Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

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strangelookingalien
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Joined: Sun 31 Aug 2008, 7:39 pm

Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by strangelookingalien »

Hi everyone,

I traded in an old 40D and cheap Sigma 75-300 lens last year for the combination in the title and have found my results extraordinarily mixed.

While some of my shots are extremely good, the vast majority are poor and - most annoyingly inconsistently exposed. I can be using an identical set of settings, shoot a burst of an aircraft flying past (not spot metering) and one or two of the images me be massively over or under exposed - the rest come out fine.

Aside from this I am finding many of my photos soft, though I understand this lens has limitations towards after about 400mm, plus the weight of it may induce some camera shake I am not used to.

It's a combination that I am really struggling to get to grips with, but have at times had brilliant results from... I am curious if anyone else has any experience with it, or any advice?

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ikarus
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Location: UK

Re: Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by ikarus »

I have always used Pentax , and currently have a K5. I've always found that whatever Pentax body I've used they generally underexpose , I've found it is always best to have the meter set to over expose by at least 0.3.

Sometimes if I shoot in a rapid burst 6 or 7 frames per sec rate , I am convinced the metering can't keep up and process at the firing rate !! So sometimes lose a couple in the sequence , not always but sometimes , I think it depends on what the camera is metering on.

A few items on the web about the K30 and K50 suffering from an aperture motor failure issue.

The Pentax brand still turns out some excellent photo's though as long as they don't go tech on the owner

strangelookingalien
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Re: Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by strangelookingalien »

That's really interesting; thanks Ikarus.

I am in half a mind to give up on this combination because I found Canon so much easier to use - but there are a few photos that have been exceptionally good and I am wondering if I will find better results with practice.

Have you ever used a K30?

strangelookingalien
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Re: Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by strangelookingalien »

p.s. What lenses are you using for aviation photography?

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Flyforfun
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Re: Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by Flyforfun »

Hi , I have a K30 which I've owned for 4 years , in the past 6 months it developed a problem with the aperture control on the body. The symptoms were that some shots were so under exposed that they were black.
You could fix it temporally by shooting continuously and each shot would get brighter , I sent it for repair and it has come back ok without explanation of what was the fault !

strangelookingalien
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Re: Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by strangelookingalien »

This sounds a little like my problem. Did you send off to the manufacturer or just take it to your dealer? Can I ask what lens you are using and, could I also see some of your results just to compare? (Perhaps I am hoping for too much!)

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ikarus
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Location: UK

Re: Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by ikarus »

Pentax 55-300mm with the K5.

Also found that with certain brands of SD cards when shooting bursts it can stall if "machine gunning" , I assume that's a writing issue to the card.

Also had the odd occasion whereby the camera can lock up whilst continuously shooting bursts , either a quick release of the battery resets it or a tap
on the base under the battery compartment seems to clear the issue.

Mind you I'll admit the camera has been thrashed in use , still like Pentax though , thought about changing a few times but I have more keepers than losers with the
photos :smile:

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Flyforfun
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Re: Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by Flyforfun »

strangelookingalien wrote:This sounds a little like my problem. Did you send off to the manufacturer or just take it to your dealer? Can I ask what lens you are using and, could I also see some of your results just to compare? (Perhaps I am hoping for too much!)

I still had a warranty left on it which just covered labour which cost £120, the dealer sent it to Pentax and they fixed it, I didn't get any invoice as to what parts they used.
It seems a common problem if you google it, I will try and find samples and i was using the Pentax 55-300.

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GeorgeP
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by GeorgeP »

Is it possible for you to post a series of images which illustrate the problems that you are experiencing? I would suggest small jpegs of the uncropped images so that we can see the general lighting conditions in which you recorded the images, the background, the size of the subject in the original ... etc.
Cheers,

George

Melbourne, Australia.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30699732@N05/albums

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Brevet Cable
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Re: Pentax K30 + Sigma 50-500 metering issues

Post by Brevet Cable »

strangelookingalien wrote:I am in half a mind to give up on this combination because I found Canon so much easier to use

I switched from Canon to Pentax several years ago.
Have to agree that Canon are/were more 'user friendly' ( my last was a 50D, so don't know if that's still true ) but once I got used to the Pentax it wasn't an issue.
As for metering, as 'ikarus' posted, I've also tended to set my K5 to over-expose by about 0.3 .... but then, I often had to do the same with some of my Canons ( in the case of my 300D & 400D, having to go to 0.5 or 0.6 )
It should also be remembered that Canon aren't exactly fault free......the infamous 'ERROR 99' & 'ERROR 20', faulty shutters on the 20D, and the 'greasy shutter' for example.
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