[Alcazar]

Hi there!
Could someone with a K-3 please be so kind and tell me:

If i understood right, the 4-way-controller is used to access white balance and stuff, but when i press the focus point selection button first, it's used for focus point selection.
- Is that a toggle (so once the focus point selection button has been pressed, i am in focus point selection mode forever, or maybe until power off) or do i have to do it everytime i want to change the focus point?
- Is there an option to always and forever reverse this behaviour (no button press -> change focus points, button press -> access white balance)?

I remember there was an issue with the K5 that after long exposures there was a dark frame substraction that you could not deactivate. I don't know if they changed that later... anyway: - Does the K-3 do that?
- Is there an option to turn it off?
- Is it actually necessary with the K-3 (i always wondered if these hot pixels were just a flaw of the K5 or if that happens with every sensor when doing long exposures)?

My K10D zooms in a wierd way: instead of zooming in 25%, 50%, 100% like you do in photoshop, it zooms in 2x, 4x, 8x magnification of the screen size... with roughly 6.4x giving you a 100% zoom which you can't really select so you never can see 1 Pixel in the image being 1 Pixel on the screen...
- Does the K-3 zoom in the same way?
- In magnifications over 100%, does the K-3 blur the pixels?
- Is there focus peaking in playback mode? I mean it would be nice to quickly check if i nailed the focus after i took a picture, without having to zoom in

On my K10D, long exposures over 30 seconds had to be done manually... by holding the button on the remote for as long as you wanted the exposure to be, and looking at your stopwatch at the same time :-)
- Can i just dial in say 8m37s, and the K-3 does a long exposure of that length? My tired fingers would be thankful

That's it for now... Thank you for taking the time :-)
Micha

[Adam]

If i understood right, the 4-way-controller is used to access white balance and stuff, but when i press the focus point selection button first, it's used for focus point selection. - Is that a toggle (so once the focus point selection button has been pressed, i am in focus point selection mode forever, or maybe until power off) or do i have to do it everytime i want to change the focus point? - Is there an option to always and forever reverse this behaviour (no button press -> change focus points, button press -> access white balance)?

Yes, it's a toggle, and no, you can't change the way it works. It's annoying because if you disable the status screen, you have no way of knowing which mode the camera is in without trial and error when away from the viewfinder.

I remember there was an issue with the K5 that after long exposures there was a dark frame substraction that you could not deactivate. I don't know if they changed that later... anyway: - Does the K-3 do that? - Is there an option to turn it off? - Is it actually necessary with the K-3 (i always wondered if these hot pixels were just a flaw of the K5 or if that happens with every sensor when doing long exposures)?

Yes, you can turn it off (there's a setting in the info screen). I would advise keeping it on for very long exposures (say a 3 minutes or longer). For anything shorter than that you can safely leave it off and let pixel mapping / your raw file take care of the hot pixels, if any.

My K10D zooms in a wierd way: instead of zooming in 25%, 50%, 100% like you do in photoshop, it zooms in 2x, 4x, 8x magnification of the screen size... with roughly 6.4x giving you a 100% zoom which you can't really select so you never can see 1 Pixel in the image being 1 Pixel on the screen... - Does the K-3 zoom in the same way? - In magnifications over 100%, does the K-3 blur the pixels? - Is there focus peaking in playback mode? I mean it would be nice to quickly check if i nailed the focus after i took a picture, without having to zoom in

There is now a 100% zoom mode in addition to the others, which works out to be 8.3x zoom. Overzoom will blur the image (by definition), and no, there is no focus peaking.

On my K10D, long exposures over 30 seconds had to be done manually... by holding the button on the remote for as long as you wanted the exposure to be, and looking at your stopwatch at the same time :-) - Can i just dial in say 8m37s, and the K-3 does a long exposure of that length? My tired fingers would be thankful

You can't dial it in, but if I'm not mistaken, you can press the shutter button to start and again to stop. This might require a remote though, I'm not 100% sure.

Some people use interval shooting as hack to easily obtain longer exposures. Whatever floats your boat - I prefer just using the remote and waiting it out Having 2+ bodies for a night shoot helps.

[PaulR100]

If i understood right, the 4-way-controller is used to access white balance and stuff, but when i press the focus point selection button first, it's used for focus point selection.
- Is that a toggle (so once the focus point selection button has been pressed, i am in focus point selection mode forever, or maybe until power off) or do i have to do it everytime i want to change the focus point?
- Is there an option to always and forever reverse this behaviour (no button press -> change focus points, button press -> access white balance)?

If you press the button which has 1 & 2 / four way control symbol next to it, this will flip between modes, focus select - white balance....... if not clear get back to .

[lister6520]

About the four way controller - when you toggle between selecting the focus points and the white balance/drive mode/flash the setting stays even if you switch off/on.

I always leave it that way (to access white balance/drive mode etc). No matter whether I switch off/on, change modes and whatever it stays that way and will only change back to focus point selection if I press the button again (the one to the right of the menu button)

About the dark frame subtraction, yes you can switch it off on the K-3. It is the option 'Slow shutter speed noise reduction' under the second menu of the main options. This is just the same on the K-r and K-30. I don;t know about the K-5 but I am guessing it would also have that option.
It is 'necessary' not only on the K-3 but on any electronic imaging device, even CCD. 'Necessary' of course depends also on what you need and how you want to do it. For instance in astrophotography it is almost essential to do dark frame subtraction but most prefer to do it in post processing rather than have the camera do it automatically for each frame. Dark frame subtraction is not just about removing 'hot pixels' but more about adjusting for the static 'black level' of each individual pixel.

The zoom goes in steps 1.4/2/2.8/4/5.6/8/11/16, same numbers as f-stops but it adds another step of 8.3x between 8 and 11. The 8.3x corresponds to 100% crop, that is one display pixel per one image pixel. This is also pointed out by a '100%' symbol that appears next to the 8.3x magnification indication.

I think it does blur the pixels over 100% but I'm not sure, perhaps my eyesight is not good enough to tell the difference.

There is no focus peaking in playback mode.


Manual exposures are still limited to 30 seconds but:
1. You no longer need to get your fingers tired as you don't have to keep holding the shutter button throughout the exposure. You can set it up so that one press opens the shutter and then after the time you want you press the button again and it closes the shutter. This also works with the remote (one press open, one press close) and the wired remote. Of course with the wired control you will normally have a shutter lock to keep the button pressed, just like last century's mechanical cable releases.
2. If you have the O-GPS1 and shooting stars with the strotracer function you can dial in any shutter exposure time up to the maximum allowed for the particular shooting angle and focal length. This can be anything from 20 seconds to several minutes.

The four way controller indication is visible in the viewfinder so you know in which mode you are.

[Alcazar]

That's all good news for me, and the focus selection thing i think i can live with.
Thanks guys!

[rfg]

The zoom goes in steps 1.4/2/2.8/4/5.6/8/11/16, same numbers as f-stops but it adds another step of 8.3x between 8 and 11. The 8.3x corresponds to 100% crop, that is one display pixel per one image pixel. This is also pointed out by a '100%' symbol that appears next to the 8.3x magnification indication.

A quick followup question. The imaging resource review says:

there's a new 100% quick magnification function which helps you check focus at 1:1 resolution without needing to fiddle with the playback zoom controls

Which to me means there is a shortcut button to get to 100% (or 8.3x). Is this the case, and if so which button?

[rawr]

You can set the Quick Zoom ratio to go straight to 100% in playback if you want.
Press Play, twist rear e-dial once, and you are at 100%.

Instant 100% in playback is a nuisance though, since you see so little of the scene. I have Quick Zoom just set to 4X. That's useful enough to check focus.

[bdery]

On my K10D, long exposures over 30 seconds had to be done manually... by holding the button on the remote for as long as you wanted the exposure to be, and looking at your stopwatch at the same time :-)
- Can i just dial in say 8m37s, and the K-3 does a long exposure of that length? My tired fingers would be thankful

You can decide if bulb remains open while you press the shutter or if you need two presses, one for start and one for stop. It's in a menu.

You cannot set the time beforehand for more than 30 seconds.

You can get a 2$ wired remote with a lock if you want (that's what I did with my K20D) for long exposures, if for some reason you don't want to use the two steps mode. For the record, that mode (or holding the shutter with your finger) is likely to induce some motion blur.

The last option (when using the two steps mode) is to get a wireless remote, you're not even touching the camera then, no user-induced motion blur.

[Quicksand]

You can decide if bulb remains open while you press the shutter or if you need two presses, one for start and one for stop. It's in a menu.

You cannot set the time beforehand for more than 30 seconds.

You can get a 2$ wired remote with a lock if you want (that's what I did with my K20D) for long exposures, if for some reason you don't want to use the two steps mode. For the record, that mode (or holding the shutter with your finger) is likely to induce some motion blur.

The last option (when using the two steps mode) is to get a wireless remote, you're not even touching the camera then, no user-induced motion blur.

Another option for this kind of thing is to pick up a wired timer remote, like this YongNuo unit. Put the camera into Bulb mode, and the timer remote triggers an exposure of the desired length.

[bdery]

Another option for this kind of thing is to pick up a wired timer remote, like this YongNuo unit. Put the camera into Bulb mode, and the timer remote triggers an exposure of the desired length.

That's exactly what I wrote

[Quicksand]

That's exactly what I wrote

Maybe you MEANT to write about digital timer remotes, but they are not actually in the words that appear on the screen!

[bdery]

Maybe you MEANT to write about digital timer remotes, but they are not actually in the words that appear on the screen!

Sorry, I did not click the link and assumed you were referring to a regular wired remote.