[ytterbium]

Hey Ogl, Rice, or anyone not under the NDA....

What do you think about the thing we are all assuming to be a focus assist lamp on the front of the K-7.

Any chance it is actually part of the exposure system and works along with the TTL meter to determine the brightness of the scene in front of the camera?

Is it a photometer that allows the camera to AUTOMATICALLY adjust exposure compensation?

The cell determines the the area in front of the camera is bright, the TTL meter does its "18% grey thing", and then the camera automaically dials up the exposure?

Or when it determines the scene to be dark, it dials the exposure down?

Works like the room brightness eye found on modern TV sets?

I thought of this after looking at Ned's latest blog posting.

Note: I am not talking about white balance here.

Unlikely.. what stops the camera from doing the same trough the lens. If you have matrix metering you can already do "auto exp. comp". By finding brightest (white) and darkest (black) subjects in the scene and then tell how actually dark is the subject under active (main) meter segment. Set the exposure correctly without any registered exp. comp (As +/-EV in EXIF).
If you'd like to have some ambient light/white balance sensor then i imagine it being somewhere on top of the camera (prism) and/or having white/matte dome shape. Otherwise if it had lens, it would "see" the same as camera already does and give no additional information.
Its already rumoured that the cam has AF assist. The "eye" has clear plastic, that seems to be like some lens (obviously to focus light in a beam), if you use bright led you don't need such big reflector as Nikon cameras have for their incandescent assist light:


C'mon We have to make it to 2k. .
Write something.. anything.

[fejker]

I always wanted to have something like this:


But then I started shooting RAW and suddenly WB isn't that much important. Well it would help with saving a step or two in post production but anyway it's much easier to just shot with AWB and then fiddle with it in post production.

[falconeye]

C'mon We have to make it to 2k. .
Write something.. anything.

We have to make it to 2009. 2k is the past

[falconeye]

I always wanted to have something like this:

This image is scary. Your eye chirurgically extracted and fixed to the lens cap?

---

Last edited by falconeye; 06-15-2011 at 05:28 AM.

[fejker]

Actually it's a semi transparent white/gray plastic thingy that you put on your lens and take a shot through it using the custom WB option. The camera measures the light temperature depending on the data it gets (like shooting a gray card) and sets the WB accordingly. Once you're done taking the shot with the WB cap in place, just remove it and enjoy shooting with proper WB selected.
(it's a lens cap and a WB helper all in one)

[ytterbium]

Hmm.. actually i have observed that when setting white balance manually/on camera it is better to have a concentrated (focused) reading than ambient one. Shot at white subject in close proximity or directly at the light source produces best results (as long as it is properly exposed).
Funny i contradict my self in this statement. .

Otherwise, especially indoors you have trouble reading wb of random white/gray subjects which not only represent colour of the light source but some room/object colours on them.
I imagine the same to be true for gray cards and such lens caps.
So by not reading the light colour of source you may end up correcting into something like this (6500k light source, AWB, most yellow cast from walls):

[illdefined]

I don't know. It seems to me that K-7 has absolutely NEW exposure system.
And even better than other brands have.

Ogl, the metering lamp described would be a new exposure system.

How do you know the K-7 has a new exposure system? Is it something youve been told or something written? How is it described on the press materials you've seen?

[vinzer]

The $400 Olympus E-420 has those same retro strap lugs, they're not very special.

Oh, hey, good find. Nothing unique about the K-7's form factor, then. Back to waiting for specifications.

[er1kksen]

Hey now, that's not form factor, that's just strap lugs. :P The E-420 series has a quite different form factor reminiscent of retro film SLRs, something which I wouldn't mind seeing in a lower-spec pentax. I'd take a "gripless" pentax+DA40 over the E-420+25mm pancake any day.

[illdefined]

Hey now, that's not form factor, that's just strap lugs. :P The E-420 series has a quite different form factor reminiscent of retro film SLRs, something which I wouldn't mind seeing in a lower-spec pentax. I'd take a "gripless" pentax+DA40 over the E-420+25mm pancake any day.

A metal, Pentaxified E-420 was what I was hoping the K-7 to be. I was disappointed to see it had a right hand grip.

It's a shame, Olympus was already a couple materials and layers of build quality away from the feel of the "Beatle-Cam" Ned B posted.

[gazonk]

A metal, Pentaxified E-420 was what I was hoping the K-7 to be. I was disappointed to see it had a right hand grip.

What's wrong with a right hand grip? I even have one on my LX ...

[illdefined]

What's wrong with a right hand grip? I even have one on my LX ...

Removable yeah? I like having the option for the situation, but most of the size nostalgia for film cameras people have is actually the lack of a right hand grip. It's responsible for a lot of the bulk of today's cameras (and yes, undoubtedly superior handling).

[Jaleel]

A lot of posts Good job HOYA! I think now everyone wants K7

[gazonk]

Removable yeah?

It's removable, but it has never come off for the last 20 years or so

The standard LX grip is far smaller than today's DSLR grips, though.

[RuiC]

Unlikely.. what stops the camera from doing the same trough the lens. If you have matrix metering you can already do "auto exp. comp". By finding brightest (white) and darkest (black) subjects in the scene and then tell how actually dark is the subject under active (main) meter segment. Set the exposure correctly without any registered exp. comp (As +/-EV in EXIF).
If you'd like to have some ambient light/white balance sensor then i imagine it being somewhere on top of the camera (prism) and/or having white/matte dome shape. Otherwise if it had lens, it would "see" the same as camera already does and give no additional information.
Its already rumoured that the cam has AF assist. The "eye" has clear plastic, that seems to be like some lens (obviously to focus light in a beam), if you use bright led you don't need such big reflector as Nikon cameras have for their incandescent assist light:


C'mon We have to make it to 2k. .
Write something.. anything.

anything..