[KenBarley]

Thought I'd mention this in case anybody else gets caught out in the same way.

I recently did a Silk Road trip to Uzbekistan in Central Asia.
As I knew that dust could be a problem in some places I decided beforehand that I was going to use two bodies:

• K-3ii with the 18-135 lens and GPS on
• K-3 with either Sigma 10-20 or Pentax 55-300.

The plan was to synchronise times so they could be viewed together and make it easier for me to geo-tag K-3 shots.
Home is UK so UTC +0 plus DST and Uzbekistan is UTC -5 no DST - so 4 hours ahead.

If you look at World Time, most of Asia is ignored. So I just adjusted time by 4hours, and left World Time set to HOME. [ Normally used World Time, but all trips since got K-3ii have been within Europe.]

After setting time on both cameras took photos simultaneously on both as base point for subsequent fine tune time adjustment. [In UK, so UTC 0 plus DST]. Times in shots looked OK.

Flew to Uzbekistan, and at end of first day noticed that time in K-3ii shots was out by 4 hours - i.e. on UK time.

Looked at PDF manual on phone and found:
Camera Settings 2 > GPS> Additional Setting > GPS Time sync.
Automatically adjusts the camera's date and time settings using information obtained from GPS satellites. [To the location currently selected (HOME/DESTINATION).]

This was checked, so set this off, reset time and took further synchronisation shots.
Thereafter all OK. [ Did not want to explore why. Too busy taking photos. Knew could sort out timings in Lightroom later.]

When I got home looked at first shots - a sunrise from a plane. The first shot showed correct time. It then acquired satellites and subsequent shots showed UK time.

My conclusions are

• If you have GPS Time Sync set on it will automatically maintain correct date /time. However need to have 'World Time' set correctly for home and destination and have the appropriate one selected.
• If you have GPS Time Sync set off you can set own times and ignore World Time.

I am assuming that when we change the clocks at the end of October should just change the DST setting.


[Subsequently realised that should have set Destination time to Karachi - but as it was over 1100 miles south it was not obvious!


Just started putting photos on Flickr( https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenbarley/albums/72157671773780567 ) but here is one

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Last edited by KenBarley; 10-19-2018 at 04:06 AM.

[roberrl]

Great picture and the Flickr gallery is very well worth looking at.

If you liked these places consider Iran for your next trip. Isfahan cannot fail to inspire in the same way as Samarkand..

[ffking]

Best laid plans, eh? Useful report back - thanks - and nice pic!

[UncleVanya]

Very nice results!

One small detail: the time zone offset was UTC +5, I live in the eastern USA, we are currently at UTC -4 but we will be at -5 once daylight savings ends.

[jumbleview]

Nice photo from Samarkand. Off the topic: can you summarize in a couple of sentences your impression of modern Uzbekistan? In 1989 - 1991 I had several business trips to Uzbekistan (did no visit Samarkand, alas). It would be nice to know how you saw it now.

[KenBarley]

Very nice results!

One small detail: the time zone offset was UTC +5, I live in the eastern USA, we are currently at UTC -4 but we will be at -5 once daylight savings ends.

Thanks for comments. Quite right about UTC +- That's the problem of living on UTC zero!

---------- Post added 19th Oct 2018 at 16:59 ----------

Great picture and the Flickr gallery is very well worth looking at.

If you liked these places consider Iran for your next trip. Isfahan cannot fail to inspire in the same way as Samarkand..

Thanks. Isfahan has been on my wish list for years, but not sure how happy I am going to Iran. Politicians get in the way!

---------- Post added 19th Oct 2018 at 17:17 ----------


---------- Post added 19th Oct 2018 at 17:41 ----------

Nice photo from Samarkand. Off the topic: can you summarize in a couple of sentences your impression of modern Uzbekistan? In 1989 - 1991 I had several business trips to Uzbekistan (did no visit Samarkand, alas). It would be nice to know how you saw it now.

Biggest change is no longer Russia!

Cyrillic being replaced by Roman alphabet - though both co-exist, giving great confusion to westerners.

Streets full of small white Chevrolet cars - Government has joint company.

All school kids learning English and keen to practice it.

Big money being spent on infrastructure - New dual carriageways to replace worn-out Soviet roads, High speed trains - Samarkand > Taskhent (c200miles/ 330km) in just over 2 hours. Lots of old buildings being restored.

Tourism is being worked on as major industry. Very well organised and they have obviously spent lot of money on consultants or have clever folk. So there are lots of signs in English, obvious modern public toilets, and 'tourist police' to make people feel comfortable.

Still got a lot of the old Soviet bureaucracy but doesn't really affect tourists. Since last July can even take photos on Tashkent Metro.