Originally posted by falconeye Hi Ray,
thanks for the feedback. I didn't notice the BF issue with 1.03 and my FA 31. It's actually in the testing data: with sufficient light, the FA 31 performed well, both under 1.02 and 1.03.
It's getting stranger and stranger.
Interesting, you observed a significant improvement with 1.03 and a black backdrop. What was the distance? Do you have an before/after 1.03 shot for the FA50 or FA31 with identical lighting? Raw preferred. I'd like to take a closer look.
A LR JPG export of the center region, levels, contrast, brightness, blacks all to zero; but sharpening set to 100%/0.5px radius would suffice though.
Falk,
Test distance was 25x FL (FA 50 f1.4 mounted) measured from the target test face to the white mark on the top of the camera body near the mode dial.
I was shooting jpeg out of the camera at the default settings on the body (setup was as received in other words) but right now I can only find the 1.01 EV2 jpeg (before) shot and not the (after) 1.03 EV2 jpeg.
I had been testing 14 lenses on 3 bodies and also had to shoot a company function or two since then so it may be that I no longer have the after shot other than the cropped/embossed version.
The light level was measured at the target face with a Sekonic L-358 and the color temp was measured at the same point using a Gossen color meter. The light level at EV2 on the Sekonic meter was just at or slightly above the area where the camera meter starts to blink, so I would estimate that the camera was seeing very close to EV0.
I did my best to not disturb anything between the two tests and I did manually focus the lens to infinity between each shot. I actually shot EV9, EV 4.5 and EV2 sequences 1.01 and 1.03 and all showed the same shift to BF after the update under equal test conditions.
If I find the after shot I will PM you and send you both.
After shooting the K5 a bit in real life situations since I did these tests, I have no doubt that the 1.03 update made a significant improvement in AF accuracy versus the 3 other K5 bodies I tested. That is not to say that it is perfect as it still inexplicably misses now and again, but when it does so now, it is "just" out versus the FF step I saw quite often before the upgrade.
I am also pretty sure that the 31 and 43 will need to go to Pentax with the K5 in order to correct the BF. My Sigma 18-50 f2.8 also BF significantly on the K5. All 3 could not be fully corrected with all AF adjust dialed in after the 1.03 update.
Ray