Hi all. I'm looking for a sanity check and some guidance re my next steps in my battle against the dreaded (by me anyway) purple fringes that I have been witnessing since getting my K5 some 18 months ago. I need to know whether these are being created by the lens(es) or, as is becoming increasingly likely, the K5 itself. I have attached two examples - they are to my mind extreme.
The fringes are most noticeable when taking shots involving areas of detail with high contrast (typically leafless trees against bright skies). Whole trees take on a purple aura, which whilst quite interesting, definitely wasn't visible to my eyes when I took the shot. The first photo below provides a good example of how contrast (between black and white in this instance) triggers the effect, with many of the white window frames of the Buxton pavilion actually turning purple (they are white - honest). Zoom in on any of the detail in the second photo to see how highlights such as sunlight reflecting from cars creates the same effect. Even the road markings in this picture have turned purple, and there is of course the omnipresent purple tree on the left
Whilst evident on the DA kit lenses that came with the K5 (18-55 and 50-200) the fringes are most noticeable when using my Tamron SP Di II 10-24. The Tamron also consistently delivered poor sharpness (to me) anywhere away from the centre of the image, hence I thought that it (i.e. my particular lens) was prime suspect for the excessive fringes also. So, after some toing and froing involving the UK Tamron distributor, their European parent in Germany, and even Tamron Japan, the lens was completely rebuilt and tested. The distributor advised that
'as a precautionary measure we replaced all element group's within your lens and re aligned the light axis to suit, After a Full check and test of your lenss we found it to be within Manufacturers specification. So armed with my newly re built lens, and new hope, I went off to test it in the very rare but welcome bright sunshine that we have been having over here in the UK recently. The results were shocking! The pictures below are two of them. I sent these to the distributor. They have advised me that these are by far the worse examples of fringes that they have ever seen. They added that in their opinion, these are indicative of an issue with the camera itself, not the lens, and suggested that I contact Pentax to have my K5 examined, and corrected.
So, whilst I know that I can use the software (Pentax Digital Camera Utility 4) that came with the K5 to greatly improve these images by correcting the lateral colour aberration (I've tried it, and it appeared to work), what I don't know is whether I have to accept that owning a K5 means getting used to reviewing shots in purple, prior to correcting those that are worthy of saving, or whether what I am seeing is not normal, and hence I should look to get the K5 examined and hopefully fixed. (It will be out of warranty, hence this will be at my expense).
Since I took the two photos attached, I have updated the firmware to 1.14, run the Pixel Mapping feature, and taken a few shots of a couple of green trees against a bright sky with the 18-55 Pentax DA lens, various apertures. Guess what colour they turned out? Yep, purple!
Any help or guidance would be appreciated. In my head, if there is an issue with the K5, it has to be software/firmware related. Is there a way to perform a factory reset perhaps, and see whether that convinces it that white objects against a black background, or vice versa, don't need a purple highlight or overlay?
Help! Please!