[rawr]

As much as I admire Nikon's AF in the D610 and D750, to shoot motor sports, the K-3 is quite up to the task. Any experienced bird shooter in Pentax, Nikon or Canon will have little trouble shooting motor sports.


53 - Tight in the curve - KTM - North Coast Road Racers on Flickr


91 knee down - North Coast Road Racers on Flickr


MotoX Trio in orange - North Coast Road Racers on Flickr

[philbaum]

Samsung NX1: -4 EV

...

The K3's AF.S is pretty damn good though. I was surprised how much faster it locks on even with screw-driven lenses when I switched from my K-r, and it's very precise too.

Thanks for the reply - I'm delighted that Samsung took low light focusing so seriously. With Sony, it seems hit or miss: The A7s is rated at -4ev, the A7 II is only rated to -1ev.

The D750 is rated to -3ev but here is a thread discussing low light focusing problems with D750:
D750: not happy with lowlight focus..: Nikon FX SLR (DF, D1-D4, D600-D800) Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

I don't know that the above link is very meaningful, but they do point out that one should use only cross points for low light focusing and elsewhere it was recommended to only use the center point.

The only perfect cameras are the ones in our head

[normhead]

Thanks for the reply - I'm delighted that Samsung took low light focusing so seriously. With Sony, it seems hit or miss: The A7s is rated at -4ev, the A7 II is only rated to -1ev.

The D750 is rated to -3ev but here is a thread discussing low light focusing problems with D750:
D750: not happy with lowlight focus..: Nikon FX SLR (DF, D1-D4, D600-D800) Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

I don't know that the above link is very meaningful, but they do point out that one should use only cross points for low light focusing and elsewhere it was recommended to only use the center point.

The only perfect cameras are the ones in our head

Ya, but they are amazing cameras.

[Wired]

If it matters... which it doesn't.... my D800 tracks and gives me a much higher keeper rate shooting live bands than my K3 ever did. Nearly every frame was sharp where I put the target, the K3 struggled to keep it locked.

I'm not convinced its the AF sensor though, I will blame the lens. Bands move very fast, and the DA*50-135 moves very slow vs the 70-200mm f2.8 VRII which focuses faster than lights turn on after you flick the switch.

I do believe that if the hype is to be believed, the new DFA*70-200 f2.8 coupled with the new FF Pentax will be just as competitive.






at the end of the day, we all just need to go take some pictures and worry less about the technical side of things. enjoy what we have and max out it's capabilities. don't use the camera as a crutch.

My D800 has been in the shop for two weeks now, and my K3 has been more than adequate getting me the images I've asked it to get.

[normhead]

I do believe that if the hype is to be believed, the new DFA*70-200 f2.8 coupled with the new FF Pentax will be just as competitive.

Ya, we're all holding our breath here.

[mee]

The issue, for me at least, is the D750 has been out for awhile. As a result, the price can afford to lower as the technology 'ages.' Further, the second hand market grows more and more also pushing the price down (if willing to go second hand). In 6 months (if that even happens) when/if the Pentax digi FF is released it will be of course at inflated retail price while the Nikon system (as example) will be much more affordable simply due to being on the market longer.

Ricoh has to either trump the current technology by a fairly wide margin or come in cost-wise lower to compete.

[Ian Stuart Forsyth]

As much as I admire Nikon's AF in the D610 and D750, to shoot motor sports, the K-3 is quite up to the task. Any experienced bird shooter in Pentax, Nikon or Canon will have little trouble shooting motor sports.


53 - Tight in the curve - KTM - North Coast Road Racers on Flickr


91 knee down - North Coast Road Racers on Flickr


MotoX Trio in orange - North Coast Road Racers on Flickr

Sitting back at a distance shooting with a greater DOF is hardly a challenge, move in closer where a lot of the action photography happens and see what you get



If you think it the K3 was up to the challenge of capturing an image like these you would be greatly disappointed whereas with Nikon this is a common occurrence

[normhead]

Why are you posting someone else's photos?

The exif is on those photos... he used a 70-200 at 200mm.. at 200 mm he wasn't right up on those cyclists, or he wouldn't have been shooting at full reach.


Why do you post things you know next to nothing about? Or do you actually talk to this guy. I mean you may be right in your analysis but you could also be wrong.

The FoV on the two images is the same 200mm D750 , 135 K-3





How did you determine that the D750 guy was in tighter and that the K-3 guy was way back using wide DoF? I don't know maybe you're right, but between posting other peoples pictures and talking about stuff you possibly know nothing about... so far, we have some images taken by a couple of guys we don't know.

That's like me doing this.... shooting this with a K20D is easy but doing it with a Nikon is a challenge.



It probably isn't true, and me posting a great picture taken with a K20D doesn't really prove a thing. And it's not my picture. But Bejikan left Pentax and was shooting with a D800 for a while, and now he's back to shooting his k20D for magazine layouts. SO I could argue a K20D is better than a D800. I won't, that's like the above argument. But, Benjikan posts here and if I really want to know, I can go in the K20D thread and ask him. These guys... not so much.

But I'll certainly argue that there's no guarantee that if you get a D800 you won't go back to your K20D. Obviously it has enough going for it, a D800 isn't the clear choice.

IN any case. I'd hate to see the forum degenerate to the point where people have to post other people's work to make a point. That's just wrong. Fact is, you have no idea if there'd been a K-3 shooter next to Fairedz he/she wouldn't have taken just as good or better pictures. And given the higher frame rate, he/she might have taken more of them. This is just idle speculation.

I won't be confusing it with fact.

Given that one of these guys is shooting with a system that probably cost between 3 and 4k and the other guy with a system that cost between 1 and 2 K, I'm not seeing what we should pay the extra money for. If we put those images up and say "which guy had the more expensive camera, or the camera with the best AF are people going to know?

And that is really the question, I'm not saying the K-3 is the same AF as the 750, there's lots of reasons to think it isn't. But when you get down to actually taking pictures. Is that something that makes a camera a better camera? I'd say, only if you're getting paid. If you're not getting paid, you'll get enough good images with your K-3 to keep you happy.

[rawr]

Sitting back at a distance shooting with a greater DOF is hardly a challenge, move in closer where a lot of the action photography happens and see what you get

I have a strong feeling that you have no idea what you are talking about. For motorsports you can't get [safely] close - you have to rely on tele distances.

Plus in motor sports DOF is your friend - you don't want just the front wheel or license plate of the subject in-focus, you want a bit more, so to shoot wide-open is a bad idea.

But sometimes you can certainly shoot less than 125mm - and wide open (or close to it):


98 - and smiles all round - North Coast Road Racers on Flickr
K-3, Sigma 70-200, 110mm, f3.5


Day 3 - Car 2 - Subaru WRX kicking up the dust - Happy Valley stage on Flickr
K-3, Sigma 70-200, 105 mm


Car 30 - 1972 Datsun - Happy Valley stage on Flickr
K-3, Sigma 70-200, 88mm

Anyway, I also shoot sports with a D610, so your point is ... ?

[Ian Stuart Forsyth]

Why are you posting someone else's photos?

The exif is on those photos... he used a 70-200 at 200mm.. at 200 mm he wasn't right up on those cyclists, or he wouldn't have been shooting at full reach.


Why do you post things you know next to nothing about? Or do you actually talk to this guy. I mean you may be right in your analysis but you could also be wrong.

The FoV on the two images is the same 200mm D750 , 135 K-3.

You can tell by perspective even when the motorcycle as it looks to be shot closer with the cropped sensor you can see that the perspective is very different .
If I had to guess the cropped image was cropped to about the FOV of 300mm aspc( very compressed ) if they shared the same FOV then one would think that they would have similar perspective wouldn't you think ?

How did you determine that the D750 guy was in tighter and that the K-3 guy was way back using wide DoF? I don't know maybe you're right, but between posting other peoples pictures and talking about stuff you possibly know nothing about... so far, we have some images taken by a couple of guys we don't know.



Given that one of these guys is shooting with a system that probably cost between 3 and 4k and the other guy with a system that cost between 1 and 2 K, I'm not seeing what we should pay the extra money for. If we put those images up and say "which guy had the more expensive camera, or the camera with the best AF are people going to know?.

You wanted to see some D750 photos that why I posted them

But you are in a D750 thread in a non pentax directory waving the K3 banner if you don't want to compare these two lines of equipment and their AF performance why did you start?
And clearly someone in a D750 thread is considering the better performance of the D750 might consider the D750's AF being one of them. and should not have to put up with the K3 banner

And that is really the question, I'm not saying the K-3 is the same AF as the 750, there's lots of reasons to think it isn't. But when you get down to actually taking pictures. Is that something that makes a camera a better camera? I'd say, only if you're getting paid. If you're not getting paid, you'll get enough good images with your K-3 to keep you happy.

One could consider the K5 as a better fit for you if good is good enough and to tell you the truth what you've been showing with your K3 AF test, the K5 would not be challenged

But some people what to take good photographs, to push their limits and strive for better photographs rather than just capturing good enough some of the best photographs are taken by people that have very little interest in making money but rather the challenge of it.

[Homo_erectus]

So, yesterday I was headed to my local duck pond and as I walked out to the parking lot I noticed that huge pieces of pollen were wafting over the treeline and drifting onto my car. On a whim I decided to see how well my D750 and Sigma 70-200 F/2.8 HSM would track one of the large chunks of pollen as it moved on the wind from 30ish feet in the air and maybe 25 feet away directly toward me. The wind was blowing fairly strong so the pollen pieces were moving pretty fast. I took one set of shots, got in my car, and drove to the duck pond. You can see the entire series here.

No processing was done to the images other than ACR applying my default D750 color profile. I opened the .nefs in ACR then PS and saved them as 300dpi jpgs on the 12 setting. I set this gallery so you can look at the images at 100%. If you look at the first image at 100% and use the arrows to move through the rest the view will stay at 100% for all of them.

The lens was at 200mm because at 70mm the AF point was simply so much larger than the pollen that I couldn't focus on it.

Shots 2,3,7 and 10 of 13 are pretty darn good.

The pollen ended up at waist height when it finally got closer than the lenses minimum focus distance.

If the pollen is still flying this afternoon I might pop out and shoot a similar sequence with my k5iis and the 60-250. If I do I'll post a link to the pics.

Just for kicks, below is a link to the tenth shot in the series which is probably the best in terms of focus.

[normhead]

But you are in a D750 thread in a non pentax directory waving the K3 banner if you don't want to compare these two lines of equipment and their AF performance why did you start?
And clearly someone in a D750 thread is considering the better performance of the D750 might consider the D750's AF being one of them. and should not have to put up with the K3 banner

Well Stuart, I think you could possibly pump up your D750 fantasies without telling people what they can and can't do with their K-3s. Other people seem to be quite a bit more proficient with their K-3s than you. It may be that the D750 is better at some things. But if you mention the K-3, some people may choose to dispute your analysis of the K-3, and justifiably so in many instances. You simply make a lot of statements that either directly or indirectly imply half truths are truths, with sweeping generalizations. Someone has to correct that crap.

[FantasticMrFox]

Well Stuart, I think you could possibly pump up your D750 fantasies without telling people what they can and can't do with their K-3s. Other people seem to be quite a bit more proficient with their K-3s than you.

Norm, I just read Pentaxforums' very own D FA 150-450 review and noticed something that made me think of you:

"When pairing the 150-450mm with the Pentax K-3, we found the overall autofocus performance to be good but not exceptional. We mainly had trouble in AF-C mode while shooting birds and animals, as the camera did not trigger fine-adjustments frequently enough for moving subjects. This was an issue since small changes in focus can have a significant impact when working with a shallow depth of field (i.e. at long focal lengths and/or wide apertures)."

Looks like you have another website to add to your list of people who don't know what they're doing when shooting K3s ...

[normhead]

Norm, I just read Pentaxforums' very own D FA 150-450 review and noticed something that made me think of you:

"When pairing the 150-450mm with the Pentax K-3, we found the overall autofocus performance to be good but not exceptional. We mainly had trouble in AF-C mode while shooting birds and animals, as the camera did not trigger fine-adjustments frequently enough for moving subjects. This was an issue since small changes in focus can have a significant impact when working with a shallow depth of field (i.e. at long focal lengths and/or wide apertures)."

Looks like you have another website to add to your list of people who don't know what they're doing when shooting K3s ...

We had no problems with AF accuracy in AF-S mode, though in this mode, the camera liked to fine-tune the AF after a preliminary focus lock.

Read more at: HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6 (APS-C) Review - Focusing | PentaxForums.com Reviews

Well, who ever wrote this... the way around the hunting thing slowing down the AF speed that is to select shutter priority not focus priority and release the shutter as soon as you lock focus. Any guy shooting in the long lens club could have told them that. Reinforcing my point, reviewers even Pentax forum reviewers have very good general knowledge.. but if you want to know something about how to do something, talk to the guys who are doing it successfully, don't spend much time listening to the guys who are telling you it can't be done.

That's my point, and I'm sticking with it.

Maybe if the Pentax reviewer had done things as suggested in many tidbits , that have been posted on the Pentax forum, of advice he might have been happier, but as I said, I can find no confirmation anywhere that Pentax has instituted any kind of predictive focus. As far as I can tell their theory is lock focus and trigger the shutter and hope the subject hasn't moved too far. It's obviously not a good as systems that use predictive focus. But then, it's not nearly as expensive either.

The good thing about that is, the number of times you actually need that is very small. IN fact, apart from forum discussion on objects coming straight at me, I've never needed it. It's great the D750 can do that, but for me and many others, it's still not a selling point.

[Homo_erectus]

I tried my pollen test with the K5iis + 60-250 and it simply couldn't lock focus on the moving pollen. I tried for about twenty minutes with no success at all.