[code200]

The movement in aurora is not too fast. Ideally you want to a sub 10s exposure though, which is about f2.8 at iso 3200 correctly exposed . You will still need a tripod. You can still get some nice colour with longer exposures but it starts looking mushy like this.(from a not so close viewpoint on the australian mainland. (at close range I expect movement to be more of a problem)
30sec at f2.8 iso 1600



vs 10sec at f2.8 iso 1600 (underexposed and pushed hence noisy)



Obviously the K1 give you a big advantage over my K3 in this regard

Thanks for posting images.
It sounds like you don't like either of these photos and you recommend fast exposure times (?)

[robjmitchell]

Thanks for posting images.
It sounds like you don't like either of these photos and you recommend fast exposure times (?)

It was my first time shooting an aurora, and in hindsight, I would have been better using a higher ISO, ie 3200. From what I've seen I would be happy shooting 6400 on the K1 so you should have no problem with an f2.8 lens. Obviously anything faster is a bonus.

[code200]

I looked at the D FA 24-70mm f/2.8ED SDM WR Lens.
Is it locked in at f2.8? If so, it's fairly wide open most of the time right?

Sorry for the "dumb question", but what priority mode would most of you shoot in with this lens?

---------- Post added 06-24-16 at 10:59 PM ----------

I looked at the D FA 24-70mm f/2.8ED SDM WR Lens.
Is it locked in at f2.8? If so, it's fairly wide open most of the time right?

Sorry for the "dumb question", but what priority mode would most of you shoot in with this lens?

Whoops I guess it has a range of f2.8 - f22. Amazon's data was wrong on their page.

[interested_observer]

I looked at the D FA 24-70mm f/2.8ED SDM WR Lens.
Is it locked in at f2.8? If so, it's fairly wide open most of the time right?

Sorry for the "dumb question", but what priority mode would most of you shoot in with this lens?

---------- Post added 06-24-16 at 10:59 PM ----------



Whoops I guess it has a range of f2.8 - f22. Amazon's data was wrong on their page.

On lens descriptions like "D FA 24-70mm f/2.8ED SDM WR", just the maximum aperture is listed (f2.8) for the lens. The other extreme aperture (f16, f22, f32, etc.) is just left off. This is a constant aperture lens, which means that f2.8 is available across all the focal lengths. For example, if the lens description had an aperture range listed like "D FA 24-70mm f/2.8-f5.6 ED SDM WR", then f2.8 would be available at 24mm and as you move the focal length, the maximum aperture the lens would be able to provide would change also - such that at 70mm, the maximum aperture would be f5.6. The constant aperture is much more desirable.

On your other question - what priority mode would most of you shoot in with this lens? - really any of them. A lot of folks like to shoot in Av or Aperture Priority. In this way, the rear thumb wheel controls the aperture (f stop), the ISO will be constant (but you can change that also by pressing the ISO button and select a new value via the rear thumb wheel), and the shutter speed will be controlled/selected automagically by the camera to give you the best exposure (as computed by the camera).

A lot of other folks use M or Manual - especially for night shooting. The reason why is that you can control all three major settings - shutter time, aperture and ISO. There are times where you want to override the camera - where you the photographer knows best. There are some limitations on this mode. For instance - the longest shutter speed is 30 seconds.

If you want to shoot a longer exposure, switch to B or Bulb. The shutter will remain open for as long as you desire - 55 seconds, 2 hours, 2 days, etc.

[code200]

On lens descriptions like "D FA 24-70mm f/2.8ED SDM WR", just the maximum aperture is listed (f2.8) for the lens. The other extreme aperture (f16, f22, f32, etc.) is just left off. This is a constant aperture lens, which means that f2.8 is available across all the focal lengths. For example, if the lens description had an aperture range listed like "D FA 24-70mm f/2.8-f5.6 ED SDM WR", then f2.8 would be available at 24mm and as you move the focal length, the maximum aperture the lens would be able to provide would change also - such that at 70mm, the maximum aperture would be f5.6. The constant aperture is much more desirable.

On your other question - what priority mode would most of you shoot in with this lens? - really any of them. A lot of folks like to shoot in Av or Aperture Priority. In this way, the rear thumb wheel controls the aperture (f stop), the ISO will be constant (but you can change that also by pressing the ISO button and select a new value via the rear thumb wheel), and the shutter speed will be controlled/selected automagically by the camera to give you the best exposure (as computed by the camera).

A lot of other folks use M or Manual - especially for night shooting. The reason why is that you can control all three major settings - shutter time, aperture and ISO. There are times where you want to override the camera - where you the photographer knows best. There are some limitations on this mode. For instance - the longest shutter speed is 30 seconds.

If you want to shoot a longer exposure, switch to B or Bulb. The shutter will remain open for as long as you desire - 55 seconds, 2 hours, 2 days, etc.

Ok another dumb question
If this lens is constant at f2.8, why would you shoot in aperture priority mode since it never changes?
It was my understanding that priority mode is what you control and the camera does the rest.

[code200]

Ok another dumb question
If this lens is constant at f2.8, why would you shoot in aperture priority mode since it never changes?
It was my understanding that priority mode is what you control and the camera does the rest.

Maybe I misunderstood you. For the 24-70mm f/2.8, were you saying 2.8 is available across all focal lengths but other apertures are available as well? Or is always 2.8 no matter what? Thanks!

[interested_observer]

Ok another dumb question
If this lens is constant at f2.8, why would you shoot in aperture priority mode since it never changes?
It was my understanding that priority mode is what you control and the camera does the rest.

Maybe I misunderstood you. For the 24-70mm f/2.8, were you saying 2.8 is available across all focal lengths but other apertures are available as well? Or is always 2.8 no matter what? Thanks!

A constant aperture lens has the f2.8 available across ALL the focal lengths.

• So for constant aperture lenses, if you have an aperture range of f2.8 to f22, then you would have f2.8 to f22 available for use across all the focal lengths.
• For variable aperture lenses, you will have an aperture range of say f2.8 to f22 at one end of the zoom range, and say f5.6 to f22 at the other end of the zoom range. Within the zoom range, the aperture increases incrementally between the two ends.

It was my understanding that priority mode is what you control and the camera does the rest. Yes, that is correct. However, via the ISO button you can also adjust the base ISO value to be used.

• In Av or Aperture Priority, you control the aperture setting, and the camera controls the shutter speed.
• In Tv or Shutter Priority, you control the shutter speed and the camera controls the aperture.
• In Sv or Sensitivity Priority, you control the ISO with out having to depress (and hold) the ISO button, while the camera controls the shutter and aperture
• In TAv you control the shutter speed and aperture and the camera automatically adjusts the ISO (within a pre-specified range)
• In Manual and Bulb - you control the entire set of settings.

[pinholecam]

A casual test shot with the DFA15-30 during the K1 Launch event here.




The full sized image is available on the Flickr.

Personally, I think its very good indeed.
At 15mm, its sharp all the way to the edges and in fact one of the current few UWA selections on the Pentax mount to be able to do so.

[AwesomeIan]

I find the 24-70 to be the most useful for landscape. If you need to go wider get one of the 14mm lens. The 24-70mm and 14mm together cost just a little more than the 15-30mm

[Kerrowdown]

Good landscape lens for Pentax K1 full frame

If you can live with manual focus, as landscapes tend to fairly static, I could recommend any of these older legacy lenses to get the job done, SMC Pentax-A 15mm F3.5, SMC Pentax-A 20mm F2.8, SMC Pentax-A 24mm F2.8 and SMC Pentax-A 28mm F2.8 at a push.

[osv]

The FA31 is a very nice lens for candid shots, even portraits, it's advantages are most pronounced when the picture shows lot of out of focus stuff - bokeh. It's certainly usable for landscape, but far from being a good value for that purpose.

disagree, the fa31 is a good choice for landscape shooting, because it has minimal field curvature issues, see the test photo shot on an a7r: Sony a7R 28mm Lens Shootout - FM Forums

it's easily on a par with the smc 28/3.5...

people who don't have experience with the fa31 on 36mp won't be able to fully appreciate what this lens has to offer.

i had the smc 24/2.8, it sucked for landscape shooting on 36mp, although it was strong with centered objects... it was so bad that i wonder if my copy wasn't decentered, but the takinami lens test also showed it to be weak: http://www.takinami.com/yoshihiko/photo/lens_test/pentax_superwide.html

however, the o.p. wants to shoot nightscapes, so he needs minimal coma, the 15-30 is probably going to be the best choice.

---------- Post added 06-30-16 at 09:32 AM ----------

Personally, I think its very good indeed.
At 15mm, its sharp all the way to the edges and in fact one of the current few UWA selections on the Pentax mount to be able to do so.

it's as good or better than the nikon 14-24: Prepare to be impressed: Tamron 15-30 F2.8 vs. Nikon 14-24 F2.8: Digital Photography Review

[RGlasel]

It was my understanding that priority mode is what you control and the camera does the rest.

That's correct and as long as you let the camera chose ISO and shutter speed, the camera will try to keep ISO low without dropping the shutter speed too low for the focal length. I'm over-generalizing, but for landscapes you seldom have to increase your shutter speed over what the camera wants to set it at and there will be situations where shallow depth of field is not a problem (everything you want in focus is close to infinity) and in other situations you want a smaller aperture than what the camera wants to set it at in order to get as much of the scene in focus as possible. In almost all landscape photo situations, aperture is the setting you will want to control yourself. The last thing you should worry about is ISO setting, if the camera wants to set it too high for your tastes, you aren't going to be able to get the shot you want, anyway.

I would recommend Av (Aperture priority) mode if you are taking only landscape pictures for any length of time (and this applies to manual focus lenses with an "A" aperture setting as well). If you are likely to switch between shots of moving and fixed objects (wildlife and mountains for instance), then Hyper-Program mode is a handy feature of Pentax cameras (not just the K-1). If you want a different aperture or shutter speed than what the camera selects in its Program mode, then a single adjustment of one of the dials will temporarily switch your camera to Av mode or Tv mode, and if you adjust both dials, then you temporarily have TAv mode, and your camera will display the mode it is switching to. Your K-1 also has different Program "lines" that you can select to get different programming for specific types of shooting scenarios.

You've got lots of lens recommendations already, I thought I would chime in with some recommendations on shooting mode. Every camera manufacturer has a different approach to setting shooting modes, my suggestion is to try out the built-in automation in your K-1 as much as you can before you tackle manual settings. I think you will find that Pentax does a very good job of thinking like a photographer.

[elho_cid]

disagree, the fa31 is a good choice for landscape shooting, because it has minimal field curvature issues, see the test photo shot on an a7r: Sony a7R 28mm Lens Shootout - FM Forums

My office colleague owns a FA31 and I know how great the lens is. I was not bashing it for image quality. But the fixed lens hood is less than ideal for filter holders, an accessory lots of landscape photographers like to use. I also referred to the high price tag, I'm sure there are cheaper lenses with low field curvature.

However you are absolutely right about the field curvature being very important for landscape photography. It is quite unfortunate that so few tests and reviews ever mention it.

[osv]

filters would be a problem, and i don't recall seeing anyone post solutions for it.

i think that pentax owners are a bit spoiled when it comes to legacy glass for landscape shooting, because it leads one to believe that canikon/minolta/konica/oly/etc. made just as many lenses that had just as good field curvature characteristics, but that's actually not the case.

minolta slow 28mm lenses all suck, their legacy 35mm primes are nice mechanically, but have mild wavy field curvature and weak corners... i've had four oly wides, all but one were decentered, and the good 28/3.5 that i just got has weak corners that never fully clean up... etc.

fa31 looks like it does a lot of things really well, i think that it's overpriced only because modern technology has created some incredible alternatives, many of which are not available in k-mount.

[dsneedmd]

2 thoughts. 1. You can always take pano shots with a long lens to cover you topic. 2. The K1 takes great pictures with almost any old Pentax lens so you can buy cheap & get a expensive lens when you learn more.