest firmware installed. It is supposed to cure some lock ups, but I couldn't tell you for sure. Never had one myself.

Last thing is that if you are in the USA, you might want to look into the Pentax extended warranty. Makes for a total of 3 years and is usually available at Adorama or BH for around $20. It's a no-brainer. Oops, I can see that you are in OZ. Nevermind.

[Adam]

Your camera won't have any stains, but to check, shoot a pic of the sky at F22.

The Sigma is fine for sports, but you might also consider the Tamron 70-200mm

[Clicker]

...no kangaroo is safe now

[saladin]

adam,

yeah, when the visa fire is put out, i was thinking of adding a 70-200. possibly the sigma, as the quiet AF would be useful for functions/weddings etc (i also want to add a 24-70/2.8, 85mm sigma, FA77, blah blah blah, lol) . but for aussie rules footy and cricket, you really need more reach than the 200 can give. I tried to buy a 100-300 f/4 but missed one on here, so opted eventually for the 500.

[SpecialK]

The 150-500 is a decent lens, though I am used to "listening" for the focus with my other lenses - the silent one takes a bit of getting used to :-)

[ThonasDay]

Wow congratulations on your purchase. That is one HUGE lens!

[Tonto]

Good one! Will be interest in seeing some pics with that lens

[wizofoz]

G'day saladin,

great choice of camera, and a very useful lens for our larger sports grounds. People who are used to 100 yard x 50 yard soccer and gridiron playing fields, and even smaller basketball, volleyball, etc courts find it hard to understand why we need such long lenses on our vastly larger aussie rules and cricket grounds (which in general have dimensions well over twice the above). I find the K-5 to be a terrific camera for action photo's as I can 'burst' a few frames @7fps and get the ball in the shot at the decisive moment if I time it right. I also like the IR remote for shooting on a tripod with sports such as cricket, because you know where the action will be if you are trying to get the batsman mid stroke and you just need to wait. Getting fielding shots around the ground are much harder.

Attached are a couple of images I made with exactly your combination just a week or so back. (local 20/20 match cricketers v footballers) The distance from my shooting position - adjacent the beer tent - to the closer set of stumps would be around 80-90 meters. The first one is cropped from a largr image, the 2nd is shot at 500mm.

As far as problems go, my K-5 has been with me for 15 months, many thousands of shots, two overseas trips through the tropics, 5 different countries, and has never missed a beat. I feel so ripped off, I never get to complain about anything...

Which part of Melbourne are you from, and which camera store has the melted plastic in their eftpos machine? (I'm betting on Michaels in the city)

Wayne

[saladin]

G'day saladin,



Which part of Melbourne are you from, and which camera store has the melted plastic in their eftpos machine? (I'm betting on Michaels in the city)

Wayne

nah, i'm from wantirna and camera house (city) bettered a price from jb. battery is on charge. tried the siggy on my k10 and it's ok so far.

[saladin]

quick update - haven't been able to use the 500 on the k5 in anger just yet, hoping to get out later today and see if the local cricket club have a match on.

On the camera itself, you know it must be high-tech when the user manual weighs almost as much as the camera body

random thoughts:

I prefer the door over the pc connector of my K10 than the rubber seal used by the K5.

In portrait hold, for me the reach to the shutter button is a tiny bit awkward compared to the 10.

How much FUN is ISO52,000 !!?? I was cruising the house last night with the siggy set at 150 and the camera at full iso and rattling off shots of anything remotely dark. coupled with the quiet but rapid burst mode, the feel-good factor was high. wifey was laughing at my enthusiasm, the kids thought i was hilarious, i just had a great time. which is what it should all be about.

the AF system is far snappier than the 10's. I took the camera to a family get-together yesterday afternoon with the 10's original kit lens (DA 18-55 series 1) attached. You can feel the torque reaction as the AF drives the lens to where it wants it to be. no doubt in my mind that this is a substantially quicker system. as you'd expect.

I was a little disappointed in the IQ results from the 18-55 though. Gut feel is that the results were not as good as i usually get from the 10. Almost like the action hasn't quite been "stopped" - making everything not quite sharp- even though shutter speed was adequate. I might have a ff/rf problem, perhaps? or maybe the camera simply out-resolves a fairly old kit lens? It's the one nagging doubt i have about the camera after two days of ownership. One thing I don't have is a top-notch general range zoom to put on it. More tests/photo's required to see if i'm just imagining things.

For a K10 user, the set-up is quite intuitive. very easy transition, though i still get lost in the menu systems occasionally Love the iso button, though with the wheels set-up in AV as i like them, it's not a absolute must-have.

Undecided whether the shake-reduction now being menu-hidden is going to be painful or not.

I turned on the highlight correction and left it there. Base iso 160 i don't think is going to worry me.

I have roughly 2,000 built-in functions still to explore . Stumbled across the in-camera crop function last night. think that will be a handy tool for me. Looking forward to using the HDR thing. And i'm going to turn off all NR, just curious to see the effect that has. the higher iso results look a bit like film grain to me - B&W at 12,000+ might give some really interesting "old-feel" results?

[wizofoz]

I'd highly recommend getting either the kosher or a generic battery grip for the k-5, it just makes the canera feel so much better in the hands, and it gives you the vertical format controls right where they should be.

The Penatx grip costs (without checking) around $300 + and the generic grip is under $100. The Pentax grip is far superior build and has weather sealing, but both work just fine. (I have one of each, the generic grip lives on my k-7)