Severely underwhelming K-3ii

Polacofede wrote:

barbakane wrote:

Sorry if this post is long winded, but I've taken well over 1000 pictures with my new K-3II, manufactured in August of last year, have the HD DA PLM WR 55-300 and the HD DA 16-85...both very well reviewed lenses. I researched for over a year to finally decide on this set-up before spending almost $2000 on the kit, including battery grip and flash. I don't have a single image that I could call sharp.

My $200 FujiFilm s4200 takes better pictures!

I'm really disappointed, because I see examples of my exact setup posted here, and my results are not even on the same continent, let alone in the same ballpark!

See examples here:

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/ratikon/library/pentax?sort=3&page=1

I'll explain later why I had to add the link....

The pics of the Caribe Royale are on a tripod with autofocus...9 point IIRC. Timer @ secs.

to me, the focus on this one seems to be at the stones at the right of the cascade on the left.

the dof caused by f4.5 makes the things on the back out of focus

high iso ( 3200 ) ruins quality too

The woman and her child were handheld, about ten feet away, AF, not reason why they shouldn't be sharp.

the reason, to me, is that the shooting speed is 1/10 handheld causes you have shake blur the SR compensates but it seems not enough for you to like it

Staircase was AF set on tripod, SR off, timer set to two seconds.

the focus seems to be at the back the upper part of the stairs, again dof causes what you call out of focus

The leaves were taken at the same focal length, one with my new $2000 camera, and the other with my $200 camera. Which is which?

the closer one is taken with the pentax, focus in the middle top leave, 190mm zoom and f6.3 causes a shallow area of things in focus, hence a shallow dof.

the other with the finepix that has a sensor of 1/2.3" (vs 23.5mm x 15.6mm of K3II) hence that causes a deeper dof and more things sharp.

check this

The bull was taken from about a hundred feet away, AF, blazing sun...handheld propped against a fencepost for stability.

focus is in the middle at its hunch which is sharp, 260mm and f5.6 again causes a shallow dof. see the leaves perfectly in focus too at the same focal plane.

Also this lens are sharper by stopping them one or two steps, cosider using f7 or f8 for 260mm shots to get deeper dof and sharper results.

Building facade was taken with my Fuji, as was the vulture and the flower.

I've tried using both lenses at f-8, usually the sweet spot of the lens, and still no good.

I realize there is a learning curve to using the camera, but really? Not a single sharp image in over 1000 taken?

Secondly, I've spent WELL over an hour trying to figure out why I can't upload photos to my gallery. I have photos in there now, uploaded quite a while ago, but now can't seem to get it to work. I have Edit mode enabled, just in case. But I doubt that's the reason. I've tried changing the size of the files to not exceed 1600 on the long side, but all my photos i want to upload are WELL within the limitations set. All I get is an error msg. I also just let the file try to upload for ten minutes or more, thinking it may take a while to upload a small 14MB file. Still no luck. I've read and followed the instructions in the FAQ's, nada, nuthin, zilch, zero results. All the photos are on my harddrive.

What the blazes?

conclusion, you need to learn basic things about photography. See online videos or enroll in a course maybe... if you dont want to then maybe a dslr is not for you, you will face this kind of things with any apsc camera. consider an fz1000 or the likes then.

To me is not the camera, nor the lens but you.

hope this helps

Hmmm.  Thought provoking.  In thinking back, I can't recall what I knew before getting an Olympus 35RC Rangefinder in 1979.  Almost everything needed to be manually set.  You scrolled in the ASA number that matched the designation of the film, set your shutter speed (the fastest was 1/500).  The aperture did have an "A" automatic setting, but one could manually select from 2.8 to 22.  When you had everything set, you used a focus ring to line up two images you could see in your view-finder and took the shot.   My shots always (when I did everything properly) came out great.

Thus when I started using DSLRs I used the manual mode only and didn't have a problem getting good shots right from the beginning.   As I experimented automatic settings, I had more bad shots, but I could always go back to the manual mode and have, in effect, the same number of things to set that I did on my old 35RC.

I did use the auto setting on my Olympus E-PM2 when I wanted to go light.  I plan to use the TV setting on the K-S1 in the future when I want to go light, and while I am playing with that setting now on the K3 & K3ii I still feel most comfortable with the Manual Mode.

I guess my point here is that the OP if he chooses and does have the experience limitations you mention, can use a simple approach like I used and use the manual mode.  And one of the very nice things about Pentax is that If you are starting out in manual, look out at the light and circumstances and aren't sure what to set everything, you can press the green button and get your camera's opinion.

And yeah, being a hiker, I never use a tripod.  I didn't use shake reduction to begin with, preferring to set the shutter speed fast enough for what I was looking at.  But I do use the default shake reduction in the K3 & K3ii.  But if one day I decided to use a tripod I'd probably forget to turn off shake reduction and might need someone to remind me. 

Lawrence