[PhilRich]

I've had the K-1 for 3 days now. The only lens I have is the 24-70. I'm having a hard time liking this combo. I need to determine if I'm going to keep the 24-70. The results so far a less than I'd hoped for. I'm not seeing the crispness desired. Portrait type pictures look soft, landscapes are disappointing. My Idea was to have a good general use lens. The alternative is to sell and replace with a couple of primes.

Is it just me, or are my expectations too high? I'd appreciate hearing about the results anyone else are getting!

[Franky2step]

if you can, take the lens back and try another 24-70, you may just have a poorly aligned lens. Just fyi, you should post some sample images that you are unhappy with along with the metadata.

[Adam]

I've had the K-1 for 3 days now. The only lens I have is the 24-70. I'm having a hard time liking this combo. I need to determine if I'm going to keep the 24-70. The results so far a less than I'd hoped for. I'm not seeing the crispness desired. Portrait type pictures look soft, landscapes are disappointing. My Idea was to have a good general use lens. The alternative is to sell and replace with a couple of primes.

Is it just me, or are my expectations too high? I'd appreciate hearing about the results anyone else are getting!

The 24-70mm isn't perfect wide open, but it's still a pretty good lens. I personally went for the 28-105mm over the 24-70mm, as I prefer the more compact walkaround option as a supplement to my kit of primes.

[C_Jones]

If you have not already, you may want to try taking some shots using F stops that give you enough depth to accomodate the scenes you are dealing with to reveal proper detail. Otherwise if you find you have an ongoing problem with the lens, you may want to just contact the seller and return it for another lens, credit, or a full refund. If you have done reasonable testing and/or just feel you want something else, just let the seller know and return it.

The 28-105, 70-200, or 150-450 are other options, all depending on what you need.

[Kennod]

I was also underwhelmed with my first shots taken with the 24-70 on the K-1. Images did not look at all sharp when pixel peeping on the cameras LCD screen. A quick test indicated that my 24-70 was back focussing slightly. After making AF fine adjustments in the menu I have been very satisfied with the sharpness and overall image quality. You should be able to get high quality images from this lens. If AF fine adjustment doesn't result in sharp images then you should return it for another copy.

[PhilRich]

Here's a couple of sample shots.

I often use the scene down the street to check out a lens - the power lines, distant trees, all provide varied points for evaluation. This shot is off a tripod, 2 sec timer, with a f stop that provides max resolution. The focus point is on the distant house. The detail in the distant trees is not real good with the body of the trees looking real creamy when viewed at 100% and also when printed out.


Here is a crop at approximately 50%. The picture has been sharpened. Again, a very creamy result. BTW, my wife would shoot me for posting this if she knew!!


There doesn't seem to be a lot of alternatives to this lens. I selected it over the 28-105 since the online resolution tests appeared to be the same and from the f2.8 and 24mm capability.

[longbow]

I was also underwhelmed with my first shots taken with the 24-70 on the K-1. Images did not look at all sharp when pixel peeping on the cameras LCD screen. A quick test indicated that my 24-70 was back focussing slightly. After making AF fine adjustments in the menu I have been very satisfied with the sharpness and overall image quality. You should be able to get high quality images from this lens. If AF fine adjustment doesn't result in sharp images then you should return it for another copy.

This ^^^^^^

The DFA 24-70 & DA*55 are the most used lenses on my K-1

[geomez]

Here's a couple of sample shots.

I often use the scene down the street to check out a lens - the power lines, distant trees, all provide varied points for evaluation. This shot is off a tripod, 2 sec timer, with a f stop that provides max resolution. The focus point is on the distant house. The detail in the distant trees is not real good with the body of the trees looking real creamy when viewed at 100% and also when printed out.


Here is a crop at approximately 50%. The picture has been sharpened. Again, a very creamy result. BTW, my wife would shoot me for posting this if she knew!!


There doesn't seem to be a lot of alternatives to this lens. I selected it over the 28-105 since the online resolution tests appeared to be the same and from the f2.8 and 24mm capability.

Did you do PDAF focus adjustments?

[howieb101]

Here's a couple of sample shots.

I often use the scene down the street to check out a lens - the power lines, distant trees, all provide varied points for evaluation. This shot is off a tripod, 2 sec timer, with a f stop that provides max resolution. The focus point is on the distant house. The detail in the distant trees is not real good with the body of the trees looking real creamy when viewed at 100% and also when printed out.


Here is a crop at approximately 50%. The picture has been sharpened. Again, a very creamy result. BTW, my wife would shoot me for posting this if she knew!!


There doesn't seem to be a lot of alternatives to this lens. I selected it over the 28-105 since the online resolution tests appeared to be the same and from the f2.8 and 24mm capability.

Well the trees appear a number of metres forward of the white building. Given this, and that the shot is at F6.3 the trees are not going to be sharp. Remember, that on a full frame camera you get shallower depth of field at every f stop.

If you want the building as well as the trees sharp I think you needed to be shooting at F11-F16.

Howie Be

[dlai]

Hi , I have the DFA 24-70 and K1. My main complaint is the size and weight. I knew it would be large but that did not prepare me for the actual size and weight!
It is so unlike a walkabout zoom that I decided to buy an FA 24-90 for walkabout and keep the DFA 24-70 for special events such as my music photography where the 2.8 aperture really is a bonus. Landscape and other critical work will also be where it will shine, I'm sure.


The FA 24-90 does pretty well on the K1 particularly with a little extra mid-tone contrast via Photoshop. A touch of smart sharpen/Gaussian blur removal brings it quite close to the DFA 24-70 for A4 prints. I'll examine the 2 more closely at A3 print size shortly.
Attached are two images:


1 K1 plus 24-70 of a busker being chatted to by a girl friend who dropped by. The focus is on the girl. ISO 500 1/200 f 3.5


2 K1 plus FA 24-90 a solitary busker ISO 200 1/200 f 6.3


Different lighting, different exposures so not really comparable but they hint at what each lens is capable of.

[robjmitchell]

Well it looks sharp enough in the mid frame where the focus is. The background trees are simply out of focus. I would suspect your focus alignment might be out. Of course it should be noted the increased fine detail in higher resolution images take some getting used to when processing. Essentially (not technically)you have less contrast between pixels in an image because the pixels are so much smaller. The perception of edge definition suffers as a result until you learn too adjust.

[elho_cid]

I'm extremely happy with my DFA 24-70 so far. But I'm mostly using it for shots on wider aperture, where background blur is expected. If you want everything sharp, you need to stay in the f11 - f16 range and take care on proper focusing (not on infinity, but not too close, check with live-view if you are not sure). That's just the deal with high-megapixel full frame camera.

[Sandy Hancock]

@PhilRich both shots are not focussed where you think they are.

The first image looks to be sharpest at the small patch of daisies in front of the base of the central telegraph pole, so much further forward than you think.

Your wife's portrait looks back focussed - the stitching in the leather sofa is in focus, while her face is soft and over-sharpened.

Do some tests with careful focus done in live view. Do a PDAF fine tune if necessary. Get back to us.

[PhilRich]

I don't understand the comments on the focus issue. The street scene is at about 50mm. The focus was spot centered on the grey roof and the trees behind. The house is about 100 yards away. I visually saw that the focus was at infinity. Previously I ran a whole series of f stops using this scene and found that the sweet spot is between f5.6 and f8.For this lens it doesn't get any better for resolution. The trees I'm examining in the picture are the ones behind the house. With my old eyes I can see the top branch of the rear most pine trees, in the picture they are only faintly visibile. Additionally the texture of those trees is "creamy" in their main body.

Please explain how the focus could be improved. Focus adjustment makes sense if the subject is close, but in this case, I forced the camera to focus on the background at quite a distance away.

[geomez]

I don't understand the comments on the focus issue. The street scene is at about 50mm. The focus was spot centered on the grey roof and the trees behind. The house is about 100 yards away. I visually saw that the focus was at infinity. Previously I ran a whole series of f stops using this scene and found that the sweet spot is between f5.6 and f8.For this lens it doesn't get any better for resolution. The trees I'm examining in the picture are the ones behind the house. With my old eyes I can see the top branch of the rear most pine trees, in the picture they are only faintly visibile. Additionally the texture of those trees is "creamy" in their main body.

Please explain how the focus could be improved. Focus adjustment makes sense if the subject is close, but in this case, I forced the camera to focus on the background at quite a distance away.

If you're using AF while looking through the viewfinder, you're relying on the phase detection AF system. Its not always perfect. Because of this you can go into your settings and make fine adjustments to the AF for each of your lenses. If you haven't yet done this I think it's worth a try.