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07-06-2011, 04:35 AM - 1 Like   #1
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Pentax K-5 low light AF torture test

Hey guys

I had an opportunity to perform this test at home with my new model. He's very small, fast, unpredictable and ginger His name is Manol.

Here are some pics I took of him two days ago:

????? :) | Facebook

The conditions were not very good - one light bulb, a red sofa, an orange cat, ISO 8000, shutter speed - 1/100 to 1/200, f-stop - 2.4 with the 70mm Limited, AF mode - AF-C.

I managed about 35-40% success rate with about 1-1.5 fps and I think it's far more than I expected and very close to what any other camera might be able to achieve.

Yes, if I had used AF-S and had selected carefully the time to make each shot, I would have had a far better success rate. But this was not the point of the test - I wanted to just press the shutter button and fire away, giving most of the control to the camera and just trying to compose the shots in the meantime .

Please share your thoughts, I'll be happy to read them

Thanks!

07-06-2011, 05:05 AM - 1 Like   #2
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Looks pretty good to me.
And pretty much expected for the conditions.
Fine results.
07-06-2011, 06:15 AM   #3
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Most of them are front focussed. Not by a huge amount but front focussed all the same.
07-06-2011, 06:16 AM - 1 Like   #4
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Looks pretty good to me, makes me wanting to get the K-5. I have no chance of doing that with my K-7. Did you leave focus point select and WB to auto?
Thanks for sharing your test results.

07-06-2011, 06:54 AM   #5
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A little gausian blur

Hey there. Nice pics. Makes me want a K5 fer sure. You can keep the red couch. A little pp PS gausian blur to smooth out the couch, maybe a little color balance. As the other poster mentioned, the couch in focus on the first few shots is a bit annoying, I thought, given the shallow dof.

07-06-2011, 07:09 AM - 1 Like   #6
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Look fine to me....I am not much of a low light shooter, but my K5 has delivered well when I needed a low light shot...which is not often. Fine looking kitty!
Have fun!
Regards!
07-06-2011, 07:25 AM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by Smeggypants Quote
Most of them are front focussed. Not by a huge amount but front focussed all the same.
Well... not very sure about this, all of them are within the DOF, maybe if you look at the kitty's legs and the focus on the couch in front, you might think the pic is front focused, but keep in mind, that the head and also the eyes of the kitty are well in front of his legs There might be still a slight FF, I guess, if you pixelpeep, but I'm not that kind of guy

07-06-2011, 10:35 AM   #8
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The focus is ok on most pictures, but the light is not that low. Around EV 4 or 5 it seems, which usually is enough not to trigger the infamous K-5's FF.
07-06-2011, 02:01 PM - 1 Like   #9
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Well you can even make it better to set a little correction for the FF when you are in conditions like this, but to me this is already a very nice set of pictures.
07-07-2011, 01:40 AM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by aleonx3 Quote
Looks pretty good to me, makes me wanting to get the K-5. I have no chance of doing that with my K-7. Did you leave focus point select and WB to auto?
Thanks for sharing your test results.
Thanks AF point was upper left or right, depending on the framing, WB was set to Tungsten.
07-07-2011, 02:05 PM - 1 Like   #11
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Nice shots ! Thank's for the test !
07-08-2011, 03:26 AM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by PhilippeG Quote
The focus is ok on most pictures, but the light is not that low. Around EV 4 or 5 it seems, which usually is enough not to trigger the infamous K-5's FF.
Hi I did some research and for most of the pictures it seems that the EV is between 3 and 4. I'm not sure exactly, as most EV calculators don't have 1/3 EV steps and go as high as ISO 6400 and not more...
07-08-2011, 05:22 AM   #13
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Bottom line is if you and Manol are happy with the camera, that's all that matters. I've only had one opportunity with one of those creatures. He was so fast, all I got were blurry pics of his tail (with a point and shoot).

07-08-2011, 07:26 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by JeffJS Quote
Bottom line is if you and Manol are happy with the camera, that's all that matters. I've only had one opportunity with one of those creatures. He was so fast, all I got were blurry pics of his tail (with a point and shoot).

I'd like to seem some of those photos of a cat with a point and shoot in his tail .... How does he trigger the shutter??
07-08-2011, 07:41 AM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by glanglois Quote
I'd like to seem some of those photos of a cat with a point and shoot in his tail .... How does he trigger the shutter??


I don't know. Perhaps it was CATch in Focus. He never let me see any of his photos

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