I thought this might be a little fun and informative at the same time.
Post your photos. Unprocessed.

Now, let me define this:

1) You can crop.
2) You can alter in-camera settings.
3) That's it.
4) Addendum - You can extract directly from RAW if you like.

No adjustments using any software of any kind, PPL, CS3, Picasa, nothing. The main thrust of this is to maybe provide a place to see real-world, unaltered examples of how lenses perform.

I don't know about everyone else, but I know sometimes my final images look vastly different than what comes out of the camera, and may not truly represent a len's capability.

Also, Posting relevant photo data would be useful and cool to see.

Please include:

Camera
Camera JPEG settings (bright, natural, etc. and if you altered sliders)
Lens
ISO
Shutter
Aperature
Flash

[cputeq]

Here are my first two -= Just sitting out my back porch:



Pentax K20D on "Bright" JPEG
DA 55-300mm
300mm
1/180s
f/5.8
ISO 800
No noise reduction.





Pentax K20D on "Bright" JPEG
DA 55-300mm
300mm
1/350s
f/8
ISO 800
No noise reduction.

This shot was a bit difficult to pull off, I think I got it after try #3. The first shot, the sky was completely blown. Second shot underexposed. Finally, I metered off a "sorta-bright" leaf and hit it just right I think.

[cpopham]

I *thought* someone else from here also lurked on Ars. Wasn't sure until today though

[paulf6]

I love the first picture. It is just beautiful. Nice work. -Paul

[cputeq]

I *thought* someone else from here also lurked on Ars. Wasn't sure until today though

Hehe yeah there are a couple of us Arsians that come over here. I think Alohadave posts over here also, IIRC. and I think 1 or 2 others

[Ole]

I usually shoot raw but ran some test shots to determine the best (for me) setting of contrast and sharpness to use when I have no time for postprocessing. This was shot with what I found suits me best.

PENTAX K20D
smc PENTAX-FA 31mmF1.8AL Limited
1/250sec, F5.6, ISO 100
Exposure comp: 0.0
Metering mode: Multi-segment
White balance: Automatic
Image tone: Natural
Saturation: 0
Sharpness: 2
Contrast: 2
Quality: Best

[alohadave]

Hehe yeah there are a couple of us Arsians that come over here. I think Alohadave posts over here also, IIRC. and I think 1 or 2 others

Yep, I'm here and there.

[monochrome]

I thought this might be a little fun and informative at the same time.
Post your photos. Unprocessed.

Now, let me define this:

1) You can crop.
2) You can alter in-camera settings.
3) That's it.

No adjustments using any software of any kind, PPL, CS3, Picasa, nothing.

Does the definition permit shooting in RAW and directly extracting jpeg from the raw file (without adjusting curves) or should we shoot in in-camera jpeg?

[cputeq]

Sure monochrome, sounds fair enough. I just wanted to make sure we weren't doing any unintended processing -- The output from Pentax Photo Lab, for example, varies a fair amount from say Lightroom / ACR because of PPL "reading" the JPEG settings and applying them to the image.

[cputeq]

I usually shoot raw but ran some test shots to determine the best (for me) setting of contrast and sharpness to use when I have no time for postprocessing. This was shot with what I found suits me best.

PENTAX K20D
smc PENTAX-FA 31mmF1.8AL Limited
1/250sec, F5.6, ISO 100
Exposure comp: 0.0
Metering mode: Multi-segment
White balance: Automatic
Image tone: Natural
Saturation: 0
Sharpness: 2
Contrast: 2
Quality: Best

Awesome thanks for the input! That image looks so incredibly sharp -- I may have to save up my pennies to get that lovely lens. Awesome.

[Jimbo]

Will go shot a couple today. Great Idea. JIMBO

[Ole]

Awesome thanks for the input! That image looks so incredibly sharp -- I may have to save up my pennies to get that lovely lens. Awesome.

Thanks! Yes, this photo should hammer the final nail in the coffin regarding Pentax producing soft jpg's!

[cputeq]

A rather unpleasant bokeh from the DA* 50-135.
K20D
DA* 50-135
103mm
ISO400
F/2.8
1/250s
"Bright" JPEG




Very heavy crop of bug on leaf. Not too bad, but could be a bit clearer. Wind may have caused slight blur.
K20D
DA* 50-135
135mm
ISO125
F/5.6
1/320s
"Bright" JPEG



Decently sharp picture, but I think I missed focus (visible blur if you crop in). Not surprising considering the 1/180s shutter. SR helps, but doesn't prevent blur.

K20D
DA 55-300
300mm
ISO400
F/9.5
1/180s
"Bright" JPEG

[MrApollinax]

My contribution will be for a budget lens. Here is a shot straight from the my K100D Super with +1 Sharpness and Saturation using my Quantaray 70-300 Macro lens:






EXIF data taken straight from PhotoME:

Creation date: 7/4/2008 08:18
Camera: PENTAX K100D Super
Lens: SIGMA 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO/DL Macro (or SIGMA DL Zoom 75-300mm F4-5.6 or SIGMA 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG APO Macro)
Focal length: 300*mm*(equiv. 450*mm)
Aperture: F5.6
Exposure time: 1/500"
ISO speed rating: 200/24°
Program: Aperture Priority
Metering Mode: Center-weighted average
White Balance: User-Selected
Focus Mode: Manual
Image Stabilizer: stabilized
Noise Reduction: Off

[paulf6]

I like all of these, but most of all the green dragon fly, since it is my favorite insect. When I ride on our lawn tractor, mowing about 2 acres of weeds, hundreds of dragon flies buzz me, land on me, stare me in the face, etc. I just love it. Thanks for posting. -Paul :-)