[sany]

Hi musicfan, welcome to PF Community and good luck with lots of learning that is going to happen here!

See this link, and there are detailed testing step-by-step which are self explanatory. Do it in good natural light first and then may try with tungsten.

There are more similar charts around the internet which you can test as well developed by different people. The above could be a starter, maybe the rest you can slowly try as you get comfortable and more time.

Don't worry, you will not have any issues hopefully!

[musicfan]

Thank you sany. I downloaded the pages and will test. It will be good to know the score on the AF. Sorry the firmware upgrade is not helping everyone.

[reivax]

Just updated to 1.11 and it is definitely an improvement on my K-r.

I tried it out with two different lenses. DAL 18-55 & DA 55-300 and noticed much better focusing in low light conditions with both lenses. Prior to the update, the camera struggled to take a clear picture under the same conditions. I hope Pentax keeps the updates coming.

Haven't had a chance to try it out in other conditions, but I'm really happy with the results of the update.

[sany]

that sounds promising, all must try. Since the FF issue is not officially acknowledged as I understand, there ought to be some fix hidden in any new updates that are coming out. Even otherwise it is good to keep the body upto date.

[Philoslothical]

OK, y'all convinced me to give it a shot. I sat terrified that I was going to brick the thing as it updated, and it took longer than I expected. However, it completed normally, and my camera is fully functional.

I went from v1.0 directly to v1.11, and there does seem to be some speed improvement to overall AF functions. This could be a rather subjective notion though. I don't feel the update helped Live View at all, in fact it seems to "miss" in low light a bit more often. What I mean by this is when trying to get a focus lock in Live View, it fails with a red box on the display, and you have to start over trying to get a new lock.

As always, the AF assist lamp is essentially useless. It doesn't come on half the time (or more) and when it does, it doesn't seem to greatly improve lock-on unless the subject is extremely close.

Now, as for the quality of the photos taken using the AF in lower light levels, this is where I think there may be some improvement. Maybe not a huge difference, but it seems easier to get more usable images now using AF.

Full disclosure: I very rarely use Live View for anything, so my impressions of it are limited. I also try to avoid using AF, and instead use MF >80% of the time, but I think I'm comfortable enough with the AF to assess its capability. I've had my K-r for 5 weeks, and shot 7600 pics.

[hnikesch]

Updated to v1.11 last night from 1.10, will shoot some today and try it out.

Hans

[loco]

Thanks all, please keep the updates and impressions coming for those of us who are too chicken to try it first ourselves!

[mlatour]

Updated to FW 1.11 today and did some testing tonite..

No change at all for my K-r, still front-focuses badly in artificial light,
(focus is fine in natural light and so-so in Live-View at night)
and as before, even with the AF fine-adjustment set to the
maximum of it's range it's still not enough to correct the problem.

On top of that my AF-assist light doesn't function anymore!

Purchased it last May and going to send this %$@&* K-r back to Pentax Service
as often as possible while it's under warranty.
I swear it will have more mileage than shutter actuations during the next 2 years!

Luckily my 'old' trusty K-x works fine under artificial light..

Michel

[Bill_R]

No change at all for my K-r, still front-focuses badly in artificial light,


Michel

arghhhhh! "artificial light". You mean Tungsten or all "artificial" light? I hate it when "artificial" assumes Tungsten. I haven't seen a Tungsten globe in like 5 years.

[hallenti]

I updated to 1.11 about 7 days ago and I haven't seen any improvement relating to the front focus (FF) under tungsten light in my case. I didn't see the FF issue listed in the "fix" list, but thought I'd give it a try.

[mlatour]

arghhhhh! "artificial light". You mean Tungsten or all "artificial" light? I hate it when "artificial" assumes Tungsten. I haven't seen a Tungsten globe in like 5 years.

In my case "artificial light" meaning:
Whatever variety lightbulbs I have installed around the house (some old, some new)
and under all the various street lamps around Montreal during urban night shots,
not a lighting expert but streetlamp colour output varies from 'almost white', 'bluish white' to 'amber'.

Michel

[Bill_R]

In my case "artificial light" meaning:
Whatever variety lightbulbs I have installed around the house (some old, some new)
and under all the various street lamps around Montreal during urban night shots,
not a lighting expert but streetlamp colour output varies from 'almost white', 'bluish white' to 'amber'.

Michel

If you don't have that red tinge in the photos with auto white balance but have the FF issue I'd suggest it might be more than the acknowledged Tungsten FF issue and the camera might need calibrating. The auto white balance defaults to "subtle" correction under Tungsten and still leaves a slight red tinge. In Canada you possibly have Tungsten indoors but I don't know about the street lamps. Controlled testing with lamps might clarify it.

[mlatour]

Below are a few links to the website I participate in, examples of urban / street lighting
where my K-x (used for all of these pics) focuses fine while my K-r using the sames lenses
just doesn't work well at all under the lights. Same lenses but in natural light, the K-r is spot on.

(note my K-x AF was recently calibrated at Pentax using their shop's 'master lens' as a baseline)

CODE ROUGE - Intervention

CODE ROUGE - Intervention

CODE ROUGE - Intervention

CODE ROUGE - Intervention

CODE ROUGE - Intervention

Lenses used : Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC MACRO & DA 12-24mm

Our website's main page: CODE ROUGE - Montreal firefighters unofficial website
for those interested in firefighting related infos and fire grounds photography in Montreal.

Anyway, I will be sending the K-r back to Pentax soon for inspection/repair...

Michel

[mbukal]

ovakva diskusija me več jako živcira,imao sam problema i ja sa ff,odnio sam aparat u servis na kalibraciju jer to uključuje garancija i još sam stavio novi firmware 1.11 i nemam više nikakvih problema,evo primjera,nabrzinu, fotografije su samo smanjene i odmad stavljene na net kao dokaz:

exif informacije: proizvođač:PENTAX, model:PENTAX K-r, datum:2011:07:26 14:33:00, ekspozicija:0.02 (1/50) sek., otvor blende:f/1, fokalna duljina:50 mm, odstupanje ekspozicije:0 EV, iso osjetljivost:100, bljeskalica:nije bljesnula (isključena), awb, volfram

za mene kao korisnika pentax fotoaparata ovaj problem više ne postoji i oni koji če pričati drugačije znači da lažu i ne govore istinu i lijeni su da bilo što naprave za svoj aparat da bi bio bolji,amen!

[Bill_R]

ovakva diskusija me več jako živcira,imao sam problema i ja sa ff,odnio sam aparat u servis na kalibraciju jer to uključuje garancija i još sam stavio novi firmware 1.11 i nemam više nikakvih problema,evo primjera,nabrzinu, fotografije su samo smanjene i odmad stavljene na net kao dokaz:

exif informacije: proizvođač:PENTAX, model:PENTAX K-r, datum:2011:07:26 14:33:00, ekspozicija:0.02 (1/50) sek., otvor blende:f/1, fokalna duljina:50 mm, odstupanje ekspozicije:0 EV, iso osjetljivost:100, bljeskalica:nije bljesnula (isključena), awb, volfram

za mene kao korisnika pentax fotoaparata ovaj problem više ne postoji i oni koji če pričati drugačije znači da lažu i ne govore istinu i lijeni su da bilo što naprave za svoj aparat da bi bio bolji,amen!

I don't deny that the problem does exist for some users but I also think there are units that simply require calibration. For that reason I think it is best to determine if the problem is specific to Tungsten light or not. For me it is not an issue because I don't come across Tungsten light and have no FF that I have experienced yet.