Hi Team NZ,
Just wanted to raise awareness of a little setting that's really adjusted my camera to my liking. It's kinda obvious, but I'd overlooked it for so long that maybe others have too.
I was always getting frustrated with my camera selecting too slow a shutter speed in Av mode. I'd had a go at influencing this in the past but with little success.
With modern Pentax cameras being fine at higher ISO levels than previous/early sensor models, I'm quite happy to up this in favour of a fast shutter speed.
It's better to have a noisy shot than a blurry one with subject movement due to too slow a shutter speed.
This really showed up once it got darker and you went indoors, and way too many family shots were ruined due to blur.
Anyhow, there is a setting here that I'd tried, but that obviously only affects the P mode.
I'd had that set to fast, but it doesn't work with the Av mode.
But buried under the Auto ISO Parameters menu is the one you want:
Switching that little guy to
FAST made all the difference, and now suddenly Av was good for most situations I wanted it for.
I found the default auto setting too slow for my needs, but Fast was perfect.
That coupled with a sensible metering mode (I most often use Centre weighted) and it was like I had a new camera, perfectly attuned for my thinking.
So much so that I've been compelled to share the love with others, in case this had been overlooked or not considered.
This one change restored my confidence in the camera and really helped out on my recent trip, allowing me to focus much more on the shots I wanted.
For travel photography (seems such a broad term though) I mostly have my K-3 set at Av, with ISO set at 100-3200 and the camera now prioritising a fast shutter speed.
I then just rode the exposure compensation up and down as required, or switched to TAv (still with 100-3200 floating ISO range) for the likes of animal shots, (where I wanted a very high shutter speed around 1/800s or so) and again rode the exposure comp if required (say a bird against a bright sky).
Once too dark, say for tripod long exposure work then you're back into full Manual, but the Auto ISO Fast setting was revolutionary.
Maybe this will be of interest to you