Win a Pentax Limited Lens: Raffle Now Live!

TYOsborn · 11-10-2008, 07:31 PM

I'm not sure if this is the right forum or not, but I have a question. I just got the Tamron 70-200 2.8 and really haven't had much of an opportunity to shoot with it, but I did take these pics of my daughter. She wanted before and after pics (She's starting a diet). Odd thing happened...These were supposed to be just quick shots so I had it in auto pic mode. For some reason the camera seems to have chose landscape mode on a couple of them and "normal" mode on one, but they are all washed out. I didn't move from the spot nor did my daughter. My question is why would it choose two different modes and all of them be washed out? Is the camera not reading the lens correctly? It doesn't show the Tamron in the Exif data.

#1 This one is focal length 70mm, shutter 1/45, aperture f4.5, capture mode Auto pic (landscape), center weight metering, WB auto, and for some reason image tone landscape. I didn't choose landscape mode, just auto pic.

#2 focal length 70mm, shutter 1/90, aperture f2.8, capture mode Auto pic (normal), center weight metering, WB auto, and for some reason image tone bright.

I didn't change any of the settings on the camera. Is it something I'm doing wrong (I don't see how when it's set on auto pic) or is it the lens?

Thanks in advance!

Ole · 11-10-2008, 07:40 PM

The lens probably doesn't have an "A" setting on the aperture ring. In that case proceed as explained here:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/41527-help-k200d-m...ount-lens.html

If the lens DOES have an "A" setting, set the aperture ring to "A".

TYOsborn · 11-10-2008, 07:48 PM

Originally posted by Ole

The lens probably doesn't have an "A" setting on the aperture ring. In that case proceed as explained here:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/41527-help-k200d-m...ount-lens.html

If the lens DOES have an "A" setting, set the aperture ring to "A".

I do and did have "Allow aperture ring" to "enabled".

nupentaxian · 11-10-2008, 09:23 PM

maybe because you're metering on her black t-shirt that why everything is washout...way overexposed...

sharko · 11-10-2008, 10:31 PM

Originally posted by nupentaxian

maybe because you're metering on her black t-shirt that why everything is washout...way overexposed...

That sounds like a very plausible explanation. Maybe try changing to matrix metering and see what kind of results you get as right now her black shirt is pretty much dead center in the image and your camera is going to want to make that grey.

TYOsborn · 11-10-2008, 10:48 PM

Originally posted by sharko

That sounds like a very plausible explanation. Maybe try changing to matrix metering and see what kind of results you get as right now her black shirt is pretty much dead center in the image and your camera is going to want to make that grey.

I'll try that. Why would it show landscape and then normal without me changing the settings of the camera and not moving? The pics were taken within a few mins of each other?

Marc Sabatella · 11-11-2008, 12:20 AM

Originally posted by TYOsborn

Why would it show landscape and then normal without me changing the settings of the camera and not moving?

If you're talking about what type of scene it guessed you were shooting, this is as good an argument for never using that mode as I could imagine chances are excellent it will guess wrong and make some lame settings as a result. You're better off shooting in P mode if you want automatic exposure settings - at least it will choose some generally useful exposure settings rather than optimizing for potentially the wrong kind of scene.

As for what changed, looks like you aimed a little higher for the first picture than the second. Which probably made just enough of a difference in terms of how much background was in the shot for it to see the scene as a landscape. I guess. I don't think there is any point in putting any stock in what auto pict guesses.

But none of that explains why the scene is so overexposed. Center-weighted metering wouldn't normally do that.

egordon99 · 11-11-2008, 10:13 AM

Get out of Auto mode, switch to Av mode, make sure you do NOT pop up the built-in flash. Try ISO100, f/4, matrix metering (as the black shirt would mess everything up in spot/center-weighted), and see what kind of shutter speeds you're getting.

jeffrey r · 11-11-2008, 11:36 AM

Although it may not be the reason for these results, in general, I wish Pentax didn't choose to structure their Auto mode as they have, where it doesn't choose general automatic settings (like the P mode), but where it chooses one of the various pre-set scene modes. For such great cameras, including my K200D, it simply doesn't make sense. Though I usually use Av mode, if I want "auto" mode, I set it to P and it does a great job generally. Anecdotally, it seems that many less-than-desirable results have been from people using the Auto mode.

TYOsborn · 11-11-2008, 05:43 PM

Originally posted by egordon99

Get out of Auto mode, switch to Av mode, make sure you do NOT pop up the built-in flash. Try ISO100, f/4, matrix metering (as the black shirt would mess everything up in spot/center-weighted), and see what kind of shutter speeds you're getting.

Will do. I'll give it a shot this weekend. One would think Auto pic would be nice for a quick pic. There was no flash involved in these pics. As a matter of fact it was a dull day with no sun.

Thanks for everyone's replies. My initial fear is that it was the camera not reading the lens correctly.

Conan · 11-12-2008, 07:10 AM

Have you checked if your exposure compensation is set to zero?

Marc Sabatella · 11-12-2008, 10:11 AM

Originally posted by TYOsborn

One would think Auto pic would be nice for a quick pic.

And it often is. If the camera happens to guess right about what kind of scene you are shooting and what kind of settings you might want as result, it will indeed give better results than P mode. But it's also possible it will guess wrong, meaning you'll get worse results than P mode. P mode is going to be consistent.

Again, though, none of this has anything to do with why the shot was so overexposed. No mode should have allowed that, so something else must have gone wrong. Are you sure those were takne with center-weighted metering and not spot metering?

TYOsborn · 11-13-2008, 06:46 PM

Originally posted by Marc Sabatella

And it often is. If the camera happens to guess right about what kind of scene you are shooting and what kind of settings you might want as result, it will indeed give better results than P mode. But it's also possible it will guess wrong, meaning you'll get worse results than P mode. P mode is going to be consistent.

Again, though, none of this has anything to do with why the shot was so overexposed. No mode should have allowed that, so something else must have gone wrong. Are you sure those were takne with center-weighted metering and not spot metering?

I agree... No mode should have allowed that. The exif data says it was center weighted. I have since reset everything to factory defaults thinking maybe I had done something wrong. I'll test it out again this weekend. Thanks so much for your help. It sounds like P mode is probably the way to go.

TYOsborn · 11-15-2008, 10:29 AM

I hate to even ask this, but my daughter was quite disappointed none of the shots were keepers as far as exposure goes. I've tried fixing them in different software, but considering my abilities are extremely limited, I've had no luck. Is anyone willing to take a shot at fixing the first one? I told her I would take another one this weekend, but apparently a week of losing weight makes all the difference in the world.

egordon99 · 11-17-2008, 05:32 AM

Did you shoot RAW? If you did, you can just pull down the exposure slider and you might be suprised as to what you can accomplish. If you shot JPG, I don't know what you can do. Let this be a lesson to ALWAYS shoot RAW.

Did you ever get any good pictures with the 70-200? Did you figure out what went wrong?

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Tamron 70-200 F/2.8 lens: What am I doing wrong?	krs	Pentax SLR Lens Discussion	13	05-25-2009 12:35 AM
Some initial Tamron 70-200 F/2.8 lens Observations	krs	Pentax SLR Lens Discussion	2	02-15-2009 10:16 PM
TAMRON 70-300 Vs Pentax 50-200 lens.	nandigama	Pentax SLR Lens Discussion	5	12-17-2007 04:39 PM
For Sale - Sold: Tamron Adaptall 2 Pentax P/KA Mount and 28-200 Zoom Lens	jfischer	Sold Items	0	03-24-2007 06:33 PM

11-10-2008, 07:31 PM	#1
TYOsborn Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Illinois Photos: Gallery Posts: 250	Lens Tamron 70-200 ...K200 not reading right? I'm not sure if this is the right forum or not, but I have a question. I just got the Tamron 70-200 2.8 and really haven't had much of an opportunity to shoot with it, but I did take these pics of my daughter. She wanted before and after pics (She's starting a diet). Odd thing happened...These were supposed to be just quick shots so I had it in auto pic mode. For some reason the camera seems to have chose landscape mode on a couple of them and "normal" mode on one, but they are all washed out. I didn't move from the spot nor did my daughter. My question is why would it choose two different modes and all of them be washed out? Is the camera not reading the lens correctly? It doesn't show the Tamron in the Exif data. #1 This one is focal length 70mm, shutter 1/45, aperture f4.5, capture mode Auto pic (landscape), center weight metering, WB auto, and for some reason image tone landscape. I didn't choose landscape mode, just auto pic. #2 focal length 70mm, shutter 1/90, aperture f2.8, capture mode Auto pic (normal), center weight metering, WB auto, and for some reason image tone bright. I didn't change any of the settings on the camera. Is it something I'm doing wrong (I don't see how when it's set on auto pic) or is it the lens? Thanks in advance!

11-10-2008, 07:40 PM	#2
Ole Administrator Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,409	The lens probably doesn't have an "A" setting on the aperture ring. In that case proceed as explained here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/41527-help-k200d-m...ount-lens.html If the lens DOES have an "A" setting, set the aperture ring to "A".

11-10-2008, 07:48 PM	#3
TYOsborn Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Illinois Photos: Gallery Posts: 250 Original Poster	Originally posted by Ole The lens probably doesn't have an "A" setting on the aperture ring. In that case proceed as explained here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/41527-help-k200d-m...ount-lens.html If the lens DOES have an "A" setting, set the aperture ring to "A". I do and did have "Allow aperture ring" to "enabled".

11-10-2008, 09:23 PM	#4
nupentaxian Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Arizona Posts: 290	maybe because you're metering on her black t-shirt that why everything is washout...way overexposed...

11-10-2008, 10:31 PM	#5
sharko Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: City of Angels Photos: Gallery Posts: 278	Originally posted by nupentaxian maybe because you're metering on her black t-shirt that why everything is washout...way overexposed... That sounds like a very plausible explanation. Maybe try changing to matrix metering and see what kind of results you get as right now her black shirt is pretty much dead center in the image and your camera is going to want to make that grey.

11-10-2008, 10:48 PM	#6
TYOsborn Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Illinois Photos: Gallery Posts: 250 Original Poster	Originally posted by sharko That sounds like a very plausible explanation. Maybe try changing to matrix metering and see what kind of results you get as right now her black shirt is pretty much dead center in the image and your camera is going to want to make that grey. I'll try that. Why would it show landscape and then normal without me changing the settings of the camera and not moving? The pics were taken within a few mins of each other?

11-11-2008, 12:20 AM	#7
Marc Sabatella Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Denver, CO Photos: Gallery Posts: 10,685	Originally posted by TYOsborn Why would it show landscape and then normal without me changing the settings of the camera and not moving? If you're talking about what type of scene it guessed you were shooting, this is as good an argument for never using that mode as I could imagine chances are excellent it will guess wrong and make some lame settings as a result. You're better off shooting in P mode if you want automatic exposure settings - at least it will choose some generally useful exposure settings rather than optimizing for potentially the wrong kind of scene. As for what changed, looks like you aimed a little higher for the first picture than the second. Which probably made just enough of a difference in terms of how much background was in the shot for it to see the scene as a landscape. I guess. I don't think there is any point in putting any stock in what auto pict guesses. But none of that explains why the scene is so overexposed. Center-weighted metering wouldn't normally do that.

11-11-2008, 10:13 AM	#8
egordon99 Inactive Account Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Outside of Philly Posts: 1,561	Get out of Auto mode, switch to Av mode, make sure you do NOT pop up the built-in flash. Try ISO100, f/4, matrix metering (as the black shirt would mess everything up in spot/center-weighted), and see what kind of shutter speeds you're getting.

11-11-2008, 11:36 AM	#9
jeffrey r Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: New Jersey, USA Posts: 337	Although it may not be the reason for these results, in general, I wish Pentax didn't choose to structure their Auto mode as they have, where it doesn't choose general automatic settings (like the P mode), but where it chooses one of the various pre-set scene modes. For such great cameras, including my K200D, it simply doesn't make sense. Though I usually use Av mode, if I want "auto" mode, I set it to P and it does a great job generally. Anecdotally, it seems that many less-than-desirable results have been from people using the Auto mode.

11-11-2008, 05:43 PM	#10
TYOsborn Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Illinois Photos: Gallery Posts: 250 Original Poster	Originally posted by egordon99 Get out of Auto mode, switch to Av mode, make sure you do NOT pop up the built-in flash. Try ISO100, f/4, matrix metering (as the black shirt would mess everything up in spot/center-weighted), and see what kind of shutter speeds you're getting. Will do. I'll give it a shot this weekend. One would think Auto pic would be nice for a quick pic. There was no flash involved in these pics. As a matter of fact it was a dull day with no sun. Thanks for everyone's replies. My initial fear is that it was the camera not reading the lens correctly.

11-12-2008, 07:10 AM	#11
Conan Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Philippines Posts: 99	Have you checked if your exposure compensation is set to zero?

11-12-2008, 10:11 AM	#12
Marc Sabatella Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Denver, CO Photos: Gallery Posts: 10,685	Originally posted by TYOsborn One would think Auto pic would be nice for a quick pic. And it often is. If the camera happens to guess right about what kind of scene you are shooting and what kind of settings you might want as result, it will indeed give better results than P mode. But it's also possible it will guess wrong, meaning you'll get worse results than P mode. P mode is going to be consistent. Again, though, none of this has anything to do with why the shot was so overexposed. No mode should have allowed that, so something else must have gone wrong. Are you sure those were takne with center-weighted metering and not spot metering?

11-13-2008, 06:46 PM	#13
TYOsborn Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Illinois Photos: Gallery Posts: 250 Original Poster	Originally posted by Marc Sabatella And it often is. If the camera happens to guess right about what kind of scene you are shooting and what kind of settings you might want as result, it will indeed give better results than P mode. But it's also possible it will guess wrong, meaning you'll get worse results than P mode. P mode is going to be consistent. Again, though, none of this has anything to do with why the shot was so overexposed. No mode should have allowed that, so something else must have gone wrong. Are you sure those were takne with center-weighted metering and not spot metering? I agree... No mode should have allowed that. The exif data says it was center weighted. I have since reset everything to factory defaults thinking maybe I had done something wrong. I'll test it out again this weekend. Thanks so much for your help. It sounds like P mode is probably the way to go.

11-15-2008, 10:29 AM	#14
TYOsborn Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Illinois Photos: Gallery Posts: 250 Original Poster	I hate to even ask this, but my daughter was quite disappointed none of the shots were keepers as far as exposure goes. I've tried fixing them in different software, but considering my abilities are extremely limited, I've had no luck. Is anyone willing to take a shot at fixing the first one? I told her I would take another one this weekend, but apparently a week of losing weight makes all the difference in the world.

11-17-2008, 05:32 AM	#15
egordon99 Inactive Account Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Outside of Philly Posts: 1,561	Did you shoot RAW? If you did, you can just pull down the exposure slider and you might be suprised as to what you can accomplish. If you shot JPG, I don't know what you can do. Let this be a lesson to ALWAYS shoot RAW. Did you ever get any good pictures with the 70-200? Did you figure out what went wrong?

Lens Tamron 70-200 ...K200 not reading right?

Win a Pentax Limited Lens: Raffle Now Live!