Possible camera upgrade - Opinions?

[fitz1985]

Hey Everyone,

Looking to try and get a bit more involved in photography as a hobby, I've had my DSLR for 5 years now, as used it a bit, but more for some family stuff - the main reason it was initially purchased to have a better chance of decent photos of nieces and nephews.

I have a Pentax K200D with the following lenses.

18-55 kits lens
50mm F1.4 Prime
50-200 WR F4-5.6 zoom lens.

I've held the opinion that my camera was fine until I could take better pictures than it could. However I appreciate this was always a budget DSLR to start of with, and some of photo's kicking around hear are much clearer than I seem to manage. Is that likely to me or the camera? The autofocus seems painfully slow on the zoom lens, pretty much impossible to take a photo of something like a flying bird in focus.

I have seen the odd K3 kicking around at £650 or so, big improvement on both pixel count - I know this isn't everything but the increasing cropping it would allow would makeup the lack of local length in my lens collection. There is the K5 that sits in the middle in terms of cost for a used item. As a proper DLSR this might give me a noticeable improvement in performance?

I'm quite attached to Pentax as I like the colours etc reproduced, and that fact its not the default Canon or Nikon, but at this point, where I don't have a really expensive lens in the collection, bar the 50mm prime that is a very good lens, do I need to seriously consider one of the other makes?

I'll never be pro, and I'm not looking to spend £1K's I just wonder if I'm flogging a dead horse with the K200d, which whilst a good camera perhaps can't keep up with something just a touch more expensive?

ETA: Wildlife photography is what I'm quite keen on - Birds mainly round here... But that seems to require some serious lens kit to get anything decent, not like I have lens envy when the the retired gent next to me whips out some lens that costs the same amount as my car....or anything..

Edited by fitz1985 on Friday 5th December 11:30

[Simpo Two]

fitz1985 said:

I've held the opinion that my camera was fine until I could take better pictures than it could. However I appreciate this was always a budget DSLR to start of with, and some of photo's kicking around hear are much clearer than I seem to manage. Is that likely to me or the camera? The autofocus seems painfully slow on the zoom lens, pretty much impossible to take a photo of something like a flying bird in focus.

Two things here. When you say 'clearer' that may be exposure or processing differences - or simply subject matter. Samples?

As for AF performance, if you've exhausted all the AF options/focus point setups etc, then yes, you probably have exceeded the camera's abilities. I know nohting of the Pentax range but if you want better AF then it's wallet time I'm afraid, and whatver make you buy, you'll have to move up from entry-level.

fitz1985 said:

I'm quite attached to Pentax as I like the colours etc reproduced

If you're shooting JPG the colours are simply the way Pentax have deemed they be processed internally (ie after they hit the sensor and before they are written to the card). You could probably achieve the same colours with other makes of camera with a bit of twiddling.

fitz1985 said:

ETA: Wildlife photography is what I'm quite keen on - Birds mainly round here... But that seems to require some serious lens kit to get anything decent

I fear that will be the same whatever make/system you buy!

[fitz1985]

Thanks Simpo Two!

Some examples of my attempt vs some other on the night photography thread, however to be fair - It would seem a good few of the chaps do it as a day job and have some top notch gear, so perhaps an unfair comparison but I'm just after improving. Looks like the night stuff is pretty reliant on a tripod, which I forgot to take last time. So I'll give that a go tomorrow probably and see how I get on.

Been doing a bit more reading today on the Pentax forums which seem to be pretty helpful. Looks like I may have had the camera set on AFS (single mode AF) which is apparently not the best for Autofocus speed. I've set this to AFC and will have to see how I get on.

There are some pretty good photos using the camera on the Pentax forums, so I think I'm going to invest some more time practicing a bit more before buying anything. I'm probably just a bit impatient, you know the typical guy that buys £300 worth of camera and expects his first shot to be career changing

[Simpo Two]

fitz1985 said:

Looks like the night stuff is pretty reliant on a tripod, which I forgot to take last time

Whether or not you need a tripod depends on shutter speed, simple as that. If the camera moves while the shutter is open, then (assuming you don't want that effect) it's tripod time. But tripods are cheap.

fitz1985 said:

Been doing a bit more reading today on the Pentax forums which seem to be pretty helpful. Looks like I may have had the camera set on AFS (single mode AF) which is apparently not the best for Autofocus speed. I've set this to AFC and will have to see how I get on.

If it's anything like Nikon AFS and AFC, then AFS tries to find focus and then locks focus while you take the shot. Great for things that aren't changing distance to camera. No way is it any good for a flying bird. The C in AFC is for 'continuous' and in this case the AF system tries to track the subject constantly as you fire. The more you pay for your camera, the better it is.

fitz1985 said:

I think I'm going to invest some more time practicing a bit more before buying anything. I'm probably just a bit impatient, you know the typical guy that buys £300 worth of camera and expects his first shot to be career changing

Very often the photograph you get doesn't match what you wanted. The trick is figuring out how to make your camera get what you wanted. Read the manual, try all the settings, see the difference they make. You need to know what all the settings do (like AFS vs AFC) and the difference they make and when to use them. And then, when the photo you get isn't what you thought it was going to be, you will know what to change to get it

[Morbid]

Wise words there from Simpo. I took one chapter at a time when working my way through the manual. Have a read, go out and practise, take the manual with you to check while you're out. In a few weekends you'll have most of it down and then it's just more practise really once you understand what the camera can do.