[reh321]

I do plan to visit an active nesting marsh tomorrow and see what the tracking can actually do with birds in flight.

Don't get food poisoning again - have a good breakfast of bacon before you go out.

[MrNPhoto]

Actually, I am looking forward to AF-C performance when taking dog pictures. If I am behind the dogs, they move slowly. But if I get ahead of them to take pictures of them coming towards me, then they race after me to get ahead again.

[Dave L]

Actually, I am looking forward to AF-C performance when taking dog pictures. If I am behind the dogs, they move slowly. But if I get ahead of them to take pictures of them coming towards me, then they race after me to get ahead again.

I need one most of all for photos of my youngest grand child, newly toddling. It's almost impossible to focus on her quickly enough indoors with my K-3 or K-5 when she's on her feet and looking towards me, whatever lens. So, A K3iii it will have to be!

:

[Larrymc]

There is this guy on the German forum who took the camera out of the box and made this funny dog photo right away:

https://pentaxians.eu/forumimages/2021/60/60_2021042333_nickyk33.jpg

The data 210mm F4 hint at the 70-210.

I know, it is the internet and it should have been a cat.

Looks like "damn" great AF to me. The Ricoh/Pentax engineers ought to be proud of their hard work. Finally!!!!

[Mike.P®]

Looks like "damn" great AF to me. The Ricoh/Pentax engineers ought to be proud of their hard work. Finally!!!!

I can get one shot of my dog in focus ... when I see a sequence of 4 or 5 in focus THEN they can be proud of their hard work.

[robbiec]

K20D did this 12yrs ago RTFM, Catch in focus would do this even with a Tak or K (dog in flight photos) - I much prefer 'reviews', partial or impartial (such a thing, look at Photouniverse today with click bait headline, DPR are a known quantity, Fstoppers, more clickbait, IR had Mike Tompkins who knew his way around a Pentax, Ephotozine has John Riley, again knows his way around Pentax) coming from those who actually know what they are using and can highlight the changes that actually matter.
ISO looks to be 2 stops better than K-1
OVF is praised, as is the rear screen implementation
Ergonomics look spot on
Rene Fisher has shown some marvellous BIF stuff
It's a fast camera, not too big, goldilocks sizing probably, it's density will hurt the limp wrists at DPR unless the review is done by the ex camerastore guys.
The new AFC and new Hyper enhanced will need learning and deeper dives but if you're a stills photographer and have a collection of K glass, amateur, enthusiast, professional - it has to be on your radar regardless of asking price. If you want to pay 1500, sell on your older K-3's, 5's, P's or if you have a spare A*200/4 Macro, I'll swap you a K-3iii Premium set for it

[mtkeller]

I can get one shot of my dog in focus ... when I see a sequence of 4 or 5 in focus THEN they can be proud of their hard work.

How about four or five or eight of a baseball player running from first to second or second to third? I’m pretty sure I’ve got four of them even with the screwdrive Tamron 70–200 f/2.8 mounted to the HD DA 1.4x teleconverter. The AF is dramatically better based on seven innings of baseball. The joystick is a bit of a learning curve, but once I get the hang of it, I think it’s going to help a lot. The bigger/brighter OVF also helps a lot when you suddenly need to change where you’re aiming the camera and try to focus quickly. Gotta go shoot game two. Full report later.

[Serkevan]

How about four or five or eight of a baseball player running from first to second or second to third? I’m pretty sure I’ve got four of them even with the screwdrive Tamron 70–200 f/2.8 mounted to the HD DA 1.4x teleconverter. The AF is dramatically better based on seven innings of baseball. The joystick is a bit of a learning curve, but once I get the hang of it, I think it’s going to help a lot. The bigger/brighter OVF also helps a lot when you suddenly need to change where you’re aiming the camera and try to focus quickly. Gotta go shoot game two. Full report later.

Well, the user reports are starting to come in and it seems everyone's getting excellent results... Glad to hear that, guys! Enjoy the new camera

[mtkeller]

Well, the user reports are starting to come in and it seems everyone's getting excellent results... Glad to hear that, guys! Enjoy the new camera

I filled two 32GB cards with raw files today shooting baseball. I’ll get a more detailed report up tomorrow after I can slog through the images. There’s a learning curve to the new AF for sure, largely because of the increased number of options that come about with more AF points. I’m coming from the K-70, which in theory had AF hold, but its AF was so awful that it didn’t really matter. I’m kind of reaching the conclusion that I need to get good at changing my AF hold settings on the fly depending on what scenario I’m trying to shoot at an event. (A runner charging directly at me from second base toward third seems to work best with no AF hold. However, if I might have to contend with a coach or umpire running between me and my subject, then I want some AF hold.)

The 55–300 PLM was magical on the K-3 iii, both with and without the HD DA 1.4x teleconverter. The only downside for me is that baseball stadiums tend to have messy backgrounds, and the lens is already f/6.3 at 300mm before adding the TC. Hence, the DOF of the lens can be a bit more than I want. It focused like a dream, however. I also shot the Tamron 70–200 f/2.8 screwdrive lens using the TC. Here I noticed a dramatic improvement from basic AF functionality compared to the K-70. Much less hunting. Fewer occurrences of focusing on the background instead. The lens that I’m really not sure about was the DA*300mm. I’ve had good results with it in AF.C before shooting BIF, but today the SDM seemed indecisive. It may be that the park the games were at today was not well set up for being able to use a 300mm prime, and so the situations I tasked it with shooting were more challenging than what I was able to give the zooms. Rene Fisher has gotten good results from the DA*300mm in her ambassador testing, so I’m going to keep working with that lens. Maybe it’s better suited to wildlife settings than sports.

[mattt]

Rene Fisher has gotten good results from the DA*300mm in her ambassador testing, so I’m going to keep working with that lens. Maybe it’s better suited to wildlife settings than sports.

Not to take anything away from Rene here, but the eagle, harris hawk, snowy owl shots were all shot at a facility I've shot at. It would be no more difficult than shooting baseball as the proprietor James directs photographers where to stand, and what he's planning to make the bird do, and then he and his wife do the "trick" at least a half dozen times, so if you don't get it first try, you can get it next try.

In terms of Shooting baseball, I'm interested to hear more, and to see your shots, so I hope you share a fiew.

[FozzFoster]

got some example photos over on this thread:
Post your K3 iii pictures. - PentaxForums.com

[mtkeller]

In terms of Shooting baseball, I'm interested to hear more, and to see your shots, so I hope you share a fiew.

I will definitely share. I’ll probably post a few somewhere on PF and then throw up a gallery of full res sequences on my website for the curious. Just too wiped after all that time out in the wind today to slog through 1600 images. Also need to remember that today featured the additional goal of giving all y’all some insight into the new AF, so don’t want to be too aggressive in my culling

[mattt]

I will definitely share. I’ll probably post a few somewhere on PF and then throw up a gallery of full res sequences on my website for the curious. Just too wiped after all that time out in the wind today to slog through 1600 images. Also need to remember that today featured the additional goal of giving all y’all some insight into the new AF, so don’t want to be too aggressive in my culling

I shoot about 400-600 frames per game, and ruthlessly cull. Get some sleep!

[mtkeller]

I shoot about 400-600 frames per game, and ruthlessly cull. Get some sleep!

That’s about where I am on a normal game, and nowadays I cull that down to 12–25 that I share. Today was a DH, so I normally would expect to have about 1000 images, but (a) the faster continuous shooting and (b) the desire to test things out and shoot things I didn’t really need but wanted to try with a different lens got the best of me. Images have been copied from SD cards to my 2TB portable drive. Think I will plug the drive in, start the LrC import, and then go to bed. Tomorrow will start nice and easy if I don’t have to wait for the import to finish before I can start looking at things.

[repaap]

How about four or five or eight of a baseball player running from first to second or second to third? I’m pretty sure I’ve got four of them even with the screwdrive Tamron 70–200 f/2.8 mounted to the HD DA 1.4x teleconverter. The AF is dramatically better based on seven innings of baseball. The joystick is a bit of a learning curve, but once I get the hang of it, I think it’s going to help a lot. The bigger/brighter OVF also helps a lot when you suddenly need to change where you’re aiming the camera and try to focus quickly. Gotta go shoot game two. Full report later.

I’m hoping to get HD TC 1.4 and K-3III combo to work with my DFA*70-200. So will be interested to see how you manage with Tamron.