Originally posted by Art Vandelay II Pentax certainly has their work cut out for them if that's the best Sony can do...but hopefully they've figured out a way to get better results since they were confident enough to put an external dial just for blur mode on the Q.
Here's another interesting link from Sony's literature:
DSC-HX9/HX9V | Background Defocus | Cyber-shot User Guide
The notes section at the bottom lists quite a few short comings. One biggie of course is the subject can't be moving. I assumed as much on that when I read they were merging images. But some things I didn't think would be a problem were
"The scene is too bright or too dark" and
"The subject is the same color as the background".
That "halo" effect you speak of is also common in HDR processing, and there are several ways of reducing/fixing that. Also the limitations you listed are also common in HDR processing.
I doubt that Pentax would be doing any different from Sony - in fact, I would speculate they are using exactly the same algorithm, which they probably purchased from Sony as part of a package deal with the sensor.
Pentax probably bought a "kit" from Sony which includes the sensor, the processor (that's why the Q is not using the PRIME engine), the OS and a library of in-camera effects. Pentax then built a shell around the kit, and added the lens system.
That's kind of good and bad - the good is Pentax is leveraging Sony's bigger R&D dollars - the bad is that the Q is basically a compact camera with interchangeable lenses.
I'm now thinking of buying both the Q and the DSC-HX7v (if the image quality is good) since it's likely they share a common set of electronics. Previously I was kind of thinking of buying both the Q and the GF3, but I can't really afford investing in 2 extra lens systems (in addition to K mount).
The more I look at micro 4/3, the more I realise it's not for me. It seems to be stuck in between. It's smaller, but not small enough. The quality is almost as good as K mount, but not quite. The lens range is kind of patchy and inconsistent. The camera bodies all feature dumbed down user interfaces targeted at beginners.
In the longer term, I'll wait for Nikon and Canon to get into the game, and probably buy something from them. If Pentax releases a mirrorless K-mount, or joins the micro 4/3 club with a body that features the Pentax ergonomics (including front/back dials) then I could be interested.