A Pentax-only Mission

Last week from Thursday to Sunday, Exe Sailing Club (my club) hosted the national championships for the RS500 and 800 classes. On the first three days I shot with the usual combination of Canon and Pentax and you can see the results on the Fotoboat website. On the last day, I was rostered for duty as safety boat crew, so I only took the Pentax, so as to be best prepared to do rescuing if needed. It was a blustery day with quite big waves, but very little sunlight. Most of the time the camera was on ISO 400.

There were plenty of opportunities for photos as boats came past us going upwind, but looking at the PC screen that evening I was disappointed by the number of dud shots. I don't know if it's the speed of the AF, or the lack of contrast making life difficult for the AF, but many of the shots were a good deal less sharp than I know the camera is capable of producing. The images here show one which I accepted for the website and one I rejected. I think you will be able to tell which is which.

Perfect Conditions

When the conditions are right, there are few better sailing venues than Lyme Regis. Last week the 505 class held their national championships there, blessed by four days of great breezes, building waves and not a little sunshine. I was there on the Friday and enjoyed one of the best day's shooting this year. I was using the usual setup - Canon 40D with 70-200 f4L plus 1.4x extender and 400 f5.6L, and the Pentax K-7 with 50-200 DA WR.

The best shots of the day were undoubtedly taken with the Canon, particularly the ones shot with the 400mm lens, but some respectable results from the Pentax. I would love to have the opportunity to use this camera with some better quality glass!

The on-off switch has now become very stiff through salt water ingress. I expect (hope?) the seals are keeping it out of the camera's vitals, but in places where it gets trapped it must be doing some harm.