K-7 high ISO + raw (pef) frmwr 0.35

[lol101]

Just a relay of a possibly interesting thread in the DSLR forum... maybe it'll have more audience here...

Pentax K-7 Photos and Video @ Photography Blog

[NunoBarbosa]

Can't open the Pefs... photoshop doens't support them already.
The jpgs look really good in my opinion, like that kind of grain in high iso.

[Art Vandelay II]

Holy crap, yeah, I no longer want a D700. The K-7 view finder may not be as large, but the K-7 is:

• Half the price
• Almost half the weight
• Will give me more room to crop
• Has a 100% view finder
• Is basically waterproof and has a $200 waterproof lens option to use for times when you don't want to risk ruining a weatherproof $1000 lens
• Has built in shake reduction
• Shoots 720p video

But the real kicker is this ISO3200 photo. Freakin-A, that looks as good (or maybe better) than the K10D at ISO800; and damn near matches the D700 at ISO3200. Plus, that was shot using the beta firmware, so it may get even better. After you factor in that it has built-in SR that means it will actually be better than the D700 for low-light stuff (unless Nikon has a top secret 1.4 50mm VR prime that they're hiding from us).

[mrt10x]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay II

Holy crap, yeah, I no longer want a D700. The K-7 view finder may not be as large, but the K-7 is:

• Half the price
• Almost half the weight
• Will give me more room to crop
• Has a 100% view finder
• Is basically waterproof and has a $200 waterproof lens option to use for times when you don't want to risk ruining a weatherproof $1000 lens
• Has built in shake reduction
• Shoots 720p video

But the real kicker is this ISO3200 photo. Freakin-A, that looks as good (or maybe better) than the K10D at ISO800; and damn near matches the D700 at ISO3200. Plus, that was shot using the beta firmware, so it may get even better. After you factor in that it has built-in SR that means it will actually be better than the D700 for low-light stuff (unless Nikon has a top secret 1.4 50mm VR prime that they're hiding from us).

Bad link??????

[Art Vandelay II]

Originally Posted by mrt10x

Bad link??????

Ah, they won't allow direct linking. Just click on this link from the first post and scroll down to the ISO3200 sample (the photo in the tunnel).

[quarc]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay II

Holy crap, yeah, I no longer want a D700. The K-7 view finder may not be as large, but the K-7 is:

• Half the price
• Almost half the weight
• Will give me more room to crop
• Has a 100% view finder
• Is basically waterproof and has a $200 waterproof lens option to use for times when you don't want to risk ruining a weatherproof $1000 lens
• Has built in shake reduction
• Shoots 720p video

But the real kicker is this ISO3200 photo. Freakin-A, that looks as good (or maybe better) than the K10D at ISO800; and damn near matches the D700 at ISO3200. Plus, that was shot using the beta firmware, so it may get even better. After you factor in that it has built-in SR that means it will actually be better than the D700 for low-light stuff (unless Nikon has a top secret 1.4 50mm VR prime that they're hiding from us).

Note that those photos are shot at good lightning, even if at high ISO. That usually always looks quite good. But I manage to shoot at really low lightning with my K20, so I would expect the K-7 to be at least as good and probably better.

[mrt10x]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay II

Holy crap, yeah, I no longer want a D700. The K-7 view finder may not be as large, but the K-7 is:

• Half the price
• Almost half the weight
• Will give me more room to crop
• Has a 100% view finder
• Is basically waterproof and has a $200 waterproof lens option to use for times when you don't want to risk ruining a weatherproof $1000 lens
• Has built in shake reduction
• Shoots 720p video

But the real kicker is this ISO3200 photo. Freakin-A, that looks as good (or maybe better) than the K10D at ISO800; and damn near matches the D700 at ISO3200. Plus, that was shot using the beta firmware, so it may get even better. After you factor in that it has built-in SR that means it will actually be better than the D700 for low-light stuff (unless Nikon has a top secret 1.4 50mm VR prime that they're hiding from us).

Ok got to the pics,,, really???? are you making those claims based on the full size downloads viewed at 100% and based on real experience with similar sized shots from a D700? Because they dont look very good to me.

[pareto]

I downloaded the raw files and examined them. Faststone can develop them even though the colors are somewhat off. In raw, 3200 and 6400 are definately better then with the K20D. I can't see any horizontal pattern noise and no magenta color drift in the shadows. Those were the biggest problems with the K20D sensor.

Mind you, these images are shot with full spectrum daylight, even if it's quite dark. But if incandescent results are similarly good, the K-7 will be a huge improvement in the high ISO department.

[Art Vandelay II]

Originally Posted by mrt10x

Ok got to the pics,,, really???? are you making those claims based on the full size downloads viewed at 100% and based on real experience with similar sized shots from a D700? Because they dont look very good to me.

What's not good about the K-7 @ ISO3200? It's pretty close to the D700's ISO3200...and basically is the same as ISO6400 on the D700. Plus, after you factor in the extra 3 stops built-in shake reduction gives you that means you can shoot at ISO800 or better while using 3200 on the D700.

The K-7 is obviously noisy at ISO3200, but I don't mind noise so long as its uniform and there's no vertical banding...and I see none of the dreaded banding at ISO3200. Noise Ninja will clean that K-7 sample up nicely, or you could leave the noise in there for a gritty B&W pic.

Keep in mind that pic is taken in awful lighting conditions. Many review sites take high ISO samples with studio lights which makes absolutely no sense to me. Does anyone every shoot over ISO400 when using studio lighting?

[Ratmagiclady]

I'm keeping a curious eye on this factor: I don't think it's really the kind of thing you can say much about until the 1.0 firmware, but I'll cheer if the high-ISO is doing well. Of all the fancy things, that I could put to good use.

[krypticide]

I only looked at the JPEGs. The details and resolution seems to be suffering a lot from noise reduction. Is everyone else looking at the JPEGs or the RAW files?

[Yohan Pamudji]

I can only open JPEGs at the moment. From the JPEGs I don't see what the excitement is all about. Acceptable quality certainly, but as good as D700? All we have is 1 ISO 3200 shot so it's hard to judge based on that, but from what we have it's not a world-beater at ISO 3200. I see pronounced color blotches in dark areas, and it's hard to tell how much detail is retained since the in-focus area doesn't show a lot of detail/texture.

[kent]

I am happy that pentax managed to get grain noise as it looks more acceptable

[eyou]

it seems like their website has been hacked.... look at the forums topics. and they say we're immature!

[mrt10x]

Glad I am not the only one who isnt jumping for joy over those samples.. I have seen some pretty amazing high ISO shots from my buddies D700... but I can only look at the jpegs at this point.