Originally posted by Fenwoodian 1. I just love the built in compass mode. Kept me from being hopelessly lost a number of times.
Good to know it works fine. Will save me taking out my phone every time I have to prove to my wife we're going in the right direction.
Originally posted by Fenwoodian 2. Most days, I shot all day on just one battery. That even included a few images in the "pixel shifting" mode. I found that the el cheapo Chinese batteries worked just as well and as long as did the original OEM battery that came with my new K3II.
How many images did you take per day? And how many clicks did that represent? Depending on your deleting a lot while chimping, both numbers may diverge, so I'm really more interested in the number of clicks. Esp since I gather you kept on the GPS all times?
Originally posted by Fenwoodian That said, when the battery gauge just starts to show the first signs of it being depleted, you had better start thinking about putting a new one in because when it shows that half the battery power is left, it's really like you only have 10 or 15% left.
The battery gauge behaviour sounds similar to the K-3, which would be expected. At least there *is* 10% to 15% left, with previous batteries (the ones used in the K10D and K20D I believe) you didn't get as much warning...
Originally posted by Fenwoodian 5. I purposely shot many images hand held. Frankly, I'm not at all impressed with the built in image stabilizing that the K3II has. I really do not notice any improvement in blur reduction over the same type of images I've taken with my Fuji and Nikon cameras.
SR is what it is... I've learned to rely on it only partially and certainly not to the extent of the advertised maximum number of stops. But there is some learning curve involved as well. It is actually possible to take an image without SR even when it is ON. The SR system needs a fraction of time to activate between half and full press of the shutter release. So pressing all the way in one go may result in non-stabilized images. Secondly, remember that SR stabilizes the camera's movement, not the subject's. When you say you took a safari, I gather you shot some wildlife? Animals can move quickly, so are you sure the blur you saw wasn't subject movement? For me SR works well, once you learn what it can do for you (and what it cannot!
).
Many thanks for your feedback!!
Wim