Need reassurance!

pickone · 03-09-2015, 06:45 AM

Your two sharpest lenses are your 50mm lens, The kit 18-55 shoots best at f8. The Quantaray is optimized at the short end not near the 300mm, so shots may be soft beyond 220mm or so. The 50-200 is known to be erratic so you will have to test, F8 is almost always the best. Your 28mm is OK. I have a K30 and like it a lot but I have a K5 on the way. Like other posters have said PP can do it all to make a bland shot into a stunning shot. You usually have to adjust sharpening, contrast, and saturation just a little. You have to know what makes a good shot too. Diagonals, leading lines, rules of thirds, etc.

ChristianRock · 03-09-2015, 07:32 AM - **1 Like**

I would leave your M 50 1.7 on the camera for a while and just go out and shoot for a few weeks. Maybe do a "monthly challenge" with it. Every once in a while you'll end up with a picture so good, you'll know that your camera is capable of doing much better than the results you've gotten before - and it'll make you up your game.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the K-50, as others said. It's very capable as long as you know what you are doing. It's certainly a much better camera than the two that I have (K20D and K-r), and I've certainly seen astonishingly good pictures taken with the equipment that I have. Doing a flickr search with the K-50 or K-30 and just the M 28 (f)2.8 or the M 50 (f)1.7, showed some great pictures. (I put the word f under parenthesis because if you search with or without it, you get different results)

Don't be like this guy on some other thread, who keeps changing equipment all the time and now is thinking that when he has a 15fps camera it will "unlock his creativity" (his words not mine). And in his flickr page you see a lot of repeated pics like 10 almost identical pictures of his cat. Now instead of 10 identical pictures of the cat he's going to have 20. So, don't be that guy - he's frustrated with everything and blames his equipment, while his pictures show he doesn't even get out of his house most of the time. Go out, find interesting subjects, work on your composition skills, find stuff that interests you and take pictures of the real world.

Zephos · 03-09-2015, 07:49 AM

Originally posted by mohb

Exposure Time 1/160s (0.0063)
Aperture F/18.0
ISO Equivalent 3200
Hi these are the settings for 'Hanging seeds' in your album - why did you use f18 and ISO3200? Somebody else may be able to explain better than I can but that combination of settings are not going to help you produce the best quality. For most lenses any aperture setting of f18 makes the image less sharp because of diffraction and !SO3200 is not the best choice for getting detail in a picture.

I can't remember the specifics of that one but now that I think about it they don't sound very good. I think I may have not been paying attention to the settings or something. Thanks for pointing that out. I need to pay more attention!

**jatrax** · 03-09-2015, 09:39 AM

Originally posted by Zephos

I can't remember the specifics of that one but now that I think about it they don't sound very good. I think I may have not been paying attention to the settings or something. Thanks for pointing that out. I need to pay more attention!

There are two parts to photography. First the technical stuff where you master the camera, the photographic triangle (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) and learn when to use which settings. At first this seems daunting because you always seem to be using the wrong settings and things happen so fast. But with practice you eventually learn to look at a scene and decide almost automatically what settings you think might be best and then other settings that you might try to see what would happen.

The other half is the 'art' or creative part, understanding how light changes the scene and where to stand. When to take a picture and when not to bother. How to frame properly and get good composition.

You must master both halves in order to be good. After 4 years of shooting almost daily I am starting to feel comfortable with the technical part. My hands set the camera almost without conscious thought. The creative side, sadly is a different story and I have a long way to go there.

Zephos · 03-09-2015, 11:04 AM

Originally posted by ChristianRock

I would leave your M 50 1.7 on the camera for a while...

Why the M as opposed to my DA 50mm? I struggle with manual focus sometimes.

Here is a photo I took that I really like the composition on, and I swear I focused on the end of the log, but it still wasn't sharp on the fine details. Any idea what happened? I haven't done any PP on this but I plan to. Maybe I can turn it into something cool still.

**Rondec** · 03-09-2015, 11:33 AM

Originally posted by Zephos

Why the M as opposed to my DA 50mm? I struggle with manual focus sometimes.

Here is a photo I took that I really like the composition on, and I swear I focused on the end of the log, but it still wasn't sharp on the fine details. Any idea what happened? I haven't done any PP on this but I plan to. Maybe I can turn it into something cool still.

With that photo, you shot f11, 1/6000 second and iso 6400. Biggest thing is that pushing the iso up that high really gives a washed out look to the photo. Probably better to shoot iso 100 f8 and 1/200 second (or whatever it works out to be).

Your DA 50 should be fine to shoot with. I would get a hood for it, but other than that, I think you will find it nice and sharp.

Zephos · 03-09-2015, 11:53 AM

Originally posted by Rondec

With that photo, you shot f11, 1/6000 second and iso 6400. Biggest thing is that pushing the iso up that high really gives a washed out look to the photo. Probably better to shoot iso 100 f8 and 1/200 second (or whatever it works out to be).

Your DA 50 should be fine to shoot with. I would get a hood for it, but other than that, I think you will find it nice and sharp.

Ok I forgot to look at the EXIF. That explains it. Wow... I'm starting to think my camera has a mind of its own because I would never have set those settings and I usually have my iso restricted to 1600 and below. I know iso 6400 is really bad. I'm at a loss as to how that happened. I thought I was paying careful attention to it all. I guess not.

Ok this has been a revelation to me. I think my problem is that I haven't been paying attention and my camera is doing one thing while I think its doing something else. Thanks everyone.

ChristianRock · 03-09-2015, 12:24 PM

Originally posted by Zephos

Why the M as opposed to my DA 50mm?

Because it forces you to shoot in manual mode. The learning curve is greater, especially because manual focus is also in the picture, but the K-50 has a good viewfinder and you shouldn't have problems. Don't go down to f1.7 unless you have to, stay in f2.8 and smaller and you should be fine most of the time. Learn to review your histogram. It will make you learn to see how light falls on a subject and what makes a good image look good and what things you can do to basically ruin it

Don't let your camera choose your settings. Take control of it, and you'll see that you have so much untapped potential in your hands

**Rondec** · 03-09-2015, 12:44 PM

Originally posted by Zephos

Ok I forgot to look at the EXIF. That explains it. Wow... I'm starting to think my camera has a mind of its own because I would never have set those settings and I usually have my iso restricted to 1600 and below. I know iso 6400 is really bad. I'm at a loss as to how that happened. I thought I was paying careful attention to it all. I guess not.

Ok this has been a revelation to me. I think my problem is that I haven't been paying attention and my camera is doing one thing while I think its doing something else. Thanks everyone.

I think one of the things that has helped me develop more as a photographer is having an exif. It is just really handy to look at settings on photos that work and those that don't and see what it is that you did right (or forgot to do right).

sterretje · 03-09-2015, 11:50 PM

Originally posted by Zephos

Ok I forgot to look at the EXIF. That explains it. Wow... I'm starting to think my camera has a mind of its own because I would never have set those settings and I usually have my iso restricted to 1600 and below. I know iso 6400 is really bad. I'm at a loss as to how that happened. I thought I was paying careful attention to it all. I guess not.

Ok this has been a revelation to me. I think my problem is that I haven't been paying attention and my camera is doing one thing while I think its doing something else. Thanks everyone.

I think you're using auto-iso and that is killing you. If so, switch it off; there are times that it's useful and there are times that it does not serve any purpose. For the casual shot, it absolutely serves NO purpose. Set the camera to ISO100 when you're out and about during the day; change when you have to (aperture nearing the widest setting and/or shutterspeeds nearing what is possible handheld).

Zephos · 03-10-2015, 10:05 AM

Originally posted by sterretje

I think you're using auto-iso and that is killing you. If so, switch it off; there are times that it's useful and there are times that it does not serve any purpose. For the casual shot, it absolutely serves NO purpose. Set the camera to ISO100 when you're out and about during the day; change when you have to (aperture nearing the widest setting and/or shutterspeeds nearing what is possible handheld).

Thank you. I think I will take your advice and keep it on manual iso from now on. That will help I bet.

**UncleVanya** · 03-10-2015, 01:00 PM

Pentax K-50 Review - Recommended Settings | PentaxForums.com Reviews

I personally don't think manual ISO is needed. I do think carefully understanding what the options are would help. Setting max ISO to a value like 800 or 400 isn't unreasonable. I also like Av or Tv modes make a lot more sense than Manual for new users. Exposure bracketing and compensation settings are easy to access and simpler to use than manual mode for a new user.

I'm also a fan of the SCENE modes for newbies. It is one of the ways the K50 excels. You pick the type of scene it picks the settings - you learn by reviewing the EXIF and reading up on photography in the meantime you get shots that are mostly on target without being totally overwhelmed.

Zephos · 03-10-2015, 03:01 PM

Originally posted by UncleVanya

Pentax K-50 Review - Recommended Settings | PentaxForums.com Reviews

I personally don't think manual ISO is needed. I do think carefully understanding what the options are would help. Setting max ISO to a value like 800 or 400 isn't unreasonable. I also like Av or Tv modes make a lot more sense than Manual for new users. Exposure bracketing and compensation settings are easy to access and simpler to use than manual mode for a new user.

I'm also a fan of the SCENE modes for newbies. It is one of the ways the K50 excels. You pick the type of scene it picks the settings - you learn by reviewing the EXIF and reading up on photography in the meantime you get shots that are mostly on target without being totally overwhelmed.

As far a exposure bracketing goes, is it normal to only bracket 1/3 f stops? I would think that bracketing a full stop would make more sense.

**UncleVanya** · 03-10-2015, 03:23 PM

Originally posted by Zephos

As far a exposure bracketing goes, is it normal to only bracket 1/3 f stops? I would think that bracketing a full stop would make more sense.

The bracketing mode can be changed. The Go to the right on the 4 way controller, then move over to the +/- icon for exposure bracketing, then the DOWN button on the 4 way. This should highlight the EV compensation at +/- 0.3EV or whatever the current setting is. Use the rear wheel to widen or narrow the range. On the K50 the limit is +/- 3.0 EV's.

mee · 03-10-2015, 08:00 PM

Originally posted by ChristianRock

Because it forces you to shoot in manual mode. The learning curve is greater, especially because manual focus is also in the picture, but the K-50 has a good viewfinder and you shouldn't have problems. Don't go down to f1.7 unless you have to, stay in f2.8 and smaller and you should be fine most of the time. Learn to review your histogram. It will make you learn to see how light falls on a subject and what makes a good image look good and what things you can do to basically ruin it

Don't let your camera choose your settings. Take control of it, and you'll see that you have so much untapped potential in your hands

I would STRONGLY recommend all beginners NOT to use manual focus lenses. It is difficult enough to understand proper exposure without adding proper focusing techniques at the same time.

Learn exposure first. It is way way way way way more important to you as a photographer. After that, then maybe go back and learn manual focusing.. if you want to. But you really need to understand exposure pretty well to understand how to get the most out of the camera itself.

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03-09-2015, 06:45 AM	#16
pickone Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Photos: Gallery Posts: 85	Your two sharpest lenses are your 50mm lens, The kit 18-55 shoots best at f8. The Quantaray is optimized at the short end not near the 300mm, so shots may be soft beyond 220mm or so. The 50-200 is known to be erratic so you will have to test, F8 is almost always the best. Your 28mm is OK. I have a K30 and like it a lot but I have a K5 on the way. Like other posters have said PP can do it all to make a bland shot into a stunning shot. You usually have to adjust sharpening, contrast, and saturation just a little. You have to know what makes a good shot too. Diagonals, leading lines, rules of thirds, etc.

03-09-2015, 07:32 AM - 1 Like	#17
ChristianRock Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: People's Republic of America Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 9,912	I would leave your M 50 1.7 on the camera for a while and just go out and shoot for a few weeks. Maybe do a "monthly challenge" with it. Every once in a while you'll end up with a picture so good, you'll know that your camera is capable of doing much better than the results you've gotten before - and it'll make you up your game. I don't think there's anything wrong with the K-50, as others said. It's very capable as long as you know what you are doing. It's certainly a much better camera than the two that I have (K20D and K-r), and I've certainly seen astonishingly good pictures taken with the equipment that I have. Doing a flickr search with the K-50 or K-30 and just the M 28 (f)2.8 or the M 50 (f)1.7, showed some great pictures. (I put the word f under parenthesis because if you search with or without it, you get different results) Don't be like this guy on some other thread, who keeps changing equipment all the time and now is thinking that when he has a 15fps camera it will "unlock his creativity" (his words not mine). And in his flickr page you see a lot of repeated pics like 10 almost identical pictures of his cat. Now instead of 10 identical pictures of the cat he's going to have 20. So, don't be that guy - he's frustrated with everything and blames his equipment, while his pictures show he doesn't even get out of his house most of the time. Go out, find interesting subjects, work on your composition skills, find stuff that interests you and take pictures of the real world.

03-09-2015, 07:49 AM	#18
Zephos Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Photos: Albums Posts: 341 Original Poster	Originally posted by mohb Exposure Time 1/160s (0.0063) Aperture F/18.0 ISO Equivalent 3200 Hi these are the settings for 'Hanging seeds' in your album - why did you use f18 and ISO3200? Somebody else may be able to explain better than I can but that combination of settings are not going to help you produce the best quality. For most lenses any aperture setting of f18 makes the image less sharp because of diffraction and !SO3200 is not the best choice for getting detail in a picture. I can't remember the specifics of that one but now that I think about it they don't sound very good. I think I may have not been paying attention to the settings or something. Thanks for pointing that out. I need to pay more attention!

03-09-2015, 09:39 AM	#19
jatrax Site Supporter Join Date: May 2010 Location: Washington Cascades Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,991	Originally posted by Zephos I can't remember the specifics of that one but now that I think about it they don't sound very good. I think I may have not been paying attention to the settings or something. Thanks for pointing that out. I need to pay more attention! There are two parts to photography. First the technical stuff where you master the camera, the photographic triangle (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) and learn when to use which settings. At first this seems daunting because you always seem to be using the wrong settings and things happen so fast. But with practice you eventually learn to look at a scene and decide almost automatically what settings you think might be best and then other settings that you might try to see what would happen. The other half is the 'art' or creative part, understanding how light changes the scene and where to stand. When to take a picture and when not to bother. How to frame properly and get good composition. You must master both halves in order to be good. After 4 years of shooting almost daily I am starting to feel comfortable with the technical part. My hands set the camera almost without conscious thought. The creative side, sadly is a different story and I have a long way to go there.

03-09-2015, 11:04 AM	#20
Zephos Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Photos: Albums Posts: 341 Original Poster	Originally posted by ChristianRock I would leave your M 50 1.7 on the camera for a while... Why the M as opposed to my DA 50mm? I struggle with manual focus sometimes. Here is a photo I took that I really like the composition on, and I swear I focused on the end of the log, but it still wasn't sharp on the fine details. Any idea what happened? I haven't done any PP on this but I plan to. Maybe I can turn it into something cool still.

03-09-2015, 11:33 AM	#21
Rondec Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Gladys, Virginia Photos: Gallery Posts: 27,663	Originally posted by Zephos Why the M as opposed to my DA 50mm? I struggle with manual focus sometimes. Here is a photo I took that I really like the composition on, and I swear I focused on the end of the log, but it still wasn't sharp on the fine details. Any idea what happened? I haven't done any PP on this but I plan to. Maybe I can turn it into something cool still. With that photo, you shot f11, 1/6000 second and iso 6400. Biggest thing is that pushing the iso up that high really gives a washed out look to the photo. Probably better to shoot iso 100 f8 and 1/200 second (or whatever it works out to be). Your DA 50 should be fine to shoot with. I would get a hood for it, but other than that, I think you will find it nice and sharp.

03-09-2015, 11:53 AM	#22
Zephos Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Photos: Albums Posts: 341 Original Poster	Originally posted by Rondec With that photo, you shot f11, 1/6000 second and iso 6400. Biggest thing is that pushing the iso up that high really gives a washed out look to the photo. Probably better to shoot iso 100 f8 and 1/200 second (or whatever it works out to be). Your DA 50 should be fine to shoot with. I would get a hood for it, but other than that, I think you will find it nice and sharp. Ok I forgot to look at the EXIF. That explains it. Wow... I'm starting to think my camera has a mind of its own because I would never have set those settings and I usually have my iso restricted to 1600 and below. I know iso 6400 is really bad. I'm at a loss as to how that happened. I thought I was paying careful attention to it all. I guess not. Ok this has been a revelation to me. I think my problem is that I haven't been paying attention and my camera is doing one thing while I think its doing something else. Thanks everyone.

03-09-2015, 12:24 PM	#23
ChristianRock Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: People's Republic of America Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 9,912	Originally posted by Zephos Why the M as opposed to my DA 50mm? Because it forces you to shoot in manual mode. The learning curve is greater, especially because manual focus is also in the picture, but the K-50 has a good viewfinder and you shouldn't have problems. Don't go down to f1.7 unless you have to, stay in f2.8 and smaller and you should be fine most of the time. Learn to review your histogram. It will make you learn to see how light falls on a subject and what makes a good image look good and what things you can do to basically ruin it Don't let your camera choose your settings. Take control of it, and you'll see that you have so much untapped potential in your hands

03-09-2015, 12:44 PM	#24
Rondec Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Gladys, Virginia Photos: Gallery Posts: 27,663	Originally posted by Zephos Ok I forgot to look at the EXIF. That explains it. Wow... I'm starting to think my camera has a mind of its own because I would never have set those settings and I usually have my iso restricted to 1600 and below. I know iso 6400 is really bad. I'm at a loss as to how that happened. I thought I was paying careful attention to it all. I guess not. Ok this has been a revelation to me. I think my problem is that I haven't been paying attention and my camera is doing one thing while I think its doing something else. Thanks everyone. I think one of the things that has helped me develop more as a photographer is having an exif. It is just really handy to look at settings on photos that work and those that don't and see what it is that you did right (or forgot to do right).

03-09-2015, 11:50 PM	#25
sterretje Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Roodepoort, South Africa Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,561	Originally posted by Zephos Ok I forgot to look at the EXIF. That explains it. Wow... I'm starting to think my camera has a mind of its own because I would never have set those settings and I usually have my iso restricted to 1600 and below. I know iso 6400 is really bad. I'm at a loss as to how that happened. I thought I was paying careful attention to it all. I guess not. Ok this has been a revelation to me. I think my problem is that I haven't been paying attention and my camera is doing one thing while I think its doing something else. Thanks everyone. I think you're using auto-iso and that is killing you. If so, switch it off; there are times that it's useful and there are times that it does not serve any purpose. For the casual shot, it absolutely serves NO purpose. Set the camera to ISO100 when you're out and about during the day; change when you have to (aperture nearing the widest setting and/or shutterspeeds nearing what is possible handheld).

03-10-2015, 10:05 AM	#26
Zephos Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Photos: Albums Posts: 341 Original Poster	Originally posted by sterretje I think you're using auto-iso and that is killing you. If so, switch it off; there are times that it's useful and there are times that it does not serve any purpose. For the casual shot, it absolutely serves NO purpose. Set the camera to ISO100 when you're out and about during the day; change when you have to (aperture nearing the widest setting and/or shutterspeeds nearing what is possible handheld). Thank you. I think I will take your advice and keep it on manual iso from now on. That will help I bet.

03-10-2015, 01:00 PM	#27
UncleVanya Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2014 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 28,454	Pentax K-50 Review - Recommended Settings \| PentaxForums.com Reviews I personally don't think manual ISO is needed. I do think carefully understanding what the options are would help. Setting max ISO to a value like 800 or 400 isn't unreasonable. I also like Av or Tv modes make a lot more sense than Manual for new users. Exposure bracketing and compensation settings are easy to access and simpler to use than manual mode for a new user. I'm also a fan of the SCENE modes for newbies. It is one of the ways the K50 excels. You pick the type of scene it picks the settings - you learn by reviewing the EXIF and reading up on photography in the meantime you get shots that are mostly on target without being totally overwhelmed.

03-10-2015, 03:01 PM	#28
Zephos Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Photos: Albums Posts: 341 Original Poster	Originally posted by UncleVanya Pentax K-50 Review - Recommended Settings \| PentaxForums.com Reviews I personally don't think manual ISO is needed. I do think carefully understanding what the options are would help. Setting max ISO to a value like 800 or 400 isn't unreasonable. I also like Av or Tv modes make a lot more sense than Manual for new users. Exposure bracketing and compensation settings are easy to access and simpler to use than manual mode for a new user. I'm also a fan of the SCENE modes for newbies. It is one of the ways the K50 excels. You pick the type of scene it picks the settings - you learn by reviewing the EXIF and reading up on photography in the meantime you get shots that are mostly on target without being totally overwhelmed. As far a exposure bracketing goes, is it normal to only bracket 1/3 f stops? I would think that bracketing a full stop would make more sense.

03-10-2015, 03:23 PM	#29
UncleVanya Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2014 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 28,454	Originally posted by Zephos As far a exposure bracketing goes, is it normal to only bracket 1/3 f stops? I would think that bracketing a full stop would make more sense. The bracketing mode can be changed. The Go to the right on the 4 way controller, then move over to the +/- icon for exposure bracketing, then the DOWN button on the 4 way. This should highlight the EV compensation at +/- 0.3EV or whatever the current setting is. Use the rear wheel to widen or narrow the range. On the K50 the limit is +/- 3.0 EV's.

03-10-2015, 08:00 PM	#30
mee Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 7,403	Originally posted by ChristianRock Because it forces you to shoot in manual mode. The learning curve is greater, especially because manual focus is also in the picture, but the K-50 has a good viewfinder and you shouldn't have problems. Don't go down to f1.7 unless you have to, stay in f2.8 and smaller and you should be fine most of the time. Learn to review your histogram. It will make you learn to see how light falls on a subject and what makes a good image look good and what things you can do to basically ruin it Don't let your camera choose your settings. Take control of it, and you'll see that you have so much untapped potential in your hands I would STRONGLY recommend all beginners NOT to use manual focus lenses. It is difficult enough to understand proper exposure without adding proper focusing techniques at the same time. Learn exposure first. It is way way way way way more important to you as a photographer. After that, then maybe go back and learn manual focusing.. if you want to. But you really need to understand exposure pretty well to understand how to get the most out of the camera itself.