Just bought a K-3 II after K-50's Aperture Motor Died - Any beginner tips?
Hey everybody!
I've just ordered myself a "lightly" used K-3 II with 8k clicks off ebay and I'm super stoked to get it into my hands. I had a K-50 that was my main shooter for many years, cold and hot, wet and dry. It seemed like it would never give up until it started shooting complete darkness 6 years after purchase. I'm really invested into the Pentax ecosystem since my first camera was the *ist DL that my grandfather gave to me. I mostly shoot landscapes, nature and night shots/stars etc.. things of that nature. Any tips before I just start running around with the K-3 II like a kid on Christmas morning?
Thanks!
Welcome!
That's exciting, you're going to love it. The K-3 is my favorite body and probably my favorite all-time camera. I spent so much time with mine and still want to swap back to one (or the mark II version) all the time.
It doesn't sound like you've been able to try astrotracer yet with your other cameras, are you planning on trying it? I love it on my K-1. Such a nifty feature and easy to use once you go through the steps a few times.
The big thing I noticed when I upgraded from my K200D to my K-3 was the dynamic range. I could expose for the highlights and bring up the shadows like crazy! I suggest trying it out. I think you'll be really impressed.
There's probably more things I could think of saying, but I'm excited for you. Cool find.
Yes! Astrotracer is actually one of the things that really intrigued me about the K-3 II. The thought of being able to set up the tripod, do an exposure of the landscape then of the sky and get beautiful, detailed stars made me so hyped to get my hands on this. I don't know if the K-50 to K-3 II will be as big of a jump as the K200D but I'm certainly expecting some improvement to low-light performance as well as improved high ISO detail. I wasn't too upset that the K-50 didn't have super deep dynamic range since you could always darken shadows in post (and I basically always had to because the K-50 had a history of making very noisey-not-so-dark shadows) But if I can get all the detail the K-50 pulled and not have to do so much shadow work in post, all the better!
Any older lenses you really liked shooting with the K-3 (if any)? I have a LOT of old Pentax film glass and was curious if any of that was worth a spin.
one more question. Is Pixel shift all Pentax hypes it up to be? I see a lot of people reviewing modern Pentax cameras and not a peep about Pixel Shift.
Quote from HeggenDazs on October 23, 2021, 5:40 amYes! Astrotracer is actually one of the things that really intrigued me about the K-3 II. The thought of being able to set up the tripod, do an exposure of the landscape then of the sky and get beautiful, detailed stars made me so hyped to get my hands on this. I don't know if the K-50 to K-3 II will be as big of a jump as the K200D but I'm certainly expecting some improvement to low-light performance as well as improved high ISO detail. I wasn't too upset that the K-50 didn't have super deep dynamic range since you could always darken shadows in post (and I basically always had to because the K-50 had a history of making very noisey-not-so-dark shadows) But if I can get all the detail the K-50 pulled and not have to do so much shadow work in post, all the better!
Any older lenses you really liked shooting with the K-3 (if any)? I have a LOT of old Pentax film glass and was curious if any of that was worth a spin.
@heggendazs absolutely use your old film glass! It's a huge perk of the Pentax K mount. I shoot my 50mm F2 and SMC 28mm F2.8 on my KP alot. They make a nice creamy bokeh on the APS-C sensor. I'd especially would go for any of the old takumar telephoto primes and macro lenses! You get awesome results.
@sprucebruce I can't wait! I'll start digging out all my old Takumar lenses, I also have a few of the old limited series lenses. I'll give them all a go.
Thanks!
Yep, definitely play with some vintage lenses. I've used the M series and Takumars (and some other m42 lenses like Helios) on mine and loved it. If I remember correctly it doesn't have focus peaking in live view (might be wrong). But you can use the focus confirmation beep or just eyeball it and I think it works pretty well. Right now I have a m 50 1.7 on my KP and having a blast. Great cheap lens. Sounds like you have some awesome lenses already.
I admit I have only used pizelshift two, maybe three times. Mostly because I'm not a tripod kind of shooter for landscapes (just astro, obviously lol). I understand even without pizelshift that a tripod can help landscapes, but my kids move around so fast that I just have to take a shot quickly and can't setup. One of these days I'll get back into doing trips myself just for photography.
But in my few times using it it worked well. Easy to setup.in the camera. Not sure what editing software you use but some are more fiddly with it than others. I use Lightroom and that seems to work well now (they had to push an update way back when but now it's good for Pentax pixelshift). I felt like I could tell a difference side by side, but wasn't sure I would even printing decently large prints. Maybe for still life macro work and cropping in and blowing up huge. Not sure. Definitely something to at least try since you got it now!
So it begins…
