[trevisthomas]

Hm the attach feature munged those up a bit so here are direct links to the crops:

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab138/trevisthomas/K7_crop.jpg
http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab138/trevisthomas/K5_crop.jpg

[vancmann]

Nothing interesting, just two quick snaps from kitchen window for those who wonder about long exposures. I've never done long exposures before so bear with me. Both "High-ISO NR" and "Long exposure NR (DFS)" turned off.

Full sized picture links (not for folks still on dialup):

Shot through window, ISO800, F6.3, 5s


This time I opened the window and looks like I managed to catch some UFO activity too
ISO200, F8, 30s

I hope this helps.

Thanks for this! Interesting examples, especially the second one.

[vancmann]

Hm the attach feature munged those up a bit so here are direct links to the crops:

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab138/trevisthomas/K7_crop.jpg
http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab138/trevisthomas/K5_crop.jpg

Thank you for the comparison shots and good to know that the K5 does a little better here. If you get around to any night sky with building shots and you are up for it, I'll be cool with that too.

I'll post a couple I took on my K20D next.

[kittykat46]

These were done using a Pentax 100mm f2.8 macro at f32 for about a minute and a half. They were shot in DNG raw, pulled into Lightroom and exported. The crops were exported and cropped in photoshop down to 1024x768.

The full shots both look fine from both cameras but the 100% crops clearly show that the new K-5 is playing on a whole new level.

Pentax has stepped into a new league.

The K-7's black readout noise, even at ISO100 always irritated me. It was fine with any ligher coloured surface , but when the surface is black, or is in deep shadow, the K-7 always had luminance noise even at base ISO.
Looks a lot improved in the K-5
My K-5 arrives next week

Something that is not observable in the images is the fact that the K-7 (like the K10 and 20 before it) chews on the images for a *long* time before you can use the camera again. The K5 doesn't seem to do this at all. I guess this is because the other bodies are doing post processing in the body?

The K-5 allows Forced DFS (Long Exposure Noise Reduction) to be turned completely off - which was not possible with the K20D and the K-7 for exposure longer than 30 secs.

[trevisthomas]

It's all about the night sky isnt it? I used to love shooting at night back in the film days using Kodak TMAX100 film and a Pentax K1000. When i got back into photography a few years ago with a K10D i was pretty disappointed with how it worked in the dark. I've had the K10 a K20 and a K7 and all were not good at night but i think that it's quite possible that the K5 will change this.

I'll try to get some side by side between my K7 and K5 with the night sky in frame this weekend. (I just picked up a couple of Limited lenses that need to be tried out this weekend as well.)

[melander]

Just got my k-5, still charging, will do some startrails this weekend, amongst other things

[melander]

Here is a Iso 80 shot with 1041 seconds exposure, lens used was Samyang 8mm at f/3.5 so its a bit soft and the wind was blowing.

Here is the rawfile MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

And here is my fast edit of it

[jbinpg]

Holy Crap! Where is the noise?

[kozway]

30 second exposure f/9 iso 80

[vancmann]

Melander, great shot, just what i want to see!!
trevisthomas, cant wait to see some more pictures if u got around to them this past weekend
Kozway, I cant see the image.

[ChrisN]

Very promising results showing here - thanks to all those posting. Is anyone doing daylight shots (eg moving water) with a 10-stop ND filter? On my K20D these always show considerable banding on exposures over about 45-60 seconds, getting worse as the sensor heats up with subsequent exposures. I'd really like to hear that Pentax has this problem beaten.

[oliver939]

Here is a Iso 80 shot with 1041 seconds exposure, lens used was Samyang 8mm at f/3.5 so its a bit soft and the wind was blowing.

Here is the rawfile MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

And here is my fast edit of it

Melander, can you upload the file again?
I wish to have a look at it to improve my astrophoto results,

thanks

PS: Kozway, no way it is a single 30sec exposure. Probably several of them stacked together.

edit: ah ok, I can download it now (file was not available on my first trial, sorry for that)

[gazonk]

Here is the rawfile MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Thanks for showing! Now that's impressive, compared to what I get with my K10D.

[pinholecam]

Here is one that I have. ISO80 though.


Marina Bay Sands (Singapore)


The noise level at ISO80 is very low. Certainly unlike ISO100-200 on the K7, which did not resist exposure tweaking and sharpening in PP as well.

[creampuff]

pinholecam, that's a great shot.
Excellent balance of highlights and dark tones.