[photoshoper]

Pentax K-3 Review: First Shots - Samples

[Col]

Cheers... I'm hammering their bandwidth as we speak. Boy the sun's really got to their Proportional Scale...getting really yellow. Oh well the 645D still wins.

Well my goodness. Downloaded the 100ISO DNG into Lr5 and increased sharpening from 25% to 80%, (actually I've decided 57% is good) now there's material weave detail.

[rawr]

This will be fun.

They now also have a set of K-3 samples in their Comparometer, to make comparisons easier.

I notice Pentax's JPG engine is still having trouble with IR's red swatch at higher ISOs ...

[JinDesu]

This will be fun.

They now also have a full set of K-3 samples in their Comparometer, to make comparisons easier.

I notice Pentax's JPG engine is still having trouble with IR's red swatch ...

Please don't use the comparometer. Use each camera's SAMPLES page instead. The reason is because the comparometer sometimes uses files that have noise reduction on, when comparing high ISO images. It is best to go to each individual camera's page and select the appropriate image to compare.

These are jpeg outputs from the camera (I think) -
k-3 ISO 100 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/pentax-k3/FULLRES/K3hSLI00100NR0.JPG
k-5IIs ISO 100 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/pentax-k5-iis/FULLRES/K52ShSLI00080NR0.JPG
D600 ISO 50 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/nikon-d600/FULLRES/D600hSLI00050NR0.JPG
D7100 ISO 100 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/nikon-d7100/FULLRES/D7100hSLI00100NR0.JPG

Of the ISO 100 shots above, I think the most interesting is the D7100 vs the k-3 - it seems the k-3 shows more detail across the frame. This could of course just be the lens (both are using Sigma 70 F2.8 Macro). Focus doesn't seem to explain it because I can't find a spot on the D7100 that appears sharper than the k-3. Of the all the lowest ISOs, I would say the k-3 wins in detail based on these images.

k-3 ISO 1600 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/pentax-k3/FULLRES/K3hSLI01600NR0.JPG
k-5IIs ISO 1600 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/pentax-k5-iis/FULLRES/K52ShSLI01600NR0.JPG
D600 ISO 1600 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/nikon-d600/FULLRES/D600hSLI01600NR0.JPG
D7100 ISO 1600 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/nikon-d7100/FULLRES/D7100hSLI01600NR0.JPG

In this set, I think the D600 is the clearly the cleanest. Looking at the black cup and the shadow of the lager, the D600 has the least noise. The k-3 looks a little odd to me - it looks like it has less noise than the D7100 and the k-5IIs, but it also looks a bit mottled - almost like there is some sort of noise reduction. However, the k-3 also clearly does not have any color noise in that section at ISO 1600. The D7100 appears to me to have fared the worst in chroma and luminance noise out of these linked images. Would appreciate people to review and let me know what they think.

As far as detail goes... oddly the k-5IIs is showing a little more detail in the fabrics than the k-3, perhaps the high MP is losing ground here. The k-3 is still very detailed, keeping in line and maybe ahead of the D600. The D7100 looks a bit bad at this point. I am not sure if the D7100's file is completely accurate..

k-3 ISO 6400 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/pentax-k3/FULLRES/K3hSLI06400NR0.JPG
k-5IIs ISO 6400 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/pentax-k5-iis/FULLRES/K52ShSLI06400NR0.JPG
D600 ISO 6400 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/nikon-d600/FULLRES/D600hSLI06400NR0.JPG
D7100 ISO 6400 - http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/nikon-d7100/FULLRES/D7100hSLI06400NR0.JPG

Looking at the k-3 vs k-5IIs files at ISO 6400, the k-3 looks like less noise, but also a lot more mottled/muddled. I'm not sure why. Looking at the D600's shots, it is cleanest in luminance noise, but has more chroma noise than the k-3/k-5IIs. The D7100's shot has the most noise out of the group. I am not sure if it is my monitor - but it looks like there's some sort of banding in the k-3 shots? I would like another set of eyes to check for me...

The amount of detail at ISO 6400 in the k-3 shot looks to be diminished compared to the rest. My thoughts here are: these are JPEGs straight from the camera with NR settings off. However, Pentax has a tendency to force NR on their high ISO JPEGs regardless of settings. If someone can process the RAW files to check the jpegs, that'd be great. Preferably with a neutral RAW converter and no modifications to the images whatsoever.

Edited link to D7100 ISO 100 file.

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Last edited by JinDesu; 10-29-2013 at 08:23 AM.

[awaldram]

This will be fun.

They now also have a set of K-3 samples in their Comparometer, to make comparisons easier.

I notice Pentax's JPG engine is still having trouble with IR's red swatch at higher ISOs ...

I saw that to but OMG iso100 how sharp,? and no halo's that's insane .
I may be applying a blurr filter to stop cutting myself

[panoguy]

D7100 ISO 100 -

You've got the link to the K-3 output repeated for the D7100 ISO 100.

Should be: http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/nikon-d7100/FULLRES/D7100hSLI00100NR0.JPG

BTW, it seems Nikon likes to clamp down on their highlights a bit more than this new Pentax. Look at the salt shaker contents. The D600 definitely preserves the most detail in there, but the K-3 is no slouch, either!

[JinDesu]

You've got the link to the K-3 output repeated for the D7100 ISO 100.

Should be: http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/nikon-d7100/FULLRES/D7100hSLI00100NR0.JPG

BTW, it seems Nikon likes to clamp down on their highlights a bit more than this new Pentax. Look at the salt shaker contents. The D600 definitely preserves the most detail in there, but the K-3 is no slouch, either!

Thank you, edited. With regards to detail - I usually go to the fabric swatches. Focus might be a factor, but in the lowest ISO cases, I think the k-3 either comes out on top or maintains equal.

[rawr]

Look at the EXIF settings too for those sample images - the K-3 has settings for contrast and sharpness in JPG that probably work differently from the defaults in Nikon or anything else.

Also look at the full dump of the exposure metering data in the K-3 EXIF - exposure values are recorded for each of the 86000 metering points, it seems! Makes for big EXIF.

[awaldram]

You've got the link to the K-3 output repeated for the D7100 ISO 100.

Should be: http://216.18.212.226/PRODS/nikon-d7100/FULLRES/D7100hSLI00100NR0.JPG

BTW, it seems Nikon likes to clamp down on their highlights a bit more than this new Pentax. Look at the salt shaker contents. The D600 definitely preserves the most detail in there, but the K-3 is no slouch, either!

Yep it Pentax profiled

Nikon & Canon under-gun the sensor for any ISO then recover with in body gain. this will undoubtedly preserve max detail at low ISO
Pentax push the sensor and rain back in body gain this is Ettr and ensure all data is in the biggest bit buckets allowing a higher SNR and more detail retention at high ISO.

This IMO is why like for like Pentax has been the High ISO IQ champs for 4 years solid now, the only blip on a 6 year run the k7 where the quad channel output introduced to much noise to be countered.

[JinDesu]

Look at the EXIF settings too for those sample images - the K-3 has settings for contrast and sharpness in JPG that probably work differently from the defaults in Nikon or anything else.

Also look at the full dump of the exposure metering data in the K-3 EXIF - exposure values are recorded for each of the 86000 metering points, it seems! Makes for big EXIF.

Yeah I noticed that, was amused by the amount of scrolling I had to do to get to the bottom of the exifs to check the lens data.

If anyone can download and open the RAW files, that'd be great. I am not on my home computer so I can't do that.
I suspect the RAW files will show noise similar to the k-5IIs images - and that Imaging Resources didn't process the RAWs because they don't have the most up to date software for the k-3 DNGs.

[rawr]

Imaging Resources didn't process the RAWs because they don't have the most up to date software for the k-3 DNGs.

Neither will any of us, unfortunately. ACR and DxO will probably open the DNG, but they have no profile for the camera yet, so results may not be optimal.

[JinDesu]

Neither will any of us, unfortunately. ACR and DxO will probably open the DNG, but they have no profile for the camera yet, so results may not be optimal.

Could be suboptimal, but my Lightroom 3 was able to open the k-30 files back when it first came out, and I think it was pretty on spot. Don't remember exactly though... If anything, if we see differences vs the jpeg, that'd be great. Again, looking at the k-3 high ISO jpegs, there's a lot of muddling that feels like noise reduction to me.

But based on the jpegs, the high ISO isn't great. On the other hand, the k-5's high ISO jpegs were terrible when compared to the D7000 and a few other competitor cameras.

[rawr]

the k-5's high ISO jpegs were terrible when compared to the D7000

You are too harsh. A quick comparison between D7000 and K-5 JPGs IR samples at ISO 1600 reveals the ball was definitely in K-5's favour, or at least comparable to the D7000

[shaX 07]

I compared the K-30 and the K-3 images side by side (Samples pages, separate browser windows, same monitor) and they look about the same to me.

Anyone else agree or am I just a nub?

[johnmflores]

At first I was concerned:




And then I opened up the RAW in Photoshop CC:




Disaster averted!