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Forum: Post Your Photos!
04-05-2024, 03:04 PM
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
03-30-2024, 06:24 PM
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As long as my subject is still and the lens is stopped down a bit, my 50-135 is still capable of getting some nice shots. Here's my friend's dog, Teddy, on a nice spring day
 IMGP1350 by SebblesVic, on Flickr
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-13-2024, 07:30 PM
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Thanks for the business idea: Lens caps with spots to write down the different AF correction values depending on the light source and focal length of zooms... :)
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-24-2024, 10:14 PM
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It sat there running through the whole range of focus as it always does in LV...
---------- Post added 02-24-24 at 09:14 PM ----------
Kinda hard to do that with a fixed screen...
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Forum: Product Suggestions and Feedback
09-25-2023, 08:55 AM
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Your firmware updates are much appreciated by the community, but please include in one of them the ability to perform AF fine adjustments for both the wide and tele ends of a zoom lens. I'm tired of getting the lens set up just right with a focus chart in my living room at one focal length and then getting bird photos where the end of the log is sharper than the bird.
I had an awful time with my 50-135 at a recent concert. Some of the photos were perfectly sharp, others were completely unusable. There's too much variation between wide/tele, close/infinity for a single AF adjustment to be of much use.
Sincerely,
Mr. Frustrated :/
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-02-2023, 12:43 PM
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Here's our Sadie during a brief moment of stillness on Halloween
 IMGP5504 by SebblesVic, on Flickr
K3-iii & DFA* 50 @ 1.4 - Off-camera flash bounced off the ceiling
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
10-05-2023, 01:15 PM
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What's your budget?
I ended up getting a new Godox with wireless transmitter after having two dead AF540FGZ flash units. The Godox is a good bit of kit. I know this doesn't address your question specifically, but don't limit yourself to those options.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
10-20-2023, 08:57 AM
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K3-3 + 50-135
My trick to getting low-angle shots with the K3-3's lack of tilty-screen is to pre-focus using the viewfinder then move the camera lower to the ground, keeping the subject within the plane of focus hoping it doesn't move. Most of my shots here were OOF but this was a keeper.
 IMGP4460 by SebblesVic, on Flickr
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-17-2023, 09:58 AM
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We had a cloudy and foggy morning, but it cleared up just in time for the eclipse to become visible.
Here is the sun rising from behind the tree with the photo series ending with the maximum coverage we saw here.
 IMGP3975 by SebblesVic, on Flickr
 IMGP3978 by SebblesVic, on Flickr
 IMGP3989 by SebblesVic, on Flickr
 Peak by SebblesVic, on Flickr
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
08-17-2023, 08:37 AM
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
05-19-2022, 12:01 PM
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It's the compromises and inconsistencies that are becoming a Pentax hallmark.
Can it not 'just work'? or is that an unreasonable expectation?
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
04-28-2022, 08:05 AM
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You know you have a flagship Pentax camera when you rack up more shutter actuations figuring out focus than actually taking photos.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
05-29-2023, 12:40 PM
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From the local yacht race this past weekend with the K3-3 and the 150-450.
I think I'm satisfied with them? You be the judge...
Click through for additional photos.
 Swiftsure 2023 by SebblesVic, on Flickr
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
05-24-2023, 12:29 PM
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The K3-3 doesn't have animal eye-af.
I can't get it to track a running dog and keep it in focus let alone the dog's eyes... I've got the DFA* 50 - if I want dog portraits, it's a portrait session with a still dog. Forget locking on to eyes and keeping them in focus as the animal moves around.
I get it - it's not what the platform is designed for and we should recognize this. But to say similarly priced mirrorless platforms fall short is disingenuous.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
03-27-2023, 04:29 PM
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
11-16-2022, 09:31 PM
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I like how Matt K in that video also speaks to the benefit of the flip out screen for being able to get shots low to the ground on the level of the subject's eye.
Anyway, the eye tracking AF thing... do you really want to to spend $1500 on the latest f/1.4 lens only to get back home and realize all the photos you took of the kids birthday party are focused on the eyebrows or nose instead of the iris? Good eye AF tracking is proving that you can spend more time working on the composition of the photo and being able to trust that the camera locks onto the subject's eye. AF-recompose is such an outdated way to handle this now - especially when recomposing will almost certainly introduce enough movement that your plane of focus will shift off the iris (if you were lucky enough to lock onto it in the first place).
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-23-2023, 03:23 PM
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I had two AF540FGZ flashes (one to replace the first) that both failed - the zooming on the flash broke - it wouldn't know where flash was and would keep driving it once it reached the end of the range making a god awful noise. I bought a Godox 860v3 with the wireless trigger for my K3-3 and it's been a great flash and the lithium ion battery is a nice touch.
I've had my 50-135 SDM motor repaired twice and it's seized yet again. It'll remain converted to screw drive until either they release a PLM version or I switch systems. Same with my 16-50 - optically it's good enough that I don't need the PLM version of that. I feel like the failure rate of my camera gear has been higher than most everything else I've owned.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
01-10-2023, 10:22 AM
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It's a serious lens. Shocked at how heavy it is for a 50. The lens alone feels nearly as heavy as the body + 50-135. But it's not bad for handling at all. Enjoy it!
One of the few keepers from this series. 50mm; 1/100; 1.8; ISO400; off-camera flash
 IMGP7883 by SebblesVic, on Flickr
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
01-05-2023, 11:41 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-22-2022, 01:25 PM
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I can't say I'm happy with my screw-drive converted 50-135. I chalk the focus inconsistencies to too much slop in the screw-drive mechanism, and just as embarrassing as the soft-focused images is the noise it makes in a quiet room.
If you like the lens and you have a good sharp copy of it, it may be worth repairing the motor. That's your call if you think it's worth the investment but I'm not sending mine back for a 4th motor. I'll wait for a PLM version if I'm still using Pentax then, thanks.
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
11-07-2022, 10:34 AM
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My opinion is the opposite - good live view, along with some form of multi-directional movable screen (I like the K1 moon-lander design but others work too) is incredibly helpful for framing up more creative shots. I quite like the viewfinder on my K33, but taking time to frame up a composition, or taking shots from extreme angles (down low for shorebirds for example) is difficult. Add in the mediocre LV AF and most of my shorebird photos turn out to be photos of rocks.
The things that make a camera a good video camera add up to making it an even better photo camera. I'm really struggling with expanding my lens collection with an eye to upgrading from the K3-3 to a K1-3 knowing how much more the A7IV would contribute to my photography. If I knew the K1-3 would add on-sensor PDAF, better subject recognition and eye tracking with LV-AF-C, then it'd be a no brainer to grab a few more lenses. But if it ends up being a full-frame K3-3, then it'd be a disappointment.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
11-15-2022, 04:00 PM
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Good thought, but that screen is $500USD, which is a costly expense to remedy this design omission. The materials I used were about $30, and the phone, while now just an unused spare, was probably $150. If I was prepared to spend $500 more, I'd have moved to mirrorless.
The HDMI output shows all the info that is on the LCD, and entirely disables the LCD when in use.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
11-15-2022, 10:57 AM
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Yeh, but Imagesync is quite slow, disconnects often and is still somewhat limited compared to controlling everything in-camera.
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