[Zealex]

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Awesome thanks.

Can anyone vouch for the battery holder?

Also there is some dust on the viewfinder and I opened the camera and can see it...I found some guides recommending using a brush but would you recommend it? One guy used a q tip but cotton sounds like a horrid idea..

[DSims]

Good job so far.

You'll probably want to start shooting in Av mode, because aperture is the variable you need to pay the most attention to - so you want to set it deliberately. When you get shutter speed wrong it will often be obvious (e.g. motion blur) and when ISO is "wrong" you may get more noise than you want. But learning which apertures work well with each lens (and at what zoom levels and circumstances) is the key to understanding how to get the results you want.

Eventually you'll get a DA50/1.8, DA35/2.4, A (or M) 100/2.8 (non-macro), or similar lens, and then you'll understand even more about using aperture to your advantage.

[nanok]

welcome and have fun, sorry i didn't see the thread earlier. what i would have told you would be "go for the k10, if on a budget, and stop worrying". basically any camera made by pentax (and frankly all the others too) after the k10 (included) is great, the k10d is also a piece of history (a game changer). in other words, the k-r is absolutely fine, stop worrying and continue shooting, you've got great gear.

shutter speed: this is a commonly misunderstood factor i feel: for sports (subject moving across your frame), the highest useful shutter speed is really the sync speed (modern dslrs means somewhere between 1/160 and 1/250, pentax is 1/180 i think), making it faster than that will help little if at all. higher shutter speeds are useful in bright light, so you can control your aperture (use a wider aperture for nice dof effects etc). to understand why that is, you'd have to learn how a focal plane shutter works, if not technically inclined, just remember the rule above and keep it in mind (it will come in handy when you're shooting rally and bump the shutter speed to 1/4000 or such, at cost of iso and dof, and see no improvement in "motion sharpness", you will know to clam down, bring iso back down, aperture back up, and start tracking the motion carefully )

edit: hmm, let me tone that down a bit: let me replace "higher than sync speed is useless" to "is problematic at best". experiment and you will see

for the curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter

have fun, and stop worrying about the gearfor a year or two

[DSims]

shutter speed: this is a commonly misunderstood factor i feel: for sports (subject moving across your frame), the highest useful shutter speed is really the sync speed (modern dslrs means somewhere between 1/160 and 1/250, pentax is 1/180 i think), making it faster than that will help little if at all. higher shutter speeds are useful in bright light, so you can control your aperture (use a wider aperture for nice dof effects etc). to understand why that is, you'd have to learn how a focal plane shutter works, if not technically inclined, just remember the rule above and keep it in mind (it will come in handy when you're shooting rally and bump the shutter speed to 1/4000 or such, at cost of iso and dof, and see no improvement in "motion sharpness", you will know to clam down, bring iso back down, aperture back up, and start tracking the motion carefully )

I think you're assuming the flash is in use here, and it can fully reach the subject at the distance he's at, and it's powerful enough to overcome most of the ambient light. Which means it won't apply to many/most outdoor sports (at least not without a quality/specialized flash), or to indoor sports which don't allow a flash (or also have the subject too far away).

[clackers]

shutter speed: this is a commonly misunderstood factor i feel: for sports (subject moving across your frame), the highest useful shutter speed is really the sync speed (modern dslrs means somewhere between 1/160 and 1/250, pentax is 1/180 i think)

Nanok, as Dsims has pointed out, you have confused this with flash.

The rolling shutter stuff is irrelevant to the normal situation - the light level is the same throughout the time it's open.

I think hand-holding beginners (me not long ago) benefit from Tv mode more than using Auto to replicate their phone or P&S.

A higher shutter speed will help with both the cat they're shooting moving and their own novice's camera shake.

(BTW, some say there isn't enough shooting of cats!)

[OrchidJulie]

Sorry to be late on this one. Welcome to PentaxForums!

Just wanted to say, enjoy the K-r. It's a terrific camera, you'll learn a lot. For inspiration, check out the photo sample search page

Pentax Camera & Lens Sample Photo Search Engine - PentaxForums.com

You can search there for images taken with a K-r -- there are thousands here! -- with all sorts of parameters (lens, ISO, etc.). Just about any subject matter that may interest you, too -- portraits, landscapes, nature, macro, pets, people and plenty more.

[nanok]

I think you're assuming the flash is in use here, and it can fully reach the subject at the distance he's at, and it's powerful enough to overcome most of the ambient light. Which means it won't apply to many/most outdoor sports (at least not without a quality/specialized flash), or to indoor sports which don't allow a flash (or also have the subject too far away).

nope. you are assuming i'm assuming , i said nothing about flash. the problem is that the shutter is only as fast as the shutter is fast, which is the sync speed (the fact sync speed is also meaningful for flash is "only a coincidence"), and while using rolling shutter to make exposure "locally smaller" (or, if you wish, locally increase the shutter speed) seems to work, the speed of the shutter on the entire frame is the same at speeds at and above the sync speed. this basically means that if your subject covers a significant portion of your frame (aka: is not a speck somewhere in the frame), using speeds above sync will not help with freezing motion: you will need to track the motion as well as if you were using the sync speed, to get something decent. it might help with some local movement on a subject which is complex-moving (like a bird feathers in some areas? neh), but this is splitting hairs. the simple rule for a beginner to remember is: "when shooting action with a "rolling shutter" (focal plane shutter), use whatever shutter speed works for you, but remember no speed is really faster than sync speed, and pan -- and plan -- accordingly"

[Zealex]

---------- Post added 05-03-14 at 08:23 PM ----------

Would this work for my camera?

D BH109 Lithium Battery Holder AA Battery Holder for Pentax K R KR K 30 Camera | eBay

And this hood for my 55-300mm...

58mm Lens Hood Ph RBG for Pentax SMCP Da 55 300mm F 4 5 8 Ed | eBay

I know they're knockoffs, but I can't imagine the AA battery holder be damaging or the knock off hood being "not effective"

Would that knock of AA battery holder be safe for use with my K-R? I have tons of AA batteries, but I'm not looking to drop 40 bucks on the original pentax one...

Also, I know knock off hoods will be effective however that one will fit my DA L 55-300m with no problems right?

Will try out Av mode, thanks for the replies guys!

I'd really like how to learn macro photography...looks awesome..something like this:

[nanok]

for macro of that sort, prepare to spend some time and effort, it's not easy. a good example of a success storry is

Thomas Shahan’s Spiders in National Geographic | Flickr Blog

this guy used to use a pentax k200d (i think some time ago he said he had moved to a k-r -- not that it matters), an old manual focus lens reversed and on some extension tubes, and (most important) his own home made light box with a flash in it to light his "models".

so not necessarily expensive, but lots of work. not something you can do casually, if you want it done well. (hmm, that applies to anything worth doing, doesn't it?)

[boriscleto]

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/54-pentax-lens-articles/152336-cheap-macr...lose-work.html

[VisualDarkness]

nope. you are assuming i'm assuming , i said nothing about flash. the problem is that the shutter is only as fast as the shutter is fast, which is the sync speed (the fact sync speed is also meaningful for flash is "only a coincidence"), and while using rolling shutter to make exposure "locally smaller" (or, if you wish, locally increase the shutter speed) seems to work, the speed of the shutter on the entire frame is the same at speeds at and above the sync speed. this basically means that if your subject covers a significant portion of your frame (aka: is not a speck somewhere in the frame), using speeds above sync will not help with freezing motion: you will need to track the motion as well as if you were using the sync speed, to get something decent. it might help with some local movement on a subject which is complex-moving (like a bird feathers in some areas? neh), but this is splitting hairs. the simple rule for a beginner to remember is: "when shooting action with a "rolling shutter" (focal plane shutter), use whatever shutter speed works for you, but remember no speed is really faster than sync speed, and pan -- and plan -- accordingly"

Well, you still freeze motion and rolling shutter isn't really an issue in normal photography. Tell any action photographer that the max useful speed is 1/180s and they will laugh their behinds off at you.

[DSims]

nope. you are assuming i'm assuming , i said nothing about flash. the problem is that the shutter is only as fast as the shutter is fast, which is the sync speed (the fact sync speed is also meaningful for flash is "only a coincidence"), and while using rolling shutter to make exposure "locally smaller" (or, if you wish, locally increase the shutter speed) seems to work, the speed of the shutter on the entire frame is the same at speeds at and above the sync speed. this basically means that if your subject covers a significant portion of your frame (aka: is not a speck somewhere in the frame), using speeds above sync will not help with freezing motion: you will need to track the motion as well as if you were using the sync speed, to get something decent. it might help with some local movement on a subject which is complex-moving (like a bird feathers in some areas? neh), but this is splitting hairs. the simple rule for a beginner to remember is: "when shooting action with a "rolling shutter" (focal plane shutter), use whatever shutter speed works for you, but remember no speed is really faster than sync speed, and pan -- and plan -- accordingly"

OK, let me translate: "Don't pick your nose when you're driving, because if you get in a head-on collision at that exact moment it will really hurt your nose!" Is that about right?

[nanok]

Well, you still freeze motion and rolling shutter isn't really an issue in normal photography. Tell any action photographer that the max useful speed is 1/180s and they will laugh their behinds off at you.

who will laugh your behind off at you, and what's true and what is not, are two separate matters (see "appeal to authorithy"); have you tried asking though? it's very hard to grasp what a "rolling shutter" will do at first glance, and it's not as simple as i tried to explain it, because i don't want to write novels here, but you can try a test with a fast moving subject across your frame, with the camera on a tripod (should be moving on the long side of the frame, and fast enough that sync speed won't freeze it), and see what you get with different shutter speeds. The rolling shutter might help some, but it won't freeze the overal motion (like a global shutter or central shutter will do), and in my experience the results show that. ymmv etc.

---------- Post added 05-05-2014 at 08:50 AM ----------

OK, let me translate: "Don't pick your nose when you're driving, because if you get in a head-on collision at that exact moment it will really hurt your nose!" Is that about right?

poetry, right there. i'm impressed.

(ahem, what does it mean? -- wait, don't answer that!)

[VisualDarkness]

who will laugh your behind off at you, and what's true and what is not, are two separate matters (see "appeal to authorithy"); have you tried asking though? it's very hard to grasp what a "rolling shutter" will do at first glance, and it's not as simple as i tried to explain it, because i don't want to write novels here, but you can try a test with a fast moving subject across your frame, with the camera on a tripod (should be moving on the long side of the frame, and fast enough that sync speed won't freeze it), and see what you get with different shutter speeds. The rolling shutter might help some, but it won't freeze the overal motion (like a global shutter or central shutter will do), and in my experience the results show that. ymmv etc.

---------- Post added 05-05-2014 at 08:50 AM ----------



poetry, right there. i'm impressed.

(ahem, what does it mean? -- wait, don't answer that!)

You simply can't get frozen action with that slow of a shutter in moments like this:

[DSims]

poetry, right there. i'm impressed.

(ahem, what does it mean? -- wait, don't answer that!)

You won't be able to demonstrate that a photo of a runner or soccer player in full motion at 1/160 or 1/180s will ever freeze the motion as well as 1/800 or 1/1250s. You won't be able to produce the photos to prove it. But go ahead and try - we're all waiting to see the example photos!

So you can give all kinds of great technical explanations, but it won't work because you're leaving something critical out of your theory.


And my rather weird, example "translation" was simply to say that you are stating some small truth that doesn't really count for much when viewed in perspective, compared to the whole picture.

In case you were wondering, I've never tried that before either (that is, getting into an accident while picking my nose)!




This is terrible advice for a beginner. While it's conceivable there's some small advantage to using 1/180s compared to 1/250s on a Pentax, it will never freeze fast motion going in a different direction than you're panning the camera (if you're even doing that), so you have to stick to the standard rules of about 1/640 to 1/1600s minimum shutter speed if you want to freeze all the action in the frame.