[albertofcasuso]

Hi! i've just purchased a K30 and i've been testing it. I have no complains about the still images, they are just great. On the video side there are some questions. I shot a couple of videos with the firmware 1.00 and there were almost no artifacts. I upgraded to firmware v1.03 and the artifacts are making a party on all the movements and light changes. You can notice them even with the video reproduction. Does anyone else have noticed this? Does somebody know if Pentax is going to improve video bitrate? I think that the video bitrate update would be just fine; is a change in the firmware numbers from 15-20Mbps to 40-50Mbps, just add another star to the video quality and that's it, people happy. What do you think about this?

[Adam]

Would be great, but the question is if the hardware can support it! Are you sure your firmware update is what introduced the artifacts? It could also be cause by different shooting settings!

[albertofcasuso]

thinking on what you've said i checked the video settings, they were almost the same (1/50, different f (3.5- 6), ISO 100-200, and sharpness (-4 vs 0)) i shot another two videos with the same settings as with the v1 firmware and the artifacts were there. I've seen some videos on internet with movement and light changes but they have no artifacts. What i'm going to try is downgrading firmware from 1.03 to 1.01 and shot another videos to check the differences. Any further suggestions?

[albertofcasuso]

I post this examples. The first image is just one frame previous (or after i don't remember) to the next image, full of artifacts.

Attached Images

   

[Anvh]

Indeed huge differnce, not good

[Derwin]

While it looks as though they've yet to build up a head of steam, the two most recent posts are undoubtedly promising: Pentax hack status - Personal View Talks

[albertofcasuso]

While it looks as though they've yet to build up a head of steam, the two most recent posts are undoubtedly promising: Pentax hack status - Personal View Talks

Wojojojo.... Nice! I hope they keep the good work

PD: If someone else is getting this artifacts with their k30, try the 30fps mode. The artifacts are so reduced that you can hardly notice them.

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Last edited by albertofcasuso; 03-13-2013 at 09:53 AM.

[rodaballo]

so, what are these hackers doing? are they going to decrease the amount of compression? what's the status now?
I want to buy a Pentax K-30, however I've read so many bad things of its video features that I'm thinking twice...

[dragra]

so, what are these hackers doing? are they going to decrease the amount of compression? what's the status now?
I want to buy a Pentax K-30, however I've read so many bad things of its video features that I'm thinking twice...

K-30 video quality is outstanding and as good as it's peers, yet unfortunately Pentax decided not to push the K-30' video features very far. They didn't provide a dedicated video recording button, HDMI or an external mic plug (features K-01 already had). For me the omission of Focus-Peaking in K-30 video is most absurd.

If you want lower compression video (Motion JPEG) you should get a older Pentax dSLR like K-x, K-r or K-5. The footage is much bigger than H.264 material, but more friendly towards the editing process as you don't need a very powerful computer to cut.

[rodaballo]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, draga. Indeed, since video is not my very first priority, I am curently very close to buy the K30. I can only read excellent reviews. I know this machine works fine on stills. However I hope that someone may help to avoid the jelly arifacts on its video. I'd love to do this myslef if I knew something more than using Word®, Excel® and checking the e-mail

Since I'm a complete beginner regarding video, I don't know if this improvements would be feasible by means of software itself, as someone has already suggested in this post. However, this idea may be nonsense. Who knows.

[dragra]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, draga. Indeed, since video is not my very first priority, I am curently very close to buy the K30. I can only read excellent reviews. I know this machine works fine on stills. However I hope that someone may help to avoid the jelly arifacts on its video. I'd love to do this myslef if I knew something more than using Word®, Excel® and checking the e-mail

Since I'm a complete beginner regarding video, I don't know if this improvements would be feasible by means of software itself, as someone has already suggested in this post. However, this idea may be nonsense. Who knows.

K-30 can deliver above average video quality, but it can't be a replacement for a camcorder! Before you dig into jelly soup etc. you should think what your plans about video are. If you have a lot of (older) Pentax glass and want to shoot video with it K-30 can make you happy albeit it has some restrictions. You will have to invest in some extra gear like viewfinder loupe, follow focus gear and last but not least a good video tripod with a fluid head. You might consider K-01 too, since they are a bargain right now and still the best Pentax choice for shooting video (HDMI, Focus-Peaking, external mic socket, dedicated record button etc.)

[Derwin]

K-30 video quality is outstanding and as good as it's peers, yet unfortunately Pentax decided not to push the K-30' video features very far. They didn't provide a dedicated video recording button, HDMI or an external mic plug (features K-01 already had). For me the omission of Focus-Peaking in K-30 video is most absurd.

I'd say the K30 video quality is a fair way off from being outstanding and is, sadly, not as good as it's peers. The K30's maximum bit-rate floats around 19-20Mbps in the various 1080p modes (24/25/30fps), which is low. By comparison, the Nikon D3200 averages around 24Mbps, while the Canon 550d/600d/650d all turn out video around the 45Mbps mark with stock firmware.

The biggest problems with the K30's video mode is the data-rate. It is hard to believe that the new Prime M is not capable of more.

[dragra]

I'd say the K30 video quality is a fair way off from being outstanding and is, sadly, not as good as it's peers. The K30's maximum bit-rate floats around 19-20Mbps in the various 1080p modes (24/25/30fps), which is low. By comparison, the Nikon D3200 averages around 24Mbps, while the Canon 550d/600d/650d all turn out video around the 45Mbps mark with stock firmware.

The biggest problems with the K30's video mode is the data-rate. It is hard to believe that the new Prime M is not capable of more.

I can compare K-30 footage with K-x, K-r, K-01 and Canon 5D II. In this bunch there is quite little difference in the quality of image, though all cameras have more or less different sensors, bitrates, codecs and processing. In the Pentax line there is quite some progress noticeable in the newer cameras, whereas IMO the K-01 still represents the best choice for video for obvious reasons.

As an avid videographer I pick Pentax because of their great lenses and their specific characteristics in first place. If I would be bit-rate conscious I would probably end up converting the Pentax glass to a Nikon mount. But to be honest, serious videography is still in the domain of camcorders, a dSLR is nice for spicing up the footage with shallow DoF, and thats about it.

[Derwin]

I can compare K-30 footage with K-x, K-r, K-01 and Canon 5D II. In this bunch there is quite little difference in the quality of image, though all cameras have more or less different sensors, bitrates, codecs and processing. In the Pentax line there is quite some progress noticeable in the newer cameras, whereas IMO the K-01 still represents the best choice for video for obvious reasons.

As an avid videographer I pick Pentax because of their great lenses and their specific characteristics in first place. If I would be bit-rate conscious I would probably end up converting the Pentax glass to a Nikon mount. But to be honest, serious videography is still in the domain of camcorders, a dSLR is nice for spicing up the footage with shallow DoF, and thats about it.

I love my K30 for personal use. It has outstanding still image quality, great handling and a generous and bright viewfinder for the price, but the video quality doesn't compare favourably to footage shot on a 550D/T2i, let alone a 5DMk II. K30 footage exhibits very heavy artefacts, colour banding and blocking, aliasing, moire, all the criticisms that used to be levelled at DSLR footage back in 2010 are there to see. While a lot of it will have to do with the processing pipeline and the methods Pentax have chosen for downsampling the resolution and colour output of the sensor, it seems a shame to me that a DSLR released in 2012 can't at least match the bit-rates offered by a camera such as the 550D/T2i, which was released some two years earlier.

The Prime M is no slouch... if the RAW buffer performance is anything to go by there should be plenty bandwidth in the image processing pipeline... Read/write access to card is snappy if you're using a fast card... I struggle to believe that things couldn't be substantially improved with a simple firmware update.

Don't convert your lovely Pentax glass to a Nikon mount. I've used D800s on a couple of jobs now and the footage is soft, to say the least. Very disappointing.

[Anvh]

hardware in camera's are highly specialize, it's not as general like a PC.