Originally posted by asharpe Indeed. This is why every single pro I've ever seen or heard has spare bodies. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, doesn't matter the brand. *They* don't trust their gear absolutely, either. If the shoot is really important, or once in a lifetime, or really expensive to set up, use two cameras at the same time.
Yup. I always bring 2 cameras to every shoot and usually am shooting with the second camera while the first camera does the time lapse. But the mirror flopping problem has happened frequently enough for me (maybe 4-5 times in the past year) that even with two cameras on tripods I'd be wary. The K-5, K20d, and K-01 (along with a K-x and K-m) have been much more reliable in this regard.
Also, the problem with shooting an in-camera time-lapse with the K-3 is that if the mirror flops you lose everything; there are no intermediate files to try to salvage.
I've also filled cards with RAW files using the in-camera intervalometer and then built the time lapse on the computer, but I've noticed a couple of things with my K-3:
- The exposure is not rock solid. Random frames will be 1/3 over- or under-exposed. I've had some frame complete white.
- The framing is not rock solid. I've had minor shifts in the framing that are a PITA to fix.
TL;DR - at this point I would not recommend the K-3/K-3ii to anyone wanting to do time lapse photography. I've been doing this for years, and other cameras are just more reliable.