Has anyone used their Pentax K-5 for concerts?

Into The Lens · 06-30-2013, 12:00 PM

Here are some "day by day" shots I took at this year's FIJM. Most pictures where shot with a Pentax K-5 with a few shot with a Fuji X100s here and there...

"Sunpeakin' at the Jazz Fest" ― (Fuji X100s)

Day 1 ― Friday, June 28, 2013

"Scène Blues Loto-Québec's" sound board and crowd. (Fuji X100s)

Larry McCray ― Scène blues Loto-Québec.

Joel DaSilva & The Midnight Howl

Joel DaSilva & The Midnight Howl (feat. Larry McCray)

"Beer Stand" ― Festival site (Fuji X100s)

Day 2 ― Saturday, June 29, 2013

"Crowd at the Blues Scene" ― (Fuji X100s)

"Mister Soundman..." ― Place des Festivals. (Fuji X100s)

"Looking for the Scene" ― Festival site (Fuji X100s)

somaticsweater · 07-01-2013, 09:11 AM

hello all... i only just recently picked up a k-5 iis and use it pretty much exclusively just for concerts. i was actually debating between a canon 6d and nikon d600/d7100, but the pentax eventually won out. anyways, here are 2 recent photos that i just took of a band called "someone still loves you boris yeltsin". the lighting was crap and i shot at iso 5000 - pretty happy with how it handles noise. fyi, you can see the rest of the photos here.

Into The Lens · 07-01-2013, 10:05 AM

Originally posted by somaticsweater

hello all... i only just recently picked up a k-5 iis and use it pretty much exclusively just for concerts. i was actually debating between a canon 6d and nikon d600/d7100, but the pentax eventually won out. anyways, here are 2 recent photos that i just took of a band called "someone still loves you boris yeltsin". the lighting was crap and i shot at iso 5000 - pretty happy with how it handles noise. fyi, you can see the rest of the photos here.

Nice shots, somaticsweater. I was thinking of maybe upgrading to a K52S for it being apparently a lot better than the K5 in low light (better auto focus performance). Did your AF struggle a little when you shot these. I can tell just by your photographs the lighting was poor. I shoot at lot in these bad conditions and wish the K5 performed a little better at that sometimes.

somaticsweater · 07-01-2013, 10:30 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by Into The Lens

Nice shots, somaticsweater. I was thinking of maybe upgrading to a K52S for it being apparently a lot better than the K5 in low light (better auto focus performance). Did your AF struggle a little when you shot these. I can tell just by your photographs the lighting was poor. I shoot at lot in these bad conditions and wish the K5 performed a little better at that sometimes.

thanks! AF-wise, this camera doesn't struggle... at all! sound-wise, it is definitely noisier than what i'm used to though (using it with a tamron 17-50). it's also very snappy especially compared to the other camera i use for concerts (a fuji x-pro 1). fyi, i use the back-button focus technique on the k-5 iis.

i've used canon DSLRs in the past and their dynamic is so poor compared to the pentax - i've only had the camera for a short time, but barely ever (actually never) saw any highlight clipping.

rawr · 07-10-2013, 04:46 PM

Couple recents from a local venue. K-5 w Pentax A 35-105 f3.5. Bit of a colour cast, unfortunately, due to LED lighting swamping the scene with purple, magenta and red.

qt 3.141

Smiling again

Backing vocals

joe.penn · 07-10-2013, 06:24 PM

Originally posted by rawr

Couple recents from a local venue. K-5 w Pentax A 35-105 f3.5. Bit of a colour cast, unfortunately, due to LED lighting swamping the scene with purple, magenta and red.

Good shots @rawr .

FYR: A quick flash of CTO fixes this color cast while still keeping the proper ambient light within the scene.

john5100 · 07-10-2013, 06:54 PM

They are good and some color cast is fine. That's what the lights were doing and you captured the night.

rawr · 07-10-2013, 11:26 PM

Originally posted by joe.penn

CTO

Pardon my ignorance... but what's that.

After looking at the images again, I've just run the main ones from that gig through Pentax Digital Camera Utility v4, which has great WB features, inc a very handy multipoint grey point selector. I used that to select 3 grey points off the microphones to get a better colour rendition. The results look natural so I may update these images at some stage. PDCU seems to do very well with Asian skin colours, in particular, which is probably not a surprise.

awaldram · 07-11-2013, 02:18 AM

Originally posted by rawr

Pardon my ignorance... but what's that.

Its a gel flash filter (colour temperature orange)
Joe how would firing an orange colored flash have helped in this situation ?
IMO it would have aggravated the light balance

Surely using CTB (Colour Temperature Blue) woudl be the correct approach.?

It could also have been corrected by using a custom WB to achieve accurate skin tone but then the background would have turned blue

rawr · 07-11-2013, 03:50 AM

Originally posted by awaldram

Its a gel flash filter (colour temperature orange)

Aha. But I never use flash at gigs. So a CTO would be little assistance. Unless using CTO in PP is what is being discussed? But I already routinely work with the colour temperature adjustments (hue/saturation/luminance etc) for orange in Lightroom.

Most times I just hunt for something grey equivalent in the scene in PP to help adjust WB. It's never perfect but it brings me close enough, usually.

awaldram · 07-11-2013, 04:18 AM

Originally posted by rawr

Aha. But I never use flash at gigs. So a CTO would be little assistance. Unless using CTO in PP is what is being discussed? But I already routinely work with the colour temperature adjustments (hue/saturation/luminance etc) for orange in Lightroom.

Most times I just hunt for something grey equivalent in the scene in PP to help adjust WB. It's never perfect but it brings me close enough, usually.

Snap I shoot raw and correct CB in post usually by using 'click white' in after shot, Generally the colour cast caused on non main lit subjects adds atmosphere .

rawr · 07-11-2013, 07:05 AM

Originally posted by awaldram

Generally the colour cast caused on non main lit subjects adds atmosphere .

Agree. CB related stuff like perfect skin tones at gigs are nice to obtain when it's possible without too much effort. Otherwise I just roll with atmospheric.

joe.penn · 07-11-2013, 08:57 AM

Using CTO will help enable a clean consistent and uniform tungsten white balance which should in most cases match near exact to the actual stage lighting. As for which CTO to use, that depends on how much ambient light is within the scene - I keep a 1/2 CTO attached to my main flash at all times. Unfortunately PP can not fully correct white balance issues when the scene includes lighting from many different types of light sources, gel'ing at time of exposure fixes this issue.

Originally posted by rawr

Most times I just hunt for something grey equivalent in the scene in PP to help adjust WB. It's never perfect but it brings me close enough, usually.

And that is where gel'ing comes into play.

Of course, none of that matters if you don't use flash anyways

**mattb123** · 07-11-2013, 09:38 AM

Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the local watering hole last night. Great show!
I didn't use a flash (I usually don't for concerts) so I just shot RAW and set WB myself either with the dropper or manually.

K-5 & Rokinon 8/3.5

K-5 & Tamron 28-75/2.8

awaldram · 07-11-2013, 09:54 AM

Originally posted by joe.penn

Using CTO will help enable a clean consistent and uniform tungsten white balance which should in most cases match near exact to the actual stage lighting. As for which CTO to use, that depends on how much ambient light is within the scene - I keep a 1/2 CTO attached to my main flash at all times. Unfortunately PP can not fully correct white balance issues when the scene includes lighting from many different types of light sources, gel'ing at time of exposure fixes this issue.

And that is where gel'ing comes into play.

Of course, none of that matters if you don't use flash anyways

Ah I get you, instead of using CTB and daylight WB you use CTO and Tungsten ...it all becomes clear

Thanks

07-11-2013, 09:38 AM	#224
mattb123 Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Colorado High Country Photos: Gallery Posts: 10,873	Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the local watering hole last night. Great show! I didn't use a flash (I usually don't for concerts) so I just shot RAW and set WB myself either with the dropper or manually. K-5 & Rokinon 8/3.5 K-5 & Tamron 28-75/2.8 K-5 & Tamron 28-75/2.8 Last edited by mattb123; 07-11-2013 at 10:13 AM.

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06-30-2013, 12:00 PM	#211
Into The Lens Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Between clever and stupid Photos: Albums Posts: 216	Here are some "day by day" shots I took at this year's FIJM. Most pictures where shot with a Pentax K-5 with a few shot with a Fuji X100s here and there... "Sunpeakin' at the Jazz Fest" ― (Fuji X100s) Day 1 ― Friday, June 28, 2013 "Scène Blues Loto-Québec's" sound board and crowd. (Fuji X100s) Larry McCray ― Scène blues Loto-Québec. Joel DaSilva & The Midnight Howl Joel DaSilva & The Midnight Howl (feat. Larry McCray) "Beer Stand" ― Festival site (Fuji X100s) Day 2 ― Saturday, June 29, 2013 "Crowd at the Blues Scene" ― (Fuji X100s) "Mister Soundman..." ― Place des Festivals. (Fuji X100s) "Looking for the Scene" ― Festival site (Fuji X100s)

07-01-2013, 09:11 AM	#212
somaticsweater New Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: New Jersey Photos: Albums Posts: 6	hello all... i only just recently picked up a k-5 iis and use it pretty much exclusively just for concerts. i was actually debating between a canon 6d and nikon d600/d7100, but the pentax eventually won out. anyways, here are 2 recent photos that i just took of a band called "someone still loves you boris yeltsin". the lighting was crap and i shot at iso 5000 - pretty happy with how it handles noise. fyi, you can see the rest of the photos here.

07-01-2013, 10:05 AM	#213
Into The Lens Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Between clever and stupid Photos: Albums Posts: 216	Originally posted by somaticsweater hello all... i only just recently picked up a k-5 iis and use it pretty much exclusively just for concerts. i was actually debating between a canon 6d and nikon d600/d7100, but the pentax eventually won out. anyways, here are 2 recent photos that i just took of a band called "someone still loves you boris yeltsin". the lighting was crap and i shot at iso 5000 - pretty happy with how it handles noise. fyi, you can see the rest of the photos here. Nice shots, somaticsweater. I was thinking of maybe upgrading to a K52S for it being apparently a lot better than the K5 in low light (better auto focus performance). Did your AF struggle a little when you shot these. I can tell just by your photographs the lighting was poor. I shoot at lot in these bad conditions and wish the K5 performed a little better at that sometimes.

07-01-2013, 10:30 AM - 1 Like	#214
somaticsweater New Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: New Jersey Photos: Albums Posts: 6	Originally posted by Into The Lens Nice shots, somaticsweater. I was thinking of maybe upgrading to a K52S for it being apparently a lot better than the K5 in low light (better auto focus performance). Did your AF struggle a little when you shot these. I can tell just by your photographs the lighting was poor. I shoot at lot in these bad conditions and wish the K5 performed a little better at that sometimes. thanks! AF-wise, this camera doesn't struggle... at all! sound-wise, it is definitely noisier than what i'm used to though (using it with a tamron 17-50). it's also very snappy especially compared to the other camera i use for concerts (a fuji x-pro 1). fyi, i use the back-button focus technique on the k-5 iis. i've used canon DSLRs in the past and their dynamic is so poor compared to the pentax - i've only had the camera for a short time, but barely ever (actually never) saw any highlight clipping.

07-10-2013, 04:46 PM	#215
rawr Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 11,913	Couple recents from a local venue. K-5 w Pentax A 35-105 f3.5. Bit of a colour cast, unfortunately, due to LED lighting swamping the scene with purple, magenta and red. qt 3.141 Smiling again Backing vocals

07-10-2013, 06:24 PM	#216
joe.penn Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Maryland (Right Outside Washington DC) Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,902	Originally posted by rawr Couple recents from a local venue. K-5 w Pentax A 35-105 f3.5. Bit of a colour cast, unfortunately, due to LED lighting swamping the scene with purple, magenta and red. Good shots @rawr . FYR: A quick flash of CTO fixes this color cast while still keeping the proper ambient light within the scene.

07-10-2013, 06:54 PM	#217
john5100 Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 1,725	They are good and some color cast is fine. That's what the lights were doing and you captured the night.

07-10-2013, 11:26 PM	#218
rawr Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 11,913	Originally posted by joe.penn CTO Pardon my ignorance... but what's that. After looking at the images again, I've just run the main ones from that gig through Pentax Digital Camera Utility v4, which has great WB features, inc a very handy multipoint grey point selector. I used that to select 3 grey points off the microphones to get a better colour rendition. The results look natural so I may update these images at some stage. PDCU seems to do very well with Asian skin colours, in particular, which is probably not a surprise.

07-11-2013, 02:18 AM	#219
awaldram Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Hampshire Photos: Gallery Posts: 732	Originally posted by rawr Pardon my ignorance... but what's that. Its a gel flash filter (colour temperature orange) Joe how would firing an orange colored flash have helped in this situation ? IMO it would have aggravated the light balance Surely using CTB (Colour Temperature Blue) woudl be the correct approach.? It could also have been corrected by using a custom WB to achieve accurate skin tone but then the background would have turned blue

07-11-2013, 03:50 AM	#220
rawr Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 11,913	Originally posted by awaldram Its a gel flash filter (colour temperature orange) Aha. But I never use flash at gigs. So a CTO would be little assistance. Unless using CTO in PP is what is being discussed? But I already routinely work with the colour temperature adjustments (hue/saturation/luminance etc) for orange in Lightroom. Most times I just hunt for something grey equivalent in the scene in PP to help adjust WB. It's never perfect but it brings me close enough, usually.

07-11-2013, 04:18 AM	#221
awaldram Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Hampshire Photos: Gallery Posts: 732	Originally posted by rawr Aha. But I never use flash at gigs. So a CTO would be little assistance. Unless using CTO in PP is what is being discussed? But I already routinely work with the colour temperature adjustments (hue/saturation/luminance etc) for orange in Lightroom. Most times I just hunt for something grey equivalent in the scene in PP to help adjust WB. It's never perfect but it brings me close enough, usually. Snap I shoot raw and correct CB in post usually by using 'click white' in after shot, Generally the colour cast caused on non main lit subjects adds atmosphere .

07-11-2013, 07:05 AM	#222
rawr Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 11,913	Originally posted by awaldram Generally the colour cast caused on non main lit subjects adds atmosphere . Agree. CB related stuff like perfect skin tones at gigs are nice to obtain when it's possible without too much effort. Otherwise I just roll with atmospheric.

07-11-2013, 08:57 AM	#223
joe.penn Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Maryland (Right Outside Washington DC) Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,902	Using CTO will help enable a clean consistent and uniform tungsten white balance which should in most cases match near exact to the actual stage lighting. As for which CTO to use, that depends on how much ambient light is within the scene - I keep a 1/2 CTO attached to my main flash at all times. Unfortunately PP can not fully correct white balance issues when the scene includes lighting from many different types of light sources, gel'ing at time of exposure fixes this issue. Originally posted by rawr Most times I just hunt for something grey equivalent in the scene in PP to help adjust WB. It's never perfect but it brings me close enough, usually. And that is where gel'ing comes into play. Of course, none of that matters if you don't use flash anyways

07-11-2013, 09:54 AM	#225
awaldram Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Hampshire Photos: Gallery Posts: 732	Originally posted by joe.penn Using CTO will help enable a clean consistent and uniform tungsten white balance which should in most cases match near exact to the actual stage lighting. As for which CTO to use, that depends on how much ambient light is within the scene - I keep a 1/2 CTO attached to my main flash at all times. Unfortunately PP can not fully correct white balance issues when the scene includes lighting from many different types of light sources, gel'ing at time of exposure fixes this issue. And that is where gel'ing comes into play. Of course, none of that matters if you don't use flash anyways Ah I get you, instead of using CTB and daylight WB you use CTO and Tungsten ...it all becomes clear Thanks