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Forum: General Talk
11-19-2021, 03:05 PM
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The Smiths "Louder Than Bombs"
My parents sold my high school copy in a garage sale when I went off to college. It took me forever to find another copy.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-11-2021, 05:43 PM
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K-3iii with A 35-105 f/3.5
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Forum: General Talk
08-26-2021, 01:45 PM
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Pentax (D)A (Limited) f3.5 35-105mm macro zoom (parentheses for those dreaming of an update). In the meantime, this classic stack is a great partner to my KP and 20-40 ltd. I had one years ago but let it go to fund other things. Glad to have a copy back and having fun with manual focus.
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Forum: General Talk
08-26-2021, 01:14 PM
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Brilliant collaboration between Tedeschi Trucks Band and Trey Anastasio to cover the iconic Derek and the Dominos album in front of an unsuspecting live audience.
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Forum: General Talk
08-25-2021, 02:05 PM
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Rock on, Charlie Watts. I'd like to imagine he's playing some great jazz with Bird about now.
A little Goat's Head Soup after work.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-03-2021, 10:20 AM
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K-3 iii + 55-300 PLM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-03-2021, 05:22 AM
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K-3 iii
300mm, f/8, 1/1250s, ISO 800, slight crop
Great Blue Heron
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
08-02-2021, 03:04 PM
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55-300 PLM
From a boat tour of Assateague Island, VA
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
08-01-2021, 04:58 PM
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I think it is significantly better. Before the firmware update it was defaulting to AF points along the bottom of the active area, and now it seems to better at picking up the subject, even against difficult backgrounds. Could be placebo effect, but I think it’s real. I thought the AF points were much better in real time, and reviewing images backs that impression up. Good stuff!
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
08-01-2021, 02:52 PM
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Congrats on your new camera! I have also been really impressed with the K-3 iii for sports (soccer) with the 55-300 plm and 60-250–so much better than K-3 ii or KP for continuous focus action. I had the same lockup issue in the past when using AF-C for long periods (cycling the camera off and on always fixed it). I used it in AF-C today for an hour taking pictures of Seagulls in flight and never had a problem. This was my first time out after updating to firmware ver. 1.10. Maybe they fixed it? Anyway, enjoy it! It would be great to see some of your motorsports pics with the K-3 iii.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
07-29-2021, 04:11 AM
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
06-23-2021, 04:10 AM
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Thanks for sharing and sorry I missed that post the first time around—great information!
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
06-22-2021, 12:49 PM
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Subjectively, I would say it depends on the lens/motor. Playing around with AF-S focus lock from infinity-minimum and minimum-infinity, most lenses I have tried so far are at least a little quicker. The SDM 60-250 is modestly quicker, the SDM 200 is quite a bit quicker, the DC 20-40 is moderately quicker, and the screw driven D FA 100 WR macro is much quicker. My DA 55mm is about the same. I have always been happy with the speed of the KP for AF-S, so the biggest meaningful improvement for me is the AF-C performance. Other than the improvement with the macro lens I don't think the other differences are meaningful for me with slower subjects. I would be interested to see how the 55-300 PLM does.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
06-22-2021, 09:25 AM
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Others have shared great experiences with the K-3 iii for wildlife, and I wanted to add some comments on the camera for sports, FWIW. I recently took some pictures at a HS state regional soccer championship game to try out how the K-3 iii handled action and get back in practice, because there hasn’t been much in the way of sports to shoot for a long while (I’m really rusty). My previous experience has been with the K-3 ii and KP shooting my kids sports (soccer, mountain biking, horse shows), usually with the DA* 60-250 (and 10-17 fisheye for close shots on the trails—great fun!). I set up an action user profile and customized the smart functions to include drive mode, user AF, crop, outdoor view setting, and grid guide; I mostly switched between the first 3. I had 2 AF-C settings and 1 AF-S in the user AF smart function group. I had the AF-S set up with a spot AF point, because I am used to using a focus-and-recompose technique (never had much luck before this with AF-C). Long story short, I never needed to use that setting at all because AF-C worked great. My AF-C settings both had type 1 AF point tracking, release-priority for 1st frame action in AF.C, and low hold. The AF active areas were auto area for one preset and zone select for the other preset. I used the 60-250 + 1.4x TC. Mostly around f/8 and shutter speed 1/1000+, letting ISO float up as high as 12,800 as the sun went down. I was at midfield 14 rows up, so pretty far from the goals.
I started using auto area AF points and the camera did well tracking and locking focus. Focus speed must have been fast, because I never noticed it (it was never a limitation). I did notice the camera often chose a focus point toward the lower row of AF points, even when the moving players were toward the center. I seem to remember someone else commenting somewhere that theirs also had a tendency to choose AF points along the bottom when using auto area (can’t recall where). After that I started using zone select, sometimes moving the AF point box up one row to the top. As far as results, WOW! I took about 500 images and only 3-4% were unusably out of focus (and some of those because I didn’t anticipate plays very well). Some others were in perfect focus but my framing was abysmal (gotta keep practicing…). Corner kick plays really showed how good this new camera and AF system is—I got sequences of 20 or so shots and the players (and even ball in mid-air) were very well focused in all but 2-3, and even those were acceptable. I could even zoom in and read the writing on the ball. The frame rate was fantastic for capturing just the right moment. I did use the 1.3x crop function at times and found it useful to help frame distant players. I found the AF points easy to see in the viewfinder unless the scene was really busy. I shot JPG (because this was just for practice and online sharing); never ran up against the buffer max and it cleared quickly. Sorry I'm not comfortable posting pics (not my kids).
So, I am really impressed with the K-3 iii for sports. I don’t want to sound like an advertisement, but it really is way ahead of anything else before it from Pentax for action, even with my “slow” SDM driven 60-250. One curious disappointment, the camera locked up once so that it wouldn’t focus or take a picture (this was after very extended use of AF-C). No problems after turning off and back on. Anyone else use theirs for sports? It would be great to hear your preferred settings and experiences.
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Forum: General Talk
06-22-2021, 06:51 AM
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Amythyst Kiah
You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7fL1KS9y-iU?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
06-22-2021, 06:40 AM
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DA* 60-250mm, 250mm, f/5, 1/320s, moderate crop
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Forum: General Talk
01-08-2021, 02:19 PM
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McCartney III
First spin
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-05-2021, 02:04 PM
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Pandapas Pond day use recreation area in the Jefferson National Forest
Every December decorations are hung from young evergreens throughout the forest around the pond.
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Forum: General Talk
12-27-2020, 01:52 PM
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Rolling Stones--Goat's Head Soup
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Forum: General Talk
12-25-2020, 12:35 PM
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The Waitresses -- Christmas Wrapping
You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nud2TQNahaU?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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Forum: General Talk
12-20-2020, 06:49 AM
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Great album!
Sarah Jarosz this morning
You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3Z0skP0EeE?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
12-19-2020, 07:07 AM
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KP in black or silver is $699.95. Looks like 2 black and 6 silver in stock. 5 monthly payments might be an option if you’re a Prime member.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
12-15-2020, 12:07 PM
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Hi Rey, welcome from Virginia. We still have a K10D and it's taking great pics. That PZ-1 is also a great camera.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
12-15-2020, 12:03 PM
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From November
KP with DA* 200mm
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
12-15-2020, 11:57 AM
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