[CP140]

OK... I admit that this might be one of those silly questions that causes people to roll their eyes and mutter under their breath....

The US and Canadian Pentax sites do not have the 1.10 firmware update listed. Is there any harm in someone from the "wrong" side of the pond updating their North American K-r with a UK update?!?

(I don't think there is, but what do I know?)

Regards

[Bill_R]

Here are some quick test results in the lighting room. Pentax kr with firmware 1.10 and FA 50 1.4 :




AF adjustment -10



AF adjustment 0



AF adjustment off

all settings : 1/40" iso200 f1.4 AWB spot metering

Is that Tungsten though? There's no colour cast and with AWB being subtle correction in Tungsten there should be a slight red tinge.

[Bill_R]

OK... I admit that this might be one of those silly questions that causes people to roll their eyes and mutter under their breath....

The US and Canadian Pentax sites do not have the 1.10 firmware update listed. Is there any harm in someone from the "wrong" side of the pond updating their North American K-r with a UK update?!?

(I don't think there is, but what do I know?)

Regards

Should be ok to use the Uk or Japanese download.

[Rocketvapor]

The US site still has 1.01, will probably change to 1.10 later today. I extracted each to a separate folder and noticed the binary has the same name, FWDC208B.BIN. I seem to remember someone saying you probably could not revert back to previous versions (this is unlike computer motherboard firmware which you can load any version you have). Could this be because the old binary would have been overwritten if the extraction was done in the same folder?


And the JP site says :
Copy fwdc209b.bin file to SD card

Both the UK and JP files extract to give the 208b binary, but 1.10 readme.txt files.
Did anyone actually get a 209b binary?

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Last edited by Rocketvapor; 06-20-2011 at 11:45 PM.

[Dablegs]

Is that Tungsten though? There's no colour cast and with AWB being subtle correction in Tungsten there should be a slight red tinge.

I just did a test whose results I think is pretty good because the firmware 1.01 I have to do the settings in -10 in room lighting.

[keithlm]

Here is a comparison of 4 shots using firmware 1.10. Sorry I didn't do it exactly the same with 1.01 so I can't show that. But I think this shows what we wanted to see.

Lens = 50mm using Av with lens at f1.4. These shots are zoomed in a bit to more easily show the differences. The 45 degree chart is printed on WHITE paper. I didn't do any balancing. (Just AWB and TUNGSTEN.)

On left is AWB with Fine Tuning Disabled and then at -10 (Top then bottom)

On Right is WB = Tungsten with Fine Tuning Disabled and then at -10 (SUMMARY: it is better to set it to tungsten and fine tuning to -10.)



SIDE NOTE: I have a UV bulb made for reptiles for my Parrot cages. When changing from AWB to Tungsten around that light you didn't really see any dramatic changes with 1.01. NOW with 1.10 everything goes VERY blue. They definitely did more than just the GPS changes.

[Eriol]

Here is a comparison of 4 shots using firmware 1.10. Sorry I didn't do it exactly the same with 1.01 so I can't show that. But I think this shows what we wanted to see.

Lens = 50mm using Av with lens at f1.4. These shots are zoomed in a bit to more easily show the differences. The 45 degree chart is printed on WHITE paper. I didn't do any balancing. (Just AWB and TUNGSTEN.)

On left is AWB with Fine Tuning Disabled and then at -10 (Top then bottom)

On Right is WB = Tungsten with Fine Tuning Disabled and then at -10 (SUMMARY: it is better to set it to tungsten and fine tuning to -10.)



SIDE NOTE: I have a UV bulb made for reptiles for my Parrot cages. When changing from AWB to Tungsten around that light you didn't really see any dramatic changes with 1.01. NOW with 1.10 everything goes VERY blue. They definitely did more than just the GPS changes.

The only change mentioned by Pentax is: "Correspond to GPS unit [O-GPS1] "

This corresponds to my first pictures taken with the K-r, and also with the pictures posted here - the FF issue is still there. Unresolved. No change.

What I wonder is: Why can't Pentax - by firmware fix - at least force the AF assisting lamp to go on more often??? I do not have any focusing issues whenever this lamp goes on for AF.

[Bill_R]

What I wonder is: Why can't Pentax - by firmware fix - at least force the AF assisting lamp to go on more often??? I do not have any focusing issues whenever this lamp goes on for AF.

I think it does go on more with the firmware fix for the k-5.

[Eriol]

I think it does go on more with the firmware fix for the k-5.

Exactly - that's why I wonder that they do not change this with the K-r ... May be it is correct that the K-r lacks some hardware functions to fix this issue properly - but it has an AF assist lamp that would work in tungsten light as well, I suppose.

[mlatour]

The K-r AF-assist lamp is not mounted far enough from the lens,

It probably work fine with a kit DA-L 18-55mm (which I don't have)
but using either my Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC MACRO or my DA 12-24mm f4
most of the light beam gets blocked because of the larger diameter lens/hood.

Plus it isn't very powerful, my really old FUJI S9100 AF-beamlight (vintage 2005) is still far better!

Michel

[Usuqa]

The K-r AF-assist lamp is not mounted far enough from the lens,

It probably work fine with a kit DA-L 18-55mm (which I don't have)
but using either my Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC MACRO or my DA 12-24mm f4
most of the light beam gets blocked because of the larger diameter lens/hood.

Plus it isn't very powerful, my really old FUJI S9100 AF-beamlight (vintage 2005) is still far better!

Michel

The k5 one is pretty crap too.. my da* 50-135 blocks most of the light, so dose my sigma 24-60.

[GrinMode]

The k5 one is pretty crap too.. my da* 50-135 blocks most of the light, so dose my sigma 24-60.

Hey! How about asking Pentax to use the built in flash to strobe? Like Canon does it!

I guess we can't have it all, can we? A year ago we were clamoring for an AF assist beam.

Btw, on a related note, the 18-55 kit with the lens hood blocks the pop up flash so that it causes a shadow at the bottom of the frame.

My DS didn't do that.

On a positive note, I'm still keeping my K-r

[Eriol]

I guess we can't have it all, can we? A year ago we were clamoring for an AF assist beam.

Yes, you have a point. But I must say, after approx. 4000 shots with my K-r I had a lot of situations where the front focus issue under any kind of artificial light was quite present. On the other hand, I remember only 2 (two) situations where the build in AF assist light was on. (Yes, yes: it is turned on in the settings menu ...).

So: When we were clamoring for such an AF assist beam, we actually meant that it should also go on from time to time.

For the AF light to work you always have to remove any lens hood mounted (reversely) on the camera - they might create a shadow ...

[GrinMode]

Yes, you have a point. But I must say, after approx. 4000 shots with my K-r I had a lot of situations where the front focus issue under any kind of artificial light was quite present. On the other hand, I remember only 2 (two) situations where the build in AF assist light was on. (Yes, yes: it is turned on in the settings menu ...).

So: When we were clamoring for such an AF assist beam, we actually meant that it should also go on from time to time.

For the AF light to work you always have to remove any lens hood mounted (reversely) on the camera - they might create a shadow ...

Before anything else, I'm not downplaying the problem, nor mean to be sarcastic .

I actually suggested that (turning on AF beam earlier) as a fix in one of the threads here. I also mentioned why this FF firmware fix may never be released:

• That would render the additional AF hardware in the K-5/K-7 redundant. No one one want to pay for that. Marketing/sales will never allow it.
• It's not possible in the first place, hence the AF hardware

Like I mentioned about the lens hood, it didn't do that on my DS. I doubt it did on the K-x either.

There may be occasions you may want to use the pop flash in daylight, where you also want the lens hood on (to fulfill what it's designed for).

But still, that doesn't explain why they broke this combination in the K-r, and this definitely won't be fixed by firmware .

[chiane]

What happened to all that talk about giving Pentax a break about not getting to the fix because of the tsunami? Looks like important work was still being done. This gadget for many ranks ranks up behind IR Simple in terms of needed items.