[mamethot]

Pinholecam, I have to say...Most of the time I will look at my own shots on my home computer 24 inch monitor, not especially a good one, but certainly better than the monitor I use during the day at work or on my tablet 9" screen when I am on the train. Probably makes a hell of a difference...

Also on when I see them on the forum, the size of the picture is much smaller, that will certainly affect the results.

We have to take inh account all the factors when making comparisons and I did not when I compared the pictures...

[mamethot]

Pat, indeed at least two but I'm betting more (a couple users I read on another thread). Anyway we'll be easy to spot if ever our paths cross!

[mamethot]

Pet time!

The first one is with FE

Rocco

This one with the 02, 1/25 F4, 9.8mm.

Rocco

Both are overexposed a bit, I did not adjust adjust the exposure for the flash. Details are ok in both anyway.

[CobusBasson]

Well after all of the replies to my previous post I have learnt one thing and that is to limit my pictures to between f1.9 and F4, I will see how it goes from here onwards. Thanks for all the comments and advice.

I must say I am still amazed at the sharpness that some of you guys get.

Pinholecam's 100% crops are still quite sharp in my opinion. I will have to pray for some proper sunlight and then go and snap a few to see if I am getting any better at extracting some good quality out of my Q. I still love it, but it's a bit like dating a girl that I can't quite please, so she stays a bit angry with me.

Cobus

[hiwaystar]

O.K. I took these shots of my grand daughter on a park playground swing when I 1st got the Q.
Didn't check and didn't realize that the ISO somehow got inadvertently changed to 3200!
But I still liked the way they turned out.

[saladin]

It's a shame that Cobus is clearly not enraptured with his Q. Could you take yours into a store and shoot the same scene with another q and lens? Or meet up with another q owner. I suspect Melbourne, Australia is not your home, lol. But if it was I would happily meet up with you and see if we could sort out the issue.

[mamethot]

I agree it's a shame that not all the people like the Q. I also believe that Pentax's management feels even more so.

To each his own, but what I liked about the Q, that has got me hooked, is not its IQ. It is that it doesn't get between me and the scene I want to capture as much as a DSLR does. It's always in my pocket. Whenever I see something pleasing to the eye (by my standards anyway) I take it out of my pocket and shoot. No second thought, no regret of having left it at home.

I have been seeing that little camera on the Pentax site for a long time. I have been asking myself about why they need to make another system, in parallel of the DSLR.

As I read it on another thread: I got it, now I get it. It's just like many things in life. Some like and some don't.

For me it was some kind of revelation in the sense that It has helped improving in photography skills so far, not by being a great camera in the sense of technical prowess but by being unobtrusive.

Clearly in CobusBasson's case, I believe something might be wrong (with the cam) because IQ it's not entirely up to par with some other shots we've been seing here. To my amateur eye anyway.

I hope they eventually find each other though (CobusBasson and Q).

[AndrewG NY]

thanks a lot! That was done 100% in camera, no lightroom or photoshop trickery. Which to me is what the Q is all about!

I had much the same thought -- I need a little kick to remind me to stop obsessing about gear, grab that little Q and just work with it. It really is enough camera to do lots of cool stuff.

[Sandy Hancock]

Saladin, thanks for your comments, maybe you're right about the f8 issue, I wasn't aware of the diffusion issue.

I'm pretty sure the correct term is "diffraction". Whatever the optical physics underlying it are, it becomes an issue at much wider apertures than a DSLR. The sweet spot for the 01 prime seems to be about f2.8-4.0 for me. Much beyond that IQ seems to suffer, and you certainly don't need more depth of field than you get at that point. I must play around with the ND filter sometime....

[CobusBasson]

OK, I have been walking around snapping anything and everything I can lay my eyes on without trying to take good pictures in terms of subject and composition, just to see if I can get sharper images, and I believe I am getting closer. I know there's nothing wrong with my camera, I just have to pay more attention to what I am doing. Below are a few pictures that are quite a bit sharper than that what I have managed before. I really am very happy with my purchase, the Q is the type of camera that I have been looking for for a long time, I have a Canon S90 as well and I don't really like it, while my Nikon DSLR is too bulky, the Q is honestly so much fun, I just need to become a better photographer and I believe the Q is the tool that can help me get there, it challenges me.

[Zorglub]

the Q is honestly so much fun

Exactly my thoughts!

[ndjedinak]

Just received my Q yesterday, here are my first shots

Nice, Nick. I look forward to more of your work.

The Q must be great in Paris! Last time I visited, in 2007, I had a D200 and 3 lenses. I don't like traveling like that anymore.

[ndjedinak]

Some more with the fisheye.

The dog shot from the art museum is awesome--the fish eyes sense of scale, combined with the dog's out of proportion to reality size, really works!

[ndjedinak]

I keep looking at the pictures of other posters on this forum and I am amazed at the sharpness that some of you guys are getting, I still seem to be struggling with it. Unless of course you sharpen up your images through post processing? I find that when I leave the Q on auto iso, it very quickly bumps up the ISO, even in daylight in slightly overcast conditions it starts increasing iso. Furthermore my images are quite soft, maybe I'm spending too much time staring at 100% blown up images. Below is an example, I took a picture of the same building in a park, one with my Nikon D40 with 35mm prime, the other with the Q. The Nikon stayed at its base iso of 200, 1/40th of a second shutter speed at f8. The Pentax was also on Av, set to f8, it bumped up the iso to 320 and shutter speed was 1/60th. When I compare the Nikon and the D40, under good light conditions I don't see much difference, except for the slight softness in the Q images that is there 90% of the time. However as soon as the light deteriorates the slightest bit, I lose sharpness.

Anyway, I still love the Q and despite some misgivings I have about it, it is still with me 100% of the time while my Nikon stays at home most of the time. The Q makes me want to take pictures and it makes me think all the time about what I am doing.

Nikon picture at the top.

Others have mentioned diffraction--this is an easily observable phenomenon on the Q. See it for yourself by taking a shot at f1.9 and f8... You'll never use f8 again (use the ND filter if you need to cut light).

Diffraction on this sensor starts around f2.8-f3.2. Stay below there if at all possible, and you'll be happier.

Some other things to help: set NR to lowest setting, turn off shadow and highlight compensation. All 3 cause NR to become more active, removing fine detail. Shoot base ISO if at all possible, lean on the Shake Reduction--it's quite good. Don't go above ISO 320 if you want best quality.

The Q will compare quite favorably to the D40 if you shoot at base ISO--we owned a D40 for quite some time, and my sister still shoots with hers. You will be surprised how much more detail the Q pulls in when shot optimally! Keep the D40 for low light--that is a great sensor when the light goes down.

Pinholecam: there's motion blur in your crop... Of course, it didn't ruin the image in the least!

[NickLarsson]

Nice, Nick. I look forward to more of your work.

The Q must be great in Paris! Last time I visited, in 2007, I had a D200 and 3 lenses. I don't like traveling like that anymore.

Thanks Nate!

Well, for traveling in another country I prefer taking the K-r or the K-01 with 2 or 3 primes because I favor IQ, but for street shooting the Q is really great, people notice you far less and you can bring this little thing with you everyday