The above picture was a quick shot the other day when I surprised a snapping turtle in a small creek.  It rapidly swam under the over-hanging foliage to hide from me.  Its’ head was already behind the leaves by the time I was able to get the picture.  What the above demonstrates is that there is real value in having the longer zoom mounted on the K-5 and in having the fast focusing ability of the camera.  I was able to raise the camera up to my eye, zoom to 260 mm while composing the shot, focus, and shoot before the turtle got totally out of sight.  I don’t think I would have gotten this shot with my G3 and the 100 – 300 mm lens.  But all is not well.

I have been carrying the K-5 with the 55 – 300 mm lens around trying to decide whether to keep them or maybe wait and hope that a new light-weight micro 4/3 camera with better ergonomics is announced.  After taking the above shot I decided to take a bunch of test shots with the camera and that is when I determined that the level is off … way off.  I could use the camera without using the leveling function but since I have astigmatism, and rarely ever manage to take shots that are level, having the self-leveling feature saves me an extra step while developing my raw files.  Therefore, the camera is going back to B&H Photo for an exchange.