[dragbike81]

Greetings to all. I’ve been shooting since 1981, graduated New England School of photography Applied Program 1997, worked hard as a full time freelancer throughout the 1990’s. I shoot mostly motorcycle drag racing. I’ve always been a Pentaxian, my PZ-20 and PZ-1 were my mainstays throughout the 90’s. Some B&W shooting, mostly chromes, Fuji Velvia was my love. Around 2010 I started going digital, the transition continues. I started with an iDST and got serious with a K-3 purchase in early November 2013, just after it’s first release. With two days of back yard initiation, I packed up my K-3 and delivered it’s Baptism by fire in a race at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.

I’m still getting to know the K-3 and I look forward to learning it’s quirks and mastering it in time, it’s a great camera. I look forward also to exchanges here, none of us is as smart as all of us. Cheers!

Tom McCarthy

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[Kerrowdown]

Welcome to the forum, well how's the K-3 fairing so far?

[dragbike81]

So far I'm very pleased with it. I've only had it to the race track once, but it's potential is there. I just have to adapt to it. And I don't think my old 1990's lens selection is fast enough to keep up with today's auto focus in the K-3. I'm pretty sure I need a few modern lens upgrades to take full advantage of the camera. What I'm trying to say is, my lens selections from the early & mid 1990's can't mechanically react as fast as the auto focus can apply it's focus to a moving object I'm panning with. I believe the camera is fine, but my lens selection is behind the times

[Bigdomino]

Welcome. Great images. What kind of lens are you using?

Steve

[TER-OR]

Welcome aboard! You are going to want to push that sensor by stopping down as much as comfortable. It's quite a learning curve to find out how good images at 6400 or higher can be.

Some of the motorized lenses combined with live view tracking can be really amazing.

[dragbike81]

Welcome. Great images. What kind of lens are you using?

Steve

Hi there, my long lens is a Tokina AT-X 80 to 400, and my walk around is a SMC-DA 18-55. The Tokina can be tack-sharp, but I feel it's auto-focus may be slow compared to what a new K-3 can tell the lens to do. As for the 18-55, I can't really say on full-auto (8.3 frames /sec) if that lens can keep up either. Thank you for asking.

[dragbike81]

Welcome aboard! You are going to want to push that sensor by stopping down as much as comfortable. It's quite a learning curve to find out how good images at 6400 or higher can be.

Some of the motorized lenses combined with live view tracking can be really amazing.

II did take some images after the Pro bikes were running at my last race in Nov. I did find a combination in really poor lighting that was gang busters for catching the action with really poor track ambient light & no flash. I had to go to f/4.5 @ 160/sec at ISO 51200!

As for the motorized lenses, I'm certainly ready to find out what they can do!!

[Joel B]

Welcome from Iowa! With photos like that, it will be us coming to you for advice! Enjoy the forum and post often!
Joel

[dragbike81]

Welcome to the forum, well how's the K-3 fairing so far?

So far so good. I love the weight and balance, the battery life is excellent, even in 17 degree weather, shot for 4 hours in sub-freezing weather, no problems. I'm still learning the camera, only been out with it a few times so I've got a long way to go. Do you shoot one?

---------- Post added 02-20-14 at 06:09 AM ----------

Welcome from Iowa! With photos like that, it will be us coming to you for advice! Enjoy the forum and post often!
Joel

Thank you, we all learn together.

---------- Post added 02-20-14 at 06:13 AM ----------

Welcome aboard! You are going to want to push that sensor by stopping down as much as comfortable. It's quite a learning curve to find out how good images at 6400 or higher can be.

Some of the motorized lenses combined with live view tracking can be really amazing.

My next purchase needs to be a DA 18-270 as my walk-around. For shooting drag racing as I wander the pits and sometimes need to sprint to the guard walls, between that and a 400mm, they are the only 2 lenses I need as every day shooters. If I had a 17 fish-eye in a vest pocket, that'd up the ante.

[dragbike81]

Welcome. Great images. What kind of lens are you using?

Steve

Steve, I use a kit lens (for now) that's 18-55 and my boomer is a Tokina TA-X 80 to 400mm Zoom. I'm a budget strapped shooter, but my choices so far have served me well. The Tokina has been tack-sharp if I can take the time to manually zoom in and focus. So I pre-focus and turn off the AF often. BUT I've recently found out through trial & error that the 9 point focus sensor is more lens friendly for my combination.