[penmar]

Just trying to update on my second copy of the K-3 after a scary false start. I got it last night. Opened & charged the battery overnight.

This morning, I was pretty excited. However, in the beginning (the first hour of using) there were so many problems on my second copy. What kind of problems?

1. In P and Green Mode, LV button cannot be pressed. Actually, seemed like button was stuck.
2. LV came on by itself. My fingers were nowhere near it.
3. Continuous shooting by itself. What?
4. Camera won't focus. Low light. All light. Nothing.
5. Shutter sound like a light bulb hitting the pavement and exploding. I removed the lens and checked. Yeah, it was the mirror or cover thingy hitting up/down sound. Arh.
6. Pop up flash needs a little pressure to push back in.
7. I had to set the date & time & language every time I switch it on. What is that?

I was cursing to myself for sending the first one back and thinking may be I should buy a used K5IIS (used is cheaper & tested, but what do I do with the insurance & warranty I bought) or E-M1 because after using the E-PL3 and no fuss lightweight picture taking, it is quite appealing too.

So, I threw it in my car and headed to the nearby park for additional test. It was a little chilly with probably low 40s outside. Low and behold all problems disappeared like it was a different camera. All I did was re-seat the battery, memory cards, and reset all custom settings which did not help when I did it. Weird. Probably my K-3 just want a ride . But, since the problem never repeated the whole day and I bought all kinds of warranties, I should be safe if something happens in the future.

Now, I'm happy to report that my second copy of K-3 is great. Also updated the firmware to 1.01 ... for good measure .

Pictures are pixel-level sharp as long as I make sure the shutter speeds are at least 1.5 to 2 times my focal length with SR off. May be I have shaky hands.

Here are some test pictures. Pardon the bird picture & its DOF. I'm not a birder and have no clue about the bird I just took a picture of .









Time for some accessories and a decent WR prime for low light perhaps.

Thank you everybody for the troubleshooting tips, suggestions, and kindness. Appreciate it.

PS: My first copy's serial starts with 483421X, I think. This one is 483427X, which is within 100 of each other in the same assembly line, in case somebody wants to track.

---

Last edited by penmar; 01-07-2014 at 05:01 PM.

[bossa]

Make sure you have the high ISO noise reduction turned off...watch this video by Ed from photouniverse Pentax K-3: REDEMPTION - YouTube in it he explains the problems that he was having with out of focus images when the high ISO noise reduction was set to automatic.

My 50-135 was pin sharp and way better than the Tamron 70-200 I tried on my K-5. I don't have that lens anymore but I'd consider another one if SDM was more reliable. I am still entertaining the idea of a K-3 & DA*60-250 instead of a 200-400 for my D800E as I'm getting too old for lugging back breaking gear around - I wish I'd stuck to my original plan of just using the D800E for landscape and portraits. IF the K-3 had appeared when we expected it to (K-5II etc) I probably wouldn't have bought a Nikon camera.

[jbinpg]

Good luck with the 2nd body, penmar. Results look good. And I believe your bird is a female Great-tailed Grackle.

Jack

[gazonk]

Pictures are pixel-level sharp as long as I make sure the shutter speeds are at least 1.5 to 2 times my focal length with SR off. May be I have shaky hands.

The speed = 1/fl rule is for FF, so 1,5x sounds right to me.

[Arne Bo]

The speed = 1/fl rule is for FF, so 1,5x sounds right to me.

That would explain a lot of my problems i had early on. I always went with 1/fl and don't have a good technic holding the camera yet. I had a lot of blur in my early pictures. (First weeks i had the k3 were really dark here and i tried to avoid high iso so i went to slower shutter speeds)
But i need to work on my handholding no matter what. Handholding tele is terrible at the moment.

[gazonk]

That would explain a lot of my problems i had early on. I always went with 1/fl and don't have a good technic holding the camera yet. I had a lot of blur in my early pictures. (First weeks i had the k3 were really dark here and i tried to avoid high iso so i went to slower shutter speeds)
But i need to work on my handholding no matter what. Handholding tele is terrible at the moment.

Well, with SR activated you should easily be able to use slower shutter speeds than 1/fl with a little training. And even without SR, it's a question of learning how to support the camera. I learned the style of holding I use in my avatar picture from my Pentax MX manual as a teenager , with the left hand supporting the camera from below, and could use 1/30 with a 50mm lens on my MX and LX with mostly keepers, i.e. about 2*1/fl.

The below picture was shot with my K-5 with a 35mm at 1/6 (SR activated). In addition to using the hands correctly, you should support your elbows and overarms against your body. For the below shot, I also leaned one shoulder against a wall and held my breath when hitting the shutter button

[OldNoob]

Odd. With my k-30 , the Live view images turn out softer than the images i take using the OVF.

[nomadkng]

if you are having telephoto lens handholding support issues, try this technique:

place left hand on right shoulder and support lens on crux of elbow joint. it is best if you have a lens hood on, because you can rest the lens hood on your arm and any rotating lens parts don't get bound.

I used this on a Bigma I owned for a couple years and it worked great, I could shoot at 500mm handheld down to about 1/100 sec with proper breathing techniques.
I also shoot in 3 frame "bursts" just in case my breathing is "off"

I have managed 1/60 sec at 420mm a couple times, but not something i'd count on for critical situations.

This technique also seems for me to allow long stationary positioning, specially if I can brace my upper body against a tree trunk, rock, car etc.

[OldNoob]

Make sure you have the high ISO noise reduction turned off...watch this video by Ed from photouniverse Pentax K-3: REDEMPTION - YouTube in it he explains the problems that he was having with out of focus images when the high ISO noise reduction was set to automatic.

This is something i learned a long time ago with Sony cameras. NR can really rob an image of definition. It is also one a couple reasons why i ended up with Pentax, because on the comparable 16mp OVF Sony a580 camera i was using i could not completely turn off noise reduction and ended up using my old a100 for most still photography, in which i could disable NR completely. On the k-30 i find no issues with completely disabling NR up to 800iso

[gazonk]

Odd. With my k-30 , the Live view images turn out softer than the images i take using the OVF.

Not odd at all - when you use the OVF the support is much better than when you hold the camera in front of you. I use LV quite a bit, but I always use faster shutter times for LV because of the lack of support. I also noted that my son who shoots a lot with an Olympus w/o VF (e-pl5) needs faster shutter times than I need.

[Arne Bo]

if you are having telephoto lens handholding support issues, try this technique:

place left hand on right shoulder and support lens on crux of elbow joint. it is best if you have a lens hood on, because you can rest the lens hood on your arm and any rotating lens parts don't get bound.

I used this on a Bigma I owned for a couple years and it worked great, I could shoot at 500mm handheld down to about 1/100 sec with proper breathing techniques.
I also shoot in 3 frame "bursts" just in case my breathing is "off"

I have managed 1/60 sec at 420mm a couple times, but not something i'd count on for critical situations.

This technique also seems for me to allow long stationary positioning, specially if I can brace my upper body against a tree trunk, rock, car etc.

Thank you! I´ll try this.

[penmar]

... I'm getting too old for lugging back breaking gear around ...

That's the reason I switched my laptop from T400s (3.9 lbs) to X201 (3.2 lbs) to balance the backpack weight difference between E-M1 that I was considering and K-3 that I actually bought. Same hauling weight . More rugged body & lens.

Good luck with the 2nd body, penmar. Results look good. And I believe your bird is a female Great-tailed Grackle.

Thank you. Grackle. Hmm. I'm sure I haven't heard of it before . I probably know less than a dozen kind of birds .

The below picture was shot with my K-5 with a 35mm at 1/6 (SR activated). In addition to using the hands correctly, you should support your elbows and overarms against your body. For the below shot, I also leaned one shoulder against a wall and held my breath when hitting the shutter button

Thank you for the tip. Your picture look incredible. Perfectly showcased the winter-going-to-work kind of mood!

... place left hand on right shoulder and support lens on crux of elbow joint.

Thank you for this tip. I tried a couple on my relatively small lens. Worked pretty well. With longer lens, it is probably a must.

[gazonk]

Thank you for the tip. Your picture look incredible. Perfectly showcased the winter-going-to-work kind of mood!

Thank you! This was one of those few lucky occasions where I immediately saw the picture and knew I had to act very fast (since the commuters would soon be gone) AND I had to use a long shutter time (I used Av mode as usual and turned the ISO to 80 and stopped down to 5.6) in order to get the desired effect. I shot only two shots: First one shot at f/4 and 1/13 which I decided wasn't slow enough (and besides, the AF missed on the dull background), and then this shot.