Originally posted by Ryhfeed Some questions regarding your intentions lumo:
His first name is Falk. Maybe it's just me but I think it sounds rude if you address people with their surname without a prefix like "Mr." or similar. While I'm not Falk I know that he only has the best intentions. Do you know that he was one of the first in Germany to receive a K-7 for testing? Do you know about
his blog where he regularly praised the K-7? He didn't produce fanboy babble but did repeatable measurements and argued many times that the K-7's performance is on par or very close to the K20D in terms of noise and the Nikon D300 with respect to AF when many other people simply parroted opinions how bad the K-7 supposedly is?
Do you know that Falk and the others who worked on the white paper consulted with Pentax first and got the green light from Pentax regarding going public with the results?
Take it from me that Falk is interested in Pentax's well-being and wants Pentax to produce the best camera they can. To support the latter he did a lot of work. It is not unlikely that this work will help Pentax to avoid such mistakes in the future and that is in the best interest of Pentax and all its customers/fans.
Originally posted by Ryhfeed 1. Have you checked the competitors cameras with comparable shutter regarding this problem - can/nik/sony/oly?
Why would he?
Do you want him to do engineering work for the competition as well? Once you see the point that the work is in Pentax's interest, you won't challenge someone helping Pentax to help the competition as well, or will you?
Originally posted by Ryhfeed 2. If you have not - then i must presume that it is possible that the Pentax K-7 is the best 1/8000sec shutter equipped camera in the world regarding this specific problem?
Possibly, but not good enough in any event.
I'd say unlikely because the research suggests that there is an interaction between a hard shutter stop and the Pentax-specific SR. Canikon are a completely different story and I personally wouldn't expect the very same thing to happen with Soly systems. If they have problems they will likely manifest themselves in different ways. But that's speculation.
Originally posted by Ryhfeed - If so then the problem is not Pentax but rather the difficultíes coupled with highperformance shutters, correct?
No, see above.
Originally posted by Ryhfeed -If so then all you have accomplished is to kill pentax sales and promote the other camera companies.
I guess it would be great if Falk were so mighty he could "kill Pentax sales". I'm sure he'd put that power to good use.
Seriously,
- It is unlikely that the number of potential buyers that have decided against the K-7 based on Falk's work is high enough for Pentax to notice
- He has helped Pentax to understand how to improve their cameras and avoid dissatisfied users. Falk and his team didn't create the problem, they merely explained the problem many were experiencing but didn't know how to avoid. Please don't shoot the messenger!
- He has helped users to understand how to get blur-free images (avoid a certain shutter speed range or use a very sturdy tripod)
- You could argue he has helped Pentax since many K-7 users may use the "shutter problem" as an excuse to upgrade to the K-5
Originally posted by Ryhfeed In military intelligence we speak about "useful idiots" =
Let's avoid oxymorons
and calling people "idiots" no matter how indirectly it is done.
Originally posted by Ryhfeed Regardless of your whitepapers technical validity i now believe that people will draw some potentially disastrous conclusions from your work. (e.g. Pentax K7 is the worst camera in its class, it produces blurry pictures...)
You cannot blame the white paper for unfounded conclusions people may draw from it. Falk and team created knowledge. If people misinterpret or misuse that knowledge, it is their fault.
Originally posted by Ryhfeed Comparing K20D to K7 is like comparing apples to pears in my opinion.(Different shutters with different capabilitys)
If you on the other hand would compare K7 to D300s, then we would talk about true scientific evaluation of your results.
How would a D300s shutter not be "different" and have "different capabilities" than a K-7 shutter? Comparing to a K20D makes sense as the same interaction between shutter induced shake and the SR control feedback loop may occur. Nothing of this sort may happen with the D300s (excluding potential lens VR problems for this discussion). How many D300s users have you seen scratching their head because they often couldn't achieve the sharpness they expected within a certain shutter speed range? If you find such reports and some people willing to spend hundreds of hours in finding out where the problem is then I congratulate you because you would then you might have helped Nikon and its user base to get a better camera next time.
Originally posted by Ryhfeed THEN i will believe that this is not a crusade against Pentax, and that this widespread discussion has some real scientific interest.
If you read what I have written without prejudice, I think you will agree that Falk's work has nothing to do with a crusade whatsoever. On the contrary.
Originally posted by Ryhfeed And i have not encountered this problem. Ever.
Have you critically examined sharpness of your hand-held shots in the respective shutter range? Either you have the problem and haven't noticed it yet, or you somehow magically avoided it, or your K-7 is immune to the problem. The latter case would be very interesting indeed and would warrant some investigation but first we'll have to rule out the other two possibilities.
Originally posted by bjan 1/60 and 1/100 (did not try more variations) where clearly blurry compared to very sharp rendered letters with the 1/850 shuttertime.
It is expected that shorter shorter speeds will give you sharper images. The interesting bit is whether you'd see sharper images again, if you reduced the shutter speed below the critical range (don't know the concrete shutter speed from the top of my head).
Originally posted by bjan On one hand I am happy with the findings that correspond to my feelings with the camera from the beginning but on the other hand I want to sell my K7 now and that is no good news.
It would be good news for Pentax if that meant you will upgrade to a K-5.
If you are not ready to upgrade yet, I'm sure you can work around the small weakness of the K-7. Remember, you should get sharper images below a certain shutter speed again and that a very sturdy tripod completely eliminates the problem. Also, you can get pinsharp shots even in the critical shutter range. Just not as often as you should.