[johnmflores]

Frank and Denis - thanks for the samples. I am spending way too much time daydreaming about the K-5!

[GoneToTheDogs]

A tourist caught crossing the street. The pretty lady was about 20 feet away. From today's Pentax outing.


Pentax K-5 FA 135mm f/2.8 (1/3200 sec at f/3.2, ISO 80)

100% crop... Look at the detail...


Original converted from RAW (4928 x 3264 pixels)
WARNING: BIG FILE
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/5086080782_32b8147dd1_o.jpg

All I can say is wow! Seeing each goosebump on her back? Very impressive!

But a Canon strap? Someone bring that young lady to her senses...

-Matt

[NaClH2O]

Although the robber concealed his identity, authorities later cracked the case when a witness reported a distinct odor of peanut butter and jelly emanating from the perpetrator.

Just another sad case of the camera buying addiction that is ravaging this fair city.

Good one urk!

NaCl(I'm salty and I approve this message)H2O

[ogl]

All I can say is wow!

-Matt

Why? explain me.

[Asahiflex]

Why? explain me.

Why not? Explain me.

[JohnBee]

Why? explain me.

Why not? Explain me.

Sounds like you guys have alot of explaining to do.

[Asahiflex]

Sounds like you guys have alot of explaining to do.

I just wanted to counteract OGL with the same questions. He asks a lot but does not contribute to the forum in a constructive way.

[kittykat46]

Why? explain me.

That you can see the surface texture of the cloth the woman is wearing from 20 feet away ? And the pimples on her skin ?

That's as good as it ever gets in any APS-C camera.

I did suggest you will need to get a D3S to be happy

"A cynic is one who sees the faults in everything....but cannot understand the value of anything"

[kittykat46]

Plus you won't even need shake reduction any more

Oh, a clean ISO 6400 or even ISO 12800 + the 3 stops slower shutter speed which SR allows opens up a whole new horizon in night time street photography.

Exactly in my area of interest....I'm definitely going to have lots of fun with the K-5

[frank]

Okay, some friends asked me to do some long time exposure test. Just now I took two shots at ISO100 in B mode, one (192s) w/ noise reduction turned ON, and one (189s) turned OFF. The one w/ NR ON took equal time to remove the noise after the shot is taken, the other one don't have this delay. File format set to RAW+, and RAW is in PEF format.

Well, I didn't expect all photos look quite the same, w/ NR turned ON or OFF.

The following 4 photos are as these:
NR ON - JPG
NR ON - PEF converted to JPG
NR OFF - JPG
NR OFF - PEF converted to JPG

[frank]

And here are the center crops of the above photos in the same sequence:

NR ON - JPG
NR ON - PEF converted to JPG
NR OFF - JPG
NR OFF - PEF converted to JPG

With those crops, it is really hard to tell if the NR is doing anything. Noise and details look to be the same in both pictures.

[badbrother]

No sharpness or NR whatsoever for the photo of the girl and the lotuses.

thanks for sharing the shots by K-5.

maybe my exifviewer has to keep up with the latest models like K-5 , but it indicates (among other things) :

# Exposure Bias (EV) = -3/10 ===> -0.3
# Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)
# White Balance = auto (0)
# Scene Capture Type = standard (0)
# Contrast = hard (2)
# Saturation = normal (0)
# Sharpness = hard (2)

Do these read-outs correspond to the actual camera body setting?
What is the color mode used? Neutral/Standard?

Since Pentax metering has a track record of under-exposing, I instinctively have this question in mind when viewing test-shots from new models. (any improvements?)

Well, both shots look a little under-expose for my taste. (well, it could well be that my monitor is not as bright as yours). I am wondering why you opt to minus the exposure by 0.3 EV and what's your thought on the metering performance.

Given that both shots were taken with Contrast & Sharpness set to "hard" ( +1 in the Pentax scale?) by 2 very good primes, it is a surprise that we are not seeing punchier images. While the sharpness of the EOS lady is perfect (ie sharp with lots of details without being harsh), i am expecting a crisper image from a DA macro lens for the lotus (maybe the dull lighting is the culprit here).

So my question is ... is K-5 calibrated to give very neutral/subdued image by default?
Or to put it in perspective, does the K-5 exhibit a different character in image rendering when compared to earlier models (k-7/k20d/k10d)?

A case in point ... I absolutely love the color rendering of the EOS lady, the skin tone is gorgeous, the colors are all in harmony and reservedly pleasant ( none of the red, orange nor blue is jumpy) ... but then I think, it's a bit uncharacteristic of Pentax.

Pardon me for all these babbling and thanks for any thoughts you might like to share.

[bats]

Interesting. They are remarkably similar.

One thing I notice immediately on the uncropped shots - since I take a lot of night shots with the K10D - is that the K5 still shows a slight bit of posterization / banding in the gradients of the sky. I get this quite a bit with the K10D when photographing foggy night skies and it drives me nuts. I suspect some of it is due to the conversion from 12-or-14 bit colors to 8-bit... and some is just the limitations of sensors.

[MCR]

Thx for sharing!