Severely underwhelming K-3ii

PRISCILLA TURNER wrote:

barbakane wrote:

Thanks for all the responses. If I came across kinda harsh, I apologize. I'm the kinda guy that watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon LIVE, and I figure with today's technology, right outta the box the camera should do a LOT better. I mean you buy a new car these days and they drive themselves! So this shouldn't be so hard.

As far as "likes" go, or snide remarks, I could care less, really. I don't have facechat or twitterbook. My life doesn't revolve around how others percieve me. Let's just leave it at that.

There are a lot of great suggestions, and I'll calibrate the lenses tomorrow, then make a list of all the things I gotta do to get things dialed in. I know this will take time, but I want to be sure to get great shots in Colorado, cuz this may be the only oppotunity to get there.

Next year I plan on going to Arizona, and my best friend, a photographer, lives there. He can definitely give me some tips.

Thanks agian for the criticisms...good or bad. I'm a big boy, with very thick skin. I'm the kinda guy that tells it like it is...brutally honest. I've *self-edit* a lot of people off that way, but made some great friends cuz I don't sugar coat things. If people ask my opinion, I'll usually preface it by asking them if they REALLY want to know. Then let the chips fall where they may.

There's a lifetime of learning represented here at this forum, and for that I am truly

greatful.

You'll find that a great combo for scenes, interior shots etc. in any newish Pentax DSLR is raw, SR on, Av (chosen usually by the best, which is usually mid-aperture, not the smallest, with modern lenses), Tv following on from Av and automatically governed by focal length with SR on, Auto ISO following on from all the other settings, center spot focus. With this arrangement I get no more than one fuzzy shot in a thousand. With matrix metering the exposure will be off very seldom, and can be tweaked in post. Using a zoom you will find SR plus Auto ISO absolutely invaluable as the handholdable speed changes all the time, and you really do not want to have to think about setting it afresh each time.

For action shots you will want rather Tv priority with Av following on, with the rest as before, or a suitable TAv value.

Priscilla,

I agree with what you've written, and it is very succinctly put -- however . . . there is a benefit to starting out in the manual mode.  It forces you to think about the basic settings, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance.  I believe one of the books the OP bought is authored by someone who still, most often, uses the manual mode.  Then when the OP uses the AV or TV modes he will have a better understanding of what he is doing, and there is nothing wrong with getting out of the AV or TV mode when the occasion arises and you think you understand what needs to happen better than your camera does.  He is interested in having everything eventually click into place, and starting out in the Manual Mode could help that happen, IMHO.

Lawrence