Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
12-31-2013, 05:28 AM   #61
Banned




Join Date: Jan 2009
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 9,675
Original Poster
QuoteOriginally posted by rscoote Quote
These are images taken with my K-3 and Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 under the meagre floodlighting available at Knaresborough Town FC - the sun had set about an hour before I took these. Both images are at 6400 ISO and no more than 50% cropping. The noise was pretty ugly when viewed on my 27 inch screen, however the noise does clean up very well using Topaz DeNoise.

What I was incredibly impressed with was the K-3's ability to lock focus under such low lighting (1/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400). In fact the focus lock behaved exactly the same as it did in the early part of the match when there was some daylight. I used a single point so no AF matrix tracking.
Well that noise looks horrible to me. But I don't know the light in the stadium, so it is difficult to say something about that. But for what I know the K-5 is better in hi iso-settings then the K-3, but I didn't do enough images to make real conclusions.

12-31-2013, 09:25 AM   #62
Veteran Member
Cynog Ap Brychan's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Gloucester
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,199
Is it me? I'm seeing quite a lot of noise in my K-3 pictures, even at relatively low ISOs (e.g. 800). It isn't unpleasant, but it's there.
12-31-2013, 02:54 PM   #63
New Member




Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Knaresborough, UK
Photos: Albums
Posts: 10
QuoteOriginally posted by RonHendriks1966 Quote
Well that noise looks horrible to me. But I don't know the light in the stadium, so it is difficult to say something about that. But for what I know the K-5 is better in hi iso-settings then the K-3, but I didn't do enough images to make real conclusions.
The floodlighting is pretty poor so even at 6400 ISO I probably under-exposed by a stop so had to lighten in post-processing and this doesn't help noise. For journalistic sports images I don't think it makes too much difference and is certainly better than a camera that cannot focus. When I posted these pictures on the UK Pentax forum people actually liked the gritty, grainy effect. For subjects other than sport it may be a different story. I've never used my K-5 in the same circumstances but I still have it ,so at the next match I may well use it just to do a comparison of noise. I suspect no camera is going to be great at 6400 ISO though and we all have the option of NR plug-ins / programs.
12-31-2013, 04:18 PM   #64
Pentaxian
dosdan's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,741
QuoteOriginally posted by rscoote Quote
For journalistic sports images I don't think it makes too much difference and is certainly better than a camera that cannot focus. When I posted these pictures on the UK Pentax forum people actually liked the gritty, grainy effect.
Yes, not every shot needs to be printable quality. Most end up on the internet at quite small image sizes.

1/800s, f/2.8, ISO6400 and then pushed another stop in PP. Most of us have been there: desperation! The images from an APS-C with those settings are not going to be pretty. The images from a FF will be about 1.2 stops better if you are prepared to accept a narrower DOF (not that desirable when you're interested in a group interaction). At least you've captured some drama, and conveyed some emotion, and that's about all you can hope for under these conditions.

I won't bother trying your K-5 under this lighting. Including the 1 stop boost in PP, I calculate that this was an LV 5.6 situation. I think the K-5 will focus erratically and slowly under those conditions.

Dan.

12-31-2013, 06:28 PM   #65
New Member




Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Knaresborough, UK
Photos: Albums
Posts: 10
QuoteOriginally posted by dosdan Quote
Yes, not every shot needs to be printable quality. Most end up on the internet at quite small image sizes.
Well these end up on the club's website and sometimes in the local newspaper. You could print the cleanest images taken at ISO 100 in our local paper and it looks like ISO 6400. At the price point of the K-3 with it's weather-sealing (although I wish Pentax would do a 70-200mm F/2.8 WR lens) and low light AF performance I don't think there are many options.

If I only had the K-5 I would be sitting by a warm fireside rather than sitting in near-freezing conditions lierally trying to stop myself shivering as I take each shot with no sensation in the end of my fingers. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to buy the K-3!

Happy New Year!

Roy
12-31-2013, 06:29 PM   #66
Pentaxian
dosdan's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,741
I've noticed the increased power drain of the K-3. I won't get a chance to cover sports, (athletics at this time of the year), until late January. I usually shoot about 1200 shots at a meet with the K-5 without a battery change. It will be interesting to see how many I can get with the K-3. At least the K-01, K-5 & K-3 all use the same D-LI90 battery. Since I'll only be using 1 or 2 cameras at a meet, I'll have a spare battery.

I got my K-3 yesterday and played around with the AF shooting wind chimes moving semi-chaotically in the breeze from about 2m distance and 70mm FL. I like the K-3's tracking. I know the K-5 in AF.C would have got few shots of the chimes before switching to the background.

A query on AF Hold. I like the idea but don't understand the problems of using it with sports yet. As I watched through the viewfinder in AF.C mode and the AF activated, I moved my hand with arm extended, sideways across the path between the camera and the chimes. Without AF Hold, the AF would immediately try and focus on my hand. With even AF Hold (Low), the AF ignored my hand unless it was there for a significant time.

Now take the real-life situation of panning a couple of players near the goal area and the pan sweeps across a closer-to-the-camera mid-fielder. Obviously you'd like the uninvolved mid-fielder to be ignored. If the 2 players-of-interest are running tangentially, some AF hold will be fine. But what if they are running radially? Since the AF needs to continually change in this situation how does enabling AF Hold affect it? Does it make AF updates jerky in this case or does it account for the small, but semi-constant nature of the AF changing and permits this without interference, but ignores the very quick, large change involved when you pan across the mid-field player?

Dan.

Last edited by dosdan; 12-31-2013 at 06:40 PM.
12-31-2013, 06:34 PM   #67
New Member




Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Knaresborough, UK
Photos: Albums
Posts: 10
QuoteOriginally posted by Cynog Ap Brychan Quote
Is it me? I'm seeing quite a lot of noise in my K-3 pictures, even at relatively low ISOs (e.g. 800). It isn't unpleasant, but it's there.
Yes, I start to see noise at ISO 800 but grainy rather than horrible chroma blotches and I find it cleans up easy.

12-31-2013, 06:39 PM   #68
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
dadipentak's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 11,590
QuoteOriginally posted by dosdan Quote
At least you've captured some drama, and conveyed some emotion, and that's about all you can hope for under these conditions.
That's my mantra--the most important thing is to get good action.
12-31-2013, 06:42 PM   #69
New Member




Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Knaresborough, UK
Photos: Albums
Posts: 10
QuoteOriginally posted by dosdan Quote
I've noticed the increased power drain of the K-3. I won't get a chance to cover sports, (athletics at this time of the year), until late January. I usually shoot about 1200 shots at a meet with the K-5 without a battery change. It will be interesting to see how many I can get with the K-3. At least the K-01, K-5 & K-3 all use the same D-LI90 battery. Since I'll only be using 1 or 2 cameras at a meet, I'll have a spare battery.
I took just over 600 shots at the football (soccer) match and it used about 50% the battery so possibly you'll get the same 1200 SHOTS as with the K-5.
12-31-2013, 06:50 PM   #70
Pentaxian
dosdan's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,741
QuoteOriginally posted by rscoote Quote
took just over 600 shots at the football (soccer) match and it used about 50% the battery so possibly you'll get the same 1200 SHOTS as with the K-5.
These aren't Sony info-Lithium batteries. I never trust the linearity of the battery display in Pentax cameras.

Dan.
12-31-2013, 07:12 PM   #71
Pentaxian




Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Nelson B.C.
Posts: 3,782
QuoteOriginally posted by dosdan Quote
I've noticed the increased power drain of the K-3. I won't get a chance to cover sports, (athletics at this time of the year), until late January. I usually shoot about 1200 shots at a meet with the K-5 without a battery change. It will be interesting to see how many I can get with the K-3. At least the K-01, K-5 & K-3 all use the same D-LI90 battery. Since I'll only be using 1 or 2 cameras at a meet, I'll have a spare battery.

I got my K-3 yesterday and played around with the AF shooting wind chimes moving semi-chaotically in the breeze from about 2m distance and 70mm FL. I like the K-3's tracking. I know the K-5 in AF.C would have got few shots of the chimes before switching to the background.

A query on AF Hold. I like the idea but don't understand the problems of using it with sports yet. As I watched through the viewfinder in AF.C mode and the AF activated, I moved my hand with arm extended, sideways across the path between the camera and the chimes. Without AF Hold, the AF would immediately try and focus on my hand. With even AF Hold (Low), the AF ignored my hand unless it was there for a significant time.

Now take the real-life situation of panning a couple of players near the goal area and the pan sweeps across a closer-to-the-camera mid-fielder. Obviously you'd like the uninvolved mid-fielder to be ignored. If the 2 players-of-interest are running tangentially, some AF hold will be fine. But what if they are running radially? Since the AF needs to continually change in this situation how does enabling AF Hold affect it? Does it make AF updates jerky in this case or does it account for the small, but semi-constant nature of the AF changing and permits this without interference, but ignores the very quick, large change involved when you pan across the mid-field player?

Dan.
I'm not quite clear what movements you are describing, but the way I see the tracking is that it gives you assistance when panning. The center point focus requires you to keep the point on the subject, but the extended points will keep focus on the subject as long as it stays in the circle you define. The hold is a delay before focusing on what is in the center point. It seems the delay is biased by how long a subject has been followed. For example it doesn't seem to slow down selection of the desired focus, but once something has been focused on for a time, the delay before losing that focal distance is a bit longer.

If two players are adjacent at the same focus distance and they diverge, I'm not sure what it would do. I know that releasing the focus button resets the whole thing so you can start again. I found that it takes practice to know what it is doing and to work with it. It isn't prescient, but with subjects with a bit of contrast it seems consistent. Right now the wildlife I'm shooting seems to be any of fifty shades of grey, so I have it set for center point focus. When we get a bit more light I'll enable the tracking and extended points.
01-01-2014, 05:51 AM   #72
Forum Member
wpompen's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 64
QuoteOriginally posted by dosdan Quote
These aren't Sony info-Lithium batteries. I never trust the linearity of the battery display in Pentax cameras.

Dan.
I do :-) more than often I reach 1.000+ on a single battery (without flash of course)
01-02-2014, 12:12 PM - 2 Likes   #73
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
crewl1's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 9,807
Surfing at Huntington pier with Sigma 50-500 OS. ISO 1250 & 800, 1/2000, f8


01-02-2014, 01:31 PM   #74
Banned




Join Date: Jan 2009
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 9,675
Original Poster
QuoteOriginally posted by dosdan Quote
I've noticed the increased power drain of the K-3. I won't get a chance to cover sports, (athletics at this time of the year), until late January. I usually shoot about 1200 shots at a meet with the K-5 without a battery change. It will be interesting to see how many I can get with the K-3. At least the K-01, K-5 & K-3 all use the same D-LI90 battery. Since I'll only be using 1 or 2 cameras at a meet, I'll have a spare battery.
You will need a spare battery for so many images.
01-06-2014, 02:42 AM   #75
New Member




Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 2
great review!
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
background, battery, desktop, dslr, focus, football game, game, gb, image, images, jpeg, k-3, k-5, k3, lens, pentax k-3, photos, post, shot, shots, sigma, sports, sports images, tamron, thanks, time
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
K-3 for sports? WillWeaverRVA Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 20 07-02-2015 08:02 AM
Pentax K-3 test images with AA filter on and off hkiran1 Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 29 11-13-2014 08:27 AM
The K-3 -APS-c and cropped wildlife images normhead Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 39 10-16-2013 10:57 AM
First Try Shooting Sports with the K-30 Urkeldaedalus Pentax K-30 & K-50 40 02-18-2013 12:47 AM
Sports with the K-5 II or IIs HawaiianOnline Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 13 01-25-2013 09:05 PM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:47 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top