[zbrueningsen]

Hey guys,

A few of us have had problems since getting the firmware 1.14 on our K5s. My has developed that unfortunate soft/flat rendering at anything but close distances. I have tried the reset thing and it didn't work. I've also looked into the going backwards with my firmware (which seems almost impossible). I love my K5, and I had a horrible photoshoot today because of this issue. I am considering selling it cheap because of it (that isn't a proposal for sale), and buying a K30. It isn't an AF issue really because I was shooting some shots at F8 and it was blurry and flat. I was using the DA 55 which has been extremely sharp and lovely, a Tamron 17-50 2.8, and the Tamron 70-200 2.8. Those are all sharp lenses and work just fine on my K-X. I'm pretty heartbroken as I have read the people with this problem are being told that there is no problem from Pentax. Anybody have any suggestions?

[Adam]

Hey guys,

A few of us have had problems since getting the firmware 1.14 on our K5s. My has developed that unfortunate soft/flat rendering at anything but close distances. I have tried the reset thing and it didn't work. I've also looked into the going backwards with my firmware (which seems almost impossible). I love my K5, and I had a horrible photoshoot today because of this issue. I am considering selling it cheap because of it (that isn't a proposal for sale), and buying a K30. It isn't an AF issue really because I was shooting some shots at F8 and it was blurry and flat. I was using the DA 55 which has been extremely sharp and lovely, a Tamron 17-50 2.8, and the Tamron 70-200 2.8. Those are all sharp lenses and work just fine on my K-X. I'm pretty heartbroken as I have read the people with this problem are being told that there is no problem from Pentax. Anybody have any suggestions?

Upgrading your firmware can reset your AF adjustments. Are you sure this isn't the case? Post some samples

[zbrueningsen]

Adam, I agree that it can reset my AF adjustments. And I will post some today, but shooting at f8 is pretty hard to do that. I did both manual and AF and was missing. I also did the 45 degree angle focus chart thing, and they were pretty close. Also, I haven't updated that firmware really recently, but I calibrated my lenses after I did the new update. While I would love it to be just a recalibration of the AF, there are others that have reported the same issue.

I am trying just reinstalling firmware 1.14 and start there. I will get some pictures posted later today. Hope this works

[ChrisJ]

What's the shutter speed? Most blurred shots are caused by camera movement most of the time. If the camera was on a tripod turn off image stabilisation or it will add blur to a sharp image.

But without an example image we are just guessing.

Chris

[zbrueningsen]

Ok,

Here is the deal. I delete images that are not usable. I deleted those images that were shot at F8 and were flat. I did reinstall the firmware, reset the settings and used the multipoint AF and it worked great. When I was doing single point focus, in the center, (on a focus chart) it was really strange where the right side was much clearer than the left. Almost as though there was a diagonal line of sharpness through the picture.

Chris, to respond, I do remember a few of the shots dipping into the 1/40 shutter speed so it could have been the case. There were many times where I was shooting in bright light (with my hood) and getting blurry images.

I went back through to look at all the shots that I still had and some of them were misfocused, but Chris, I think your point may indicate something that I had not considered. It may not be a focusing issue, but a SR issue. I was taking pictures indoor with the SMC Takumar 35 f/2 and it seemed when I used flash the pictures were so much sharper and crisper. I don't let my shutter speed drop under 1/50, but I know the 1/125 is a good rule of thumb for shooting pictures.

To finish I included a focus chart before the reinstall of 1.14. AF was improved significantly for the recent photoshoot, and it blew me away how good the DA*55 and the K5 are together. I will include one of those pics since I kept them I blew this up and zoomed in quite a bit on my 40" TV with no distortion until I cropped about 150%.