Back from a very thrilling trip to South Africa.
Took the 645Z with three lenses, the Canon 1DX and 7D2 with three lenses, and the Sony A7R with one lens.
The Pentax was used for about 31% of the shots, I deliberately used it as much as I could which was both good and bad. Almost 95% of the images were taken with the FA 150 2.8 lens and again almost all at wide open aperture. I had also taken the FA 300 5.6 and the FA 45-85 4.5.
The 300 was a disappointment, at least for me, since it did not perform well without image stabilization and even at shutter speeds of 1/400 there was subtle shake.
The 150 2.8 macro is a superb lens, but now looking at the images on a big 30" monitor, I wish I had stopped down to 4.5 or even 5.6 with it. Still, some of the images were quite sharp and of course the detail is incredible.
Lessons learned:
1. MF can work very well for wildlife, even for action provided it is not frenetic like the animals running or fighting.
2. The lenses are a problem at the moment, hopefully Pentax will come out with DA lenses longer than 100mm focal length with a fast aperture. Would love to see what a 150 or 200 2.8 lens can do with IS built in. Would love to try the DA 90mm for some of this stuff.
3. The camera has such a high resolution that images that look sharp on a laptop may not be that sharp on a bigger screen (yes, even when viewed at 100%) and more importantly, correct focus and shutter speed is much more important - I had done microadjustments on my lenses before leaving and happily there was almost minimal to no adjustment needed.
4. There is significant CA with high contrast scenes, but that is a problem with older lenses anyway.
5. On my wish list for Pentax is
a) Larger buffer - many times I had to wait for it to clear before continuing and the animal had changed posture or disappeared altogether.
b) Slightly faster frame rate (both, IMHO doable with more memory)
c) Faster autofocus although it is quite good and certainly much better than what I had on my Phase DF645+ body.
d) Newer lenses that have image stabilization and are sharper at wide open apertures.
6. Finally, for Andy Biggs, yes, there are tigers in Africa and they sometimes do jump over water. This image taken with a 1DX though.
Some images (still going through them).
Took the 645Z with three lenses, the Canon 1DX and 7D2 with three lenses, and the Sony A7R with one lens.
The Pentax was used for about 31% of the shots, I deliberately used it as much as I could which was both good and bad. Almost 95% of the images were taken with the FA 150 2.8 lens and again almost all at wide open aperture. I had also taken the FA 300 5.6 and the FA 45-85 4.5.
The 300 was a disappointment, at least for me, since it did not perform well without image stabilization and even at shutter speeds of 1/400 there was subtle shake.
The 150 2.8 macro is a superb lens, but now looking at the images on a big 30" monitor, I wish I had stopped down to 4.5 or even 5.6 with it. Still, some of the images were quite sharp and of course the detail is incredible.
Lessons learned:
1. MF can work very well for wildlife, even for action provided it is not frenetic like the animals running or fighting.
2. The lenses are a problem at the moment, hopefully Pentax will come out with DA lenses longer than 100mm focal length with a fast aperture. Would love to see what a 150 or 200 2.8 lens can do with IS built in. Would love to try the DA 90mm for some of this stuff.
3. The camera has such a high resolution that images that look sharp on a laptop may not be that sharp on a bigger screen (yes, even when viewed at 100%) and more importantly, correct focus and shutter speed is much more important - I had done microadjustments on my lenses before leaving and happily there was almost minimal to no adjustment needed.
4. There is significant CA with high contrast scenes, but that is a problem with older lenses anyway.
5. On my wish list for Pentax is
a) Larger buffer - many times I had to wait for it to clear before continuing and the animal had changed posture or disappeared altogether.
b) Slightly faster frame rate (both, IMHO doable with more memory)
c) Faster autofocus although it is quite good and certainly much better than what I had on my Phase DF645+ body.
d) Newer lenses that have image stabilization and are sharper at wide open apertures.
6. Finally, for Andy Biggs, yes, there are tigers in Africa and they sometimes do jump over water. This image taken with a 1DX though.
Some images (still going through them).