Photos with the new Pentax K3

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Eventually my new Pentax K3 camera arrived this morning, I was keen to find out if any of the new features were going to make noticeable improvements. I made my way out to Exminster Marsh in the hope that there would be some ducks to photograph. I parked up and immediately I could see Northern Shoveler feeding in the flooded fields and reasonably nearby. I noticed an immediate and unequivocal difference which amounts to a significant improvement from my previous camera, a Pentax K511s. There is apparently a brand new sensor onboard, there are more focus points, 27 as opposed to 11 previously and on "burst" the K3 shoots just under 9 frames a second. Immediately the camera came in to it's own and…. well you decide? It can't be a coincidence that this is one of my best ever flight shots and in dull light as well. The Northern Shoveler breeds in small numbers in the UK but 18000 birds overwinter here. I happen to think that they are one of the most attractive of our birds, particularly in flight with very striking patches of colour icluding poder blue on the wings. Their beak is weird, no other word for it, it's spatular shaped and looks too big for it's body. The "duck", thats the female of course, has strange black blotches on the brown beak, (males "drakes" have black beaks) which I haven't read about before but I could clearly see them today.

Looking at this image again you can clearly see these striking patches of colour which surely make this bird one of the most colourful of our birds.

As you can see, the "duck" is quite a plain looking bird, in the photo above it is feeding in typical fashion sifting through the debris under water with it's "shovel" and below you get a better idea of the beak size and shape. All of these pictures are quite considerably cropped and the quality is quite well preserved.

They are a largish duck and significantly larger than teal and widgeon and possibly just a tad bigger than a Mallard. The one above seems to have a much redder bill, possibly an adlult?

The yellow eye is a particularly attracive feature.

A morning on Exminster Marsh

4 responses to “Photos with the new Pentax K3”

Jeff.

November 17, 2013 at 9:00 am

I am looking forward to more great images from this camera.

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Neil

December 4, 2013 at 11:18 pm

Oh Chas, you are really really not helping! Im still using a K5 (Mk1) and now you post that the k3 AF is a “significant improvement” over your k3 Mk2, which was already better than my k5s. How am I going to be able to wait till after christmas to buy one now!
Great photos though 🙂

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Phyllis Jones Burright

October 1, 2016 at 8:05 pm

I have about the same set up – K3 and 300DA* and I sometimes add the 1.4 tc. I chose this camera because I wanted protection from dust and moisture at an affordable price. I really enjoy reading your home page and looking forward to more shots with your K3. I am from coastal Texas USA and am also a musician (violin).

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Charles Fleming

October 1, 2016 at 8:27 pm

Hello Phylis, lovely to hear from you. I agree with you, I think we have a good set up and I like my K3 with that lens. It also gives me some pleasure to kind of plough my own furrow and go with Pentax rather than the usual Canon or Nikon. I also enjoy using my Signa 500 when I need the extra reach but I do get better images with the 300 that’s for sure. The power of the Internet is just a feature of our lives in the 21st century, communicating with other people all around the world is phenomenal and I am thrilled that you like my blog. Please keep checking back and I will try and keep posting nice pictures.
Good to hear from a fellow musician, music is the biggest part of my life.
Kind regards,
Charliekk

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