[ChristianRock]

K20D and 18-55 AL II (xposted)

[Wolfeye]

New hat.

[normhead]

Same old birds, so change up the camera.

K20D and HD DA 1.4 and DA*60-250 @350mm ƒ5.6

[ChristianRock]

All great shots, Norm! Did you feel hindered by the AF performance of that setup? Or was it not an issue? Either way you nailed it!

[normhead]

All great shots, Norm! Did you feel hindered by the AF performance of that setup? Or was it not an issue? Either way you nailed it!

From my perspective CR, 3 keepers for 138 images, locking focus slowly and missing focus after beeping it had found a focus point... a frame rate that seemed like 1 frame per second instead of my usual 5 to 6, 5 to 6 shots in a sequence instead of 25. And in the crops, only uncropped images made the cut. You can tell which images are cropped because they aren't sharp. So all and all, I'd say the K20D is not a camera you want to use for small bird photography. Given my K-3 I would have expected at least 50% acceptable images and I would have been able to select on composition etc. With the K20D not so much. Also, these images are all exposed one stop over-exposed, meaning a slower shutter and more losses to motion blur. Starting last night shooting the same birds I was disappointed at how little detail I could rescue in the black feathers of the Black Capped Chickadees. With the K20D you really have to expose to the right, whereas with the K-5 and K-3 I've become accustomed to exposing to the left.

But I still enjoyed working with the old work horse again, even if it did take a bit of time to re-introduce myself to the controls and apart from the WhIte Breasted Nuthatch, which I feel is un-acceptabley soft, I quite like all the images. But you do get used to that extra resolution in a K-3., or the extra dynamic range in a K-5.

[ChristianRock]

From my perspective CR, 3 keepers for 138 images, locking focus slowly and missing focus after beeping it had found a focus point... a frame rate that seemed like 1 frame per second instead of my usual 5 to 6, 5 to 6 shots in a sequence instead of 25. And in the crops, only uncropped images made the cut. You can tell which images are cropped because they aren't sharp. So all and all, I'd say the K20D is not a camera you want to use for small bird photography. Given my K-3 I would have expected at least 50% acceptable images and I would have been able to select on composition etc. With the K20D not so much. Also, these images are all exposed one stop over-exposed, meaning a slower shutter and more losses to motion blur. Starting last night shooting the same birds I was disappointed at how little detail I could rescue in the black feathers of the Black Capped Chickadees. With the K20D you really have to expose to the right, whereas with the K-5 and K-3 I've become accustomed to exposing to the left.

But I still enjoyed working with the old work horse again, even if it did take a bit of time to re-introduce myself to the controls and apart from the WhIte Breasted Nuthatch, which I feel is un-acceptabley soft, I quite like all the images. But you do get used to that extra resolution in a K-3., or the extra dynamic range in a K-5.

I hear you... I mostly take portraits and pictures of objects/details at low ISO, so it still works well for me... in fact the skin tones out of the K20D look great to me, and I have difficulty matching the quality with the wife's K-r. But if I was doing more action or nature shots, the K20D would certainly be a hindrance... that's why I was asking.

But with K-5s now selling for 250 dollars, I might have to make the jump at some point...

[normhead]

I hear you... I mostly take portraits and pictures of objects/details at low ISO, so it still works well for me... in fact the skin tones out of the K20D look great to me, and I have difficulty matching the quality with the wife's K-r. But if I was doing more action or nature shots, the K20D would certainly be a hindrance... that's why I was asking.

But with K-5s now selling for 250 dollars, I might have to make the jump at some point...

The K-5 is better in many ways than the K-20D, but the K-3 is still the quantum jump in AF. The big jump in the K-5 is the Dynamic Range. Tessfully's landscapes were noticeably better in shadow detail when she was shooting the K-5 and I was shooting the K20D. For sunsets etc. I felt like I was wasting opportunities using the K20D. It took us about 2 months to own two of them and relegate the K20D to my sister's house. I am happy that it came back however. I missed it, especially for the kinds of images you're talking about. I've never really taken the time to figure out why.

[dinamojuan]

I hear you... I mostly take portraits and pictures of objects/details at low ISO, so it still works well for me... in fact the skin tones out of the K20D look great to me, and I have difficulty matching the quality with the wife's K-r. But if I was doing more action or nature shots, the K20D would certainly be a hindrance... that's why I was asking.

But with K-5s now selling for 250 dollars, I might have to make the jump at some point...

Where have you found The K5s at 250USD? I need one to upgrade my K20D, I´m in the weddings business, and I need something better

[audiobomber]

Where have you found The K5s at 250USD? I need one to upgrade my K20D, I´m in the weddings business, and I need something better

I would not recommend a K-5 for weddings due to unreliable AF in dim and coloured lighting and inability to meter bounced P-TTL flash. The K-5 II has accurate focus, but still has the K-5's troubles with bounce flash.

[deus ursus]

I faintly remember someone somewhere on this forum claiming that flucard works on the K20D for remote controlled tethering (PKtether). Can anyone confirm this, or is my memory playing tricks with me? According to one norwegian retailer's website, it only works on K-3, K-S1 and 645z.

[audiobomber]

I faintly remember someone somewhere on this forum claiming that flucard works on the K20D for remote controlled tethering (PKtether). Can anyone confirm this, or is my memory playing tricks with me? According to one norwegian retailer's website, it only works on K-3, K-S1 and 645z.

I don't know about the Flucard, but the K20D shipped with a dedicated software program for tethering, "Remote Assistant 3". There is still a software update available on the Ricoh site:
REMOTE Assistant 3 | Software Downloads?RICOH IMAGING CANADA

The K20D was the last body to allow tethering until the K-3, but as I said, I know nothing about PKtether.

[deus ursus]

Yeah, I know about Remote Assistant, but I bought my camera used, and the software didn't come with it. I need the CD to make the update work.

That's why I downloaded PKTether. It works fine - via cable, and I'd like a wireless solution for outdoors timelapse.

[dinamojuan]

I love so much my K20D but when I look at the dark zones of the pictures I take, I get so disappointed about the lots of noise even at iso 200, the shadows of the dark clothes lose a lot of detail. what software do you recommend to eliminate noise? I´ve heard about the Topaz Denoise5 do you think it is better than the Ligthroom?

[ChristianRock]

I love so much my K20D but when I look at the dark zones of the pictures I take, I get so disappointed about the lots of noise even at iso 200, the shadows of the dark clothes lose a lot of detail. what software do you recommend to eliminate noise? I´ve heard about the Topaz Denoise5 do you think it is better than the Ligthroom?

That is very much a deficiency of the sensor, dinamojuan. Other than using ISO 100 which would give you a bit more dynamic range to lift up in the shadows, there's really not that much that can be done other than upgrading your camera for a more recent Pentax.

My photography is more subject-oriented, so I don't go crazy about recovering shadow detail (for what I do, a little bit of recovering is ok otherwise shadows can be shadows...) so the K20D is fine for me.

[audiobomber]

I love so much my K20D but when I look at the dark zones of the pictures I take, I get so disappointed about the lots of noise even at iso 200, the shadows of the dark clothes lose a lot of detail. what software do you recommend to eliminate noise? I´ve heard about the Topaz Denoise5 do you think it is better than the Ligthroom?

I use and highly recommend Noiseware. You can try the free Community Edition which lets you process one jpeg at a time, or upgrade to purchased programs which allow batch processing and/or raw processing. I use the Standard version.

https://www.imagenomic.com/download.aspx?product=noiseware