[Larrymc]

Hi folks,


Lately I have started trying to get some nice aircraft in flight photos and also testing my tracking technique for inbound and outbound aircraft with my K3. I found that as long as I can keep the center spot autofocus red dot on the aircraft I can get a decently focused photo of an inbound aircraft but that only works when the back button is depressed. With the normal K3 focus screen sometimes its difficult keeping the center spot lined up prior to depressing the back button because the center alignment marks are so wide compared to the red focus dot. There is a Pentax focus screen with crosshairs (MI-60), I am wondering if anyone is using the MI-60 screen for birds in flight or aircraft to align focus prior to depressing the back button for focus tracking? It looks as if the crosshair center circle is a much smaller diameter than the marks in the standard K3 focus screen which in my opinion would help on initial target acquisition and subsequent target tracking. Any opinions or experience on this?


Larry

[stevebrot]

The center bracket area on the MI-60 is the same dimensions as on your stock focus screen. On both screens it traces the boundaries of the spot metering zone. While the cross hairs may help guide your eye for tracking*, there may be additional ways to tune your technique. Airport approach is not something that I do, so I am not much help on specifics.


Steve

* The "cross hairs" on the MI-60 are intended to estimate scale for close-up and macro work.

[Larrymc]

Thanks Steve,


I wasn't sure how large the boundary was on the MI-60 I still think the "cross hairs" can help line up the target better than the standard K3 focusing screen, I guess I'll just have to fork over the money to find out after my Tamron SP AF 70-200mm F2.8 Di LD [IF] Macro comes in. Thanks again


Larry

The center bracket area on the MI-60 is the same dimensions as on your stock focus screen. On both screens it traces the boundaries of the spot metering zone. While the cross hairs may help guide your eye for tracking*, there may be additional ways to tune your technique. Airport approach is not something that I do, so I am not much help on specifics.


Steve

* The "cross hairs" on the MI-60 are intended to estimate scale for close-up and macro work.