K7 - Reverting firmware? - Page 3

knoxploration · 10-14-2009, 11:05 PM

Originally Posted by Maynerd

For the record, I've been testing this whole time by shooting a 2 to 4sec exposure @ ISO 800 - 1600 / f8 with the lens cap on... I also tried covering the lens with the palm of my hand, thinking some light might be leaking in from the lens cap causing weird effects - Nope. Has anyone else tried doing a longer exposure to see what results they get?

Have you tried the pixel mapping function on screen 4 of the setup menu?

Edit: Actually, thinking about it, that setting only affects pixels that are stuck all the time, not dark current pixels, so ignore me.

Saying that I personally don't think this is a significant issue. Yes, there are a handful of stuck pixels (I just checked my own K-7 with a four second ISO 1600 shot, and got about ten stuck pixels). That's ten pixels out of 14.5 million, though - or 99.9999% perfect. Realistically, how often are you going to see this problem in real usage?

Maynerd · 10-15-2009, 06:41 AM

Saying that I personally don't think this is a significant issue.

Seriously? This doesn't bother you at all? An "Almost Pro" Camera (or any for that matter) that comes out of the box with ANY issue at all is a significant issue, IMO.

That's ten pixels out of 14.5 million, though - or 99.9999% perfect. Realistically, how often are you going to see this problem in real usage?

Actually, I tend to do a lot of lower light shooting, so I would see this on a regular basis.

tim71 · 10-15-2009, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by knoxploration

Are you sure that's 1.03.xx.xx, and not 1.01.xx.xx? I think you've perhaps gotten a tad bit confused by all the numbers floating around. ;-)

The current release is 1.01.00.13, AFAIK

This is about K20D, which has the release v1.03 - I was just saying, that the same thing may be happening with the firmware for other models as well.

knoxploration · 10-15-2009, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by Maynerd

Seriously? This doesn't bother you at all? An "Almost Pro" Camera (or any for that matter) that comes out of the box with ANY issue at all is a significant issue, IMO.

This isn't an issue that's unique to Pentax, as far as I'm concerned. Most digital cameras will do it on exposures where they're not using dark frame subtraction (that double the length of exposure), all that varies is the exact point at which it becomes an issue in terms of exposure variables.

Actually, I tend to do a lot of lower light shooting, so I would see this on a regular basis.

I rather doubt most of your shooting is four-second exposures at ISO 1,600 with the lens cap on. ;-)

That said, even if it really does occur frequently in your usage, it's equally extremely easy to solve in post-processing, nor are the stuck pixels even going to be visible unless you're viewing at 1:1 on your monitor (which isn't a realistic method of viewing a 14.5 megapixel photo).

As soon as you make a print at most common sizes, or view the whole image on-screen - even after fairly extreme cropping - those few stuck pixels are going to be completely invisible to you. One the rare occasions where you need to make a print so large that you can actually make out the stuck pixels, it's a couple of minutes work if that to remove them...

So yes, for my personal preference, I think this is a non-issue and I certainly wouldn't be returning cameras over it.

Perhaps you've got some rare circumstance where you really would find it completely objectionable, and find yourself completely unable to manage the problem in your workflow, but that's for you to decide.

knoxploration · 10-15-2009, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by tim71

This is about K20D, which has the release v1.03 - I was just saying, that the same thing may be happening with the firmware for other models as well.

My apologies, you're right - you said K20D as clear as day in your post. I just missed that, and given that the rest of the thread was about the K-7...

Sorry!

Maynerd · 10-15-2009, 10:19 PM

Knoxploration...

I had written a long reply covering why this affects almost everything I do with my photography, but I realized afterwards that it would simply propagate this arguement... Meaning, simply, that I don't agree with you in the least.

Everything considered, it should simply work...

p.s. Hot pixels were VERY noticable when viewing a 10sec exposure of a corn field at 16.5%.

knoxploration · 10-16-2009, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by Maynerd

Knoxploration...

I had written a long reply covering why this affects almost everything I do with my photography, but I realized afterwards that it would simply propagate this arguement... Meaning, simply, that I don't agree with you in the least.

Everything considered, it should simply work...

p.s. Hot pixels were VERY noticable when viewing a 10sec exposure of a corn field at 16.5%.

That's just fine... we'll agree to disagree. ;-) Like I said, it's a decision each user has to make for themselves.

That said, you're likely to find this is also a problem on the K-7's competition too. Just did a few searches on Google myself, and didn't have any problems at all finding multiple reports of similar issues on other major DSLR brands... Quite a few of them were reporting similar issues at even lower ISOs and exposure times.