[Miguel]

with the K-3 I feel more confident.

Confidence is the inner interface between the camera and the sports photographer. We're getting there.

M

[Cynog Ap Brychan]

I got my K-3 Silver Premium Edition in today. Planned a day full off shooting with it. Dutch soccerplayer Amber van der Heijde made time to work with me

Tough work, Ron, but somebody's got to do it!

Nice shot, by the way.

[pearsaab]

Some shots of my brother and nephew throwing around the football in the yard. K-3 AF is significantly improved from K-5. Camera is much more responsive, but I concur with Miguel's assessment that chimping speed could be improved.

love the series john...really some awesome captures!! what setting did you use on the camera...I.e focus type, afc? ,etc..thanks, amy

[pearsaab]

I got my K-3 Silver Premium Edition in today. Planned a day full off shooting with it. Dutch soccerplayer Amber van der Heijde made time to work with me.



This is the compleet imgae and I have to say, that it is a fantastic camera.

ron looks like a great shot for nike

[RonHendriks1966]

ron looks like a great shot for nike

I know, got to make some work out off that.

[johnmflores]

love the series john...really some awesome captures!! what setting did you use on the camera...I.e focus type, afc? ,etc..thanks, amy

Thx amy! I used AF.C/Select 2 (aka Sel Small on the Info panel). I would then move the focus point to where I wanted in the frame and try to keep the subject within the immediate area (the 8 focus points surrounding the selected point. Had there been less stuff in the background I might have chosen another mode.

[RonHendriks1966]

Thx amy! I used AF.C/Select 2 (aka Sel Small on the Info panel). I would then move the focus point to where I wanted in the frame and try to keep the subject within the immediate area (the 8 focus points surrounding the selected point. Had there been less stuff in the background I might have chosen another mode.

Do you know what the deal is with AF-C and AF-A?

[pearsaab]

Do you know what the deal is with AF-C and AF-A?

I may need to break out the manual and actually find out ...

I bet John knows...thanks john!!

[Miguel]

Do you know what the deal is with AF-C and AF-A?

AF-C is of course for action; AF-A seems like Canon's AI Focus where you leave the judgement call whether to shoot AF-S vs. AF-C to the camera. Everyone I know promptly ignored the AI Focus mode because it was wrong enough times to matter. I'm following suit with AF-A. I'm 100% certain your judgement about what mode to shoot action in is better than any camera.

M

[derekkite]

AFA didn't for me.

The af button set to cancel af seems to work well. On the k5 it was too close to the green button, but on the k3 it is simply a matter of rolling the thumb up.

[jppp]

I'd be really interested in getting some info (and seeing samples) about the AF tracking capabilities of K-3.

(An important part of my message had been dropped out, so I'll just add it now):
I'm going to get a replacement for my K-5 next year mostly because its non-existing tracking capabilities.
(So there, that explanes better the next sentence...)

It may or may not be Pentax, but it must be able to track way better than my K-5. Choosing Pentax would surely save me loads of money because I have most of the lenses I need, but what I really want is a significant improvement in the AF properties of my next camera.

[RockvilleBob]

I'd be really interested in getting some info (and seeing samples) about the AF tracking capabilities of K-3. It may or may not be Pentax, but it must be able to track way better than my K-5. Choosing Pentax would surely save me loads of money because I have most of the lenses I need, but what I really want is a significant improvement in the AF properties of my next camera.

For me it is day and night. Went out last week and shot eagles in flight. I got several sequences of 20 shots all in focus. No way with the K-5.

I suggest you rent one for a couple of weeks - Most of the other posts on the forum also highlight much improved AF. That and 8 fps with raw? It seems hands on may convince you.

[bdery]

Here's a link to a series I posted (so I avoid duplicate posts):

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/12-post-your-photos/243604-sports-k-3-60-...anier-cup.html

[Miguel]

Instead of getting malled on "Black Friday," we spent our day at a 6x6 short-field youth soccer tournament. Essentially indoor soccer without the walls: no offside, kick-ins, very small field and extremely fast pace of play. The dismal skies combined with the quick action made this a good test of the K-3, the Sigma 100-300 f4, and most importantly my skills.

All-in-all I was mostly unimpressed with each of those three factors, but the event itself was tons of fun.

Here is one sequence I am happy with, and even managed to overcome some self-propelled new-camera stupidity that temporarily resulted in my losing two stops.


M

[kjg48359]

Finally, got a chance to start with indoor competitive. Lighting was not very good, it was a smaller gym with florescent lighting (which I don't see very often).
















For these, I did use a expodisc to help with wb, I think it did a tremendous job (any casts here were probably due to a quick "autofix" in "so-so" software without spending a lot of time at the moment on adjustments - I'll do more later). I did have some issues with focus, I'm wondering what tips folks might have? I do wear glasses, but due to the high action sequences, I essentially just turn the back screen off, set TAV mode (I was shooting for 1 fstop over 2.8 to get a little more DOF as well as making the lens a little sharper, apx 1/500th). I think I just took the defaults with all focus points active, would I achieve some better results if I changed some of those? I generally only get about 2 mins per routine, so I have to have everything set up before they begin.

Any further comments?