[jogiba]

In-Camera HDRI with the Pentax K-7

HDR Capture mode is accessed via the Menu button on the back of the camera, and is available in most shooting modes, except for Green, bulb, and video modes, for obvious reasons. It works with Live View or through the eyepiece framing, and works with all metering modes--just like Auto Exposure Bracketing. Honestly, until the shutter is fired, you wouldn't even know that you are in HDR Capture mode 1 (standard) or 2 (strong). You've just got to focus, frame, meter and fire the shutter, and the K-7 does the rest.

Here's what happens once you press the shutter: The mirror locks up, and the camera fires the shot based upon the current settings–just as it would fire off a single shot based on the current settings–but then it fires off a -3 EV and +3 EV shot on either side, for an effective estimated 17 EV merged captured range at ISO 100 (this etimate is based upon the DXOMark tests of the 14.6 Megapixel CMOS chip in the K20D at approximately 10.75 EV at ISO 100. We will update and append this article when DXOMark tests are completed on the K-7.)

Then it's all into the proverbial and actual black box with the three images. (I pried Pentax for details, but they wouldn't share the in-camera magic.) What comes out of the Black Box is an image crunched from the very wide dynamic range of the three source images that's tone mapped without excessive haloing, hypersaturation, or inversions, in JPEG format. There's no alignment, no deghosting, and no sensor-shift stabilization during HDR Capture. Use a tripod.

Click on the link for sample HDR shots with the K-7 !

The Pentax K-7: The era of in-camera High Dynamic Range Imaging has arrived!

[falconeye]

Thanxs for the link.

It seems, the HDR function works like I thought it would. This is a very nice little feature.

Better yet, the three shots appear to be fired within one mirror swap period, so may be instanteneous. If this is true, SR should really stay on during the operation ... because, the entire shot may just take as long as the single one at +3EV.

Of course, now that it is there, one may ask, why didn't they add automatic alignment between images? Raw shooters do it on a PC and JPG shooters may not carry a tripod 2 GB memory and the horsepower of the new in camera processor would have certainly coped with it.

But as always, once a feature is there, one can always ask for even more

[ll_coffee_lP]

One of my most anticipated features of this camera.

c[_]

[Dan]

...
The Pentax K-7: The era of in-camera High Dynamic Range Imaging has arrived!

Thanks for the link. The author of the review, Jack Howard, is a leading HDR guru and well-regarded author on the topic. Here is his summary for why he considers the K-7 to be a game changer:

"Many other manufacturers would be wise to take a look at the creative controls and feature set that Pentax put into the K-7 for HDR-minded photographers, particularly at this $1,299 US List price point:

• One-touch Auto Exposure Bracketing burst setting options.
• +/-2 EV spacing for 3 or 5 shots for AEB capture gives an exposure range that is wide enough for many HDR scenes--something that is so lacking on too many models, including the Canon EOS 5D Mark II!
• 5.2 frames per second burst, offers fast capture of the AEB sequence.
• User-selectable Adobe DNG RAW mode is already compatible with all HDR programs without waiting for the next round of RAW support upgrades.

This set of features alone is enough to the make the Pentax K-7 a 2009 HDR SLR All-Star. Add the impressive in-camera HDR processing to the mix, and it's in a league of its own."

The results that he is able to achieve speak for themselves. This is just one example of how Pentax, in spite of its limited resources, continues to innovate in meaningful ways.

Dan