[ThorSanchez]

Try some high contrast landscapes shot in RAW or RAW+ on a tripod. The amount of shadow detail you can recover is amazing with either the K-1 or K-1ii. The RAW files are very data rich.

Try pixel shift on a tripod with one of the better prime lenses. Once again, the amount of detail is impressive.

I'm going to try this - it's supposed to be a little cloudier by sunset, perhaps I can get some good golden hour shots with the tripod.

---------- Post added 12-27-18 at 11:50 AM ----------

The K-1 excels as a landscape camera. Looks like you have a sunny day there, so if the weather is accommodating head to a nearby state park. After a quick glance at the map . . . is Pocomoke State Forest nearby?

Take only one lens so you aren't fiddling back and forth between options; that way you can focus on the camera. Personally I'd pick the 40mm lens. If that seems like "unfun", then the daguerreotype lens, but that may have too many distracting variables.

I hope you find something enjoyable for your last day with a remarkable camera.

Stephen

Pokemoke State Forest is probably 25 miles or so away, but would take me three or four hours to get there thanks to the Chesapeake Bay getting in the way! When you try to explain Southern Maryland to non-locals you get a lot of strange looks when you say it's not on the Eastern Shore.


The best I can do today would probably be St. Mary's Lake State Park. The 40mm is probably my best bet - the Lomo is definitely more experimental and details are overwhelmed by the effects. When stopped down it's sharper but loses much of the character. But maybe I can see what it looks like on FF stopped down with a circular aperture plate...

[mauri]

If you hit a burglar over the head with the K1, you'll immediately realize that it's in another class compared to Pentaxes that came before.

[TwoUptons]

To me, the biggest differences in image quality are related to high ISO performance. Like 12,800 or even higher. It’s absurd what the K1 can do with that. The shadow detail recovery is also epic.

Otherwise, it’s mostly usability things for me. The viewfinder size, floppy screen, those sorts of things really impress me.

And classic wide angle lenses that are actually wide angle... it’s cool to shoot a 50mm lens on APS-C as a portrait lens, but I was happier getting my 24mm wide back again...

-Eric

[aslyfox]

If you hit a burglar over the head with the K1, you'll immediately realize that it's in another class compared to Pentaxes that came before.

so, in your opinion, it is a better door stop as well then?

[jimr-pdx]

I've had your problem more than once, where I acquire a camera at a time when I cannot give it a thorough evaluation. I bought a Lumix G7 2 years back which fit my hand almost perfectly, but sent it back since I was bewildered by its features and had no free time to get familiar. Doing the same thing now with the YI M1 - despite its many nice features (esp. with firmware 3.1) I'm ready to sell and return to my comfortable old GX1.

Seems that buying/renting around the winter holidays is not my best move. My real problem is that 'free time' is rather mythical any time of year for a 24hr caregiver with a part time job..

[Paul the Sunman]

I took the K3 out for a few hours the other day, walking around the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. It was very sunny with extreme contrast between sun and shade. I mostly shot flowers or interesting plants (e.g. fern fronds) in the full gamut of lights and often mixed sun/shade. I was using the DA 16-85, DA 55-300 WR, DA 10-17, DA 40 Limited, and Tamron 90mm macro.

I have hardly used the K3 since I bought the K1 a year and a half ago. This is largely because my son had been using it a lot (and to good effect). However, he's just bought his own Nikon kit (D850 + several lenses), so I have my trusty old K3 back. I was interested to rediscover my "APS-C vibe".

Some observations:

1. Wow, it's so much easier to carry the camera and 5 lenses! I rarely carry more than 3 lenses with the K1, and even then the weight is much greater. This made the walk much more enjoyable.
   
2. On a similar theme, the DA 55-300 was all the reach I needed; I didn't have to lug the damned DFA 150-450.
   
3. I'd forgotten what a great lens the DA 16-85 is! It is so much like the DFA 28-108 on FF. The DA 40 Limited is of course also wonderful, but I use that on the K1 often enough that I didn't need to rediscover it.
   
4. I bought the DA 10-17 fisheye from my son. I'd never used it much before. I don't think the Botanic Gardens (in low light in the fern glade) was the best use of it; I must practice and experiment more.
   
5. The colours are good, but the resolution obviously doesn't compare to the K1. This often doesn't matter, but sometimes it does.
   
6. The built-in flash is very handy. I used it at reduced power for some fill-in when photographing fern fronds in the gloomy fern gully.
   
7. My "keeper rate" of technically good (not necessarily artistically good) shots was far lower than the almost-100% I get with the K1. From my usage, I find the AF on the K1 more precise and consistent.

Anyway, I have a decent selection of good APS-C lenses, so I will certainly shoot more with the K3 in future, especially when I don't want the weight of the FF kit. I will also look forward to the K3-replacement when it arrives. However, I don't think I'll ever go back to APS-C as my primary platform. The K1 has spoiled me.

[ThorSanchez]

I did a little more experimenting last night. Of course the partly cloudy forecast for the golden hour became fully overcast, so not much golden light was to be had. Here are a few I liked (you can see at larger resolution and more photos on Flickr).

This one is a pixel shift with the tripod and the 40mm limited. I think the detail, especially zoomed in, is pretty impressive. If you look at the Flickr album there's one of my printers that's another pixel shift.


This is a 1:1 crop of a K-1 shot at ISO 25600 (editing and noise reduction to taste in RawTherapee):



And a comparable K-3ii shot at 12800:


And at 51200 the black and white makes this one pretty impressive, although the color is probably usable for smaller sized viewing:

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Last edited by ThorSanchez; 12-28-2018 at 07:48 AM.

[C_Jones]

When I shoot with my K-1 II, and the light is providing a substantial amount, either naturally or using flash/strobe with a decent subject involved, the images are amazing. I am the type that likes to utilize low ISO whenever possible, but there have been certain instances where I used a 1600 ISO and the crops I got from the images were near immaculate. My K--3 II is an amazing camera, but its use as a tool is as an aps-c camera, whereas the K-1 II is used for the full frame, 36 megapixel type tasks that I approach. I have the K-3 II on my Pentax 16-85 lens and my K-1 II on my Pentax 70-200 lens. The ranges and megapixels being used in each case differ and are used for differing instances.