[MJKoski]

My camera is back from the service. What they did was sensor calibration. I will go get my unit on Saturday and then I will have more details as well. It was fairly quick service, 8 days from Finland to Sweden To Finland.

My camera is back from the service. What they did was sensor calibration. I will go get my unit on Saturday and then I will have more details as well. It was fairly quick service, 8 days from Finland to Sweden To Finland.

Good. Then they have had some practice before taking on mine =)

[stevebrot]

It seems like tech support in US is not even a Ricoh location

I can't say for right now, but in the past they have been Ricoh N.A. employees at a desk in Colorado and not a contract call center. They answer the phones as well as the online customer service response form.

I am curious, have been curious from the day I first shot the K1, if my camera was a bit out of calibration as it has a very bad tendency to blow out highlights, as if it's weighted too much to shadows.

I don't own a K-1 and can't say beyond commenting that the historic Pentax tendency has been to preserve highlights with modest underexposure.


Steve

[Paul2660]

Least some feel I am down on Pentax, trust me I am not.

The k1 has offered some really amazing opportunities, period. The tech they have with GPS and Astrotracer is quite impressive. I have tried all the tricks over the years besides purchase of a D810A. All the cameras I have tried, can't touch the DR you can get with a 2 minute or so shot on the Milky Way. Sure, not NASA grade, but huge improvement over anything else. The stack method can come close but it's a lot more work in post at least to me. This gives you a lot more license to move around, setups etc. The files are amazingly clean and the stars just pop. I use a 15mm understanding that I have attempt to keep the M way centered or I will trail and blur the M Way, but the images just keep impressing me. Hoping to get somewhere out west next year where a 50mm will work as that should work much better with the edges and not trailing.

Here are two quick screen shots. Should have paid a bit more attention to foreground as I let that blow out, but can be fixed in post. 2 minute series. Had some faint clouds that night, but lucky on this shot they were out of main subject.

Attached Images

   

[fromunderthebridge]

Least some feel I am down on Pentax, trust me I am not.

The k1 has offered some really amazing opportunities, period. The tech they have with GPS and Astrotracer is quite impressive. I have tried all the tricks over the years besides purchase of a D810A. All the cameras I have tried, can't touch the DR you can get with a 2 minute or so shot on the Milky Way. Sure, not NASA grade, but huge improvement over anything else. The stack method can come close but it's a lot more work in post at least to me. This gives you a lot more license to move around, setups etc. The files are amazingly clean and the stars just pop. I use a 15mm understanding that I have attempt to keep the M way centered or I will trail and blur the M Way, but the images just keep impressing me. Hoping to get somewhere out west next year where a 50mm will work as that should work much better with the edges and not trailing.

Here are two quick screen shots. Should have paid a bit more attention to foreground as I let that blow out, but can be fixed in post. 2 minute series. Had some faint clouds that night, but lucky on this shot they were out of main subject.

Beautiful shot. I actually feel that the clouds add to the picture this way (since they are not obscuring milky way).

[stevebrot]

Shooting the Nikon version of the sensor, D800, 800e and now D810, they were a bit more seemingly center weighted, but I need to shoot both cameras side by side one day.

Yes, shooting the two cameras using identical EV should provide some insight. I would expect that the Nikon may be a little brighter, though it is hard to say even with RAW unless the processing were identical (dcraw?).


Steve

[JBox]

I am reaching out to Ricoh USA, as normal tech support on this issue did not have any ideas. Sadly, as I had expected, on Pentax, the linkage between tech, corporate, and repair is a total mess. It seems like tech support in US is not even a Ricoh location and may be jobbed out, as they keep referring to "Ricoh" when they talk to me, as if they are not "Ricoh". The repair for Pentax DSLR in the US, is not Ricoh but Precision Camera on the east coast, and personally, from talking to them today, not sure they can do this type of a fix. They seem more break fix type repair, or just dropping in parts etc. Not attempting to re-calibrate a sensor.

Please keep us updated on how things go with Ricoh USA and Precision. I am going to have to send mine in as well, but I have not tried contacting them yet because of scheduling issues on my end.

[banep]

Should have paid a bit more attention to foreground as I let that blow out, but can be fixed in post. 2 minute series.

2 seconds, not 2 minutes, just crop out blown out rocks by changing to 16x9 with maybe a little additional croping.
My opinion is that it will look great like that.

[Paul2660]

Hello Banep.

Yes more like 2 seconds on the rocks. The entire exposure was 2 minutes. I use a lantern for illumination when working the M way. On the series I wasn't paying close enough attention to my foreground. Prefer lantern to flashlights for illumination as the former have to white a light for my taste.

Good idea on the crop.

Paul C

So I did not get my camera back yesterday and not today either... Called them and what had happened is that after the adjustment a dark band had appeared when using very high ISO. I did not have it before... So the tech has gone back to Japan for advice on the matter. He have done these adjustments on a few sensors before mine without this happening. As usual I tend to get the gear that has those very unusual errors. So hopefully next week.

[MJKoski]

Okay I got my unit back just now and...dark band is not gone but now the band looks like sandwich which has three layers. In the middle the dark band remains.

Amount of white dots is even lower than my loaner unit had. Loaner had no band though.

Now I'm puzzled what to do...

Update 2. My repair man just called me and said Japan had sent him a new software and he ran it and the band is gone.



---------- Post added 09-16-16 at 04:56 PM ----------

Okay I got my unit back just now and...dark band is not gone but now the band looks like sandwich which has three layers. In the middle the dark band remains.

Amount of white dots is even lower than my loaner unit had. Loaner had no band though.

Now I'm puzzled what to do...

Very nice to hear that the white dots are gone. Well, are they gone? Are the results regarding white dots now satisfactory?

[MJKoski]

Oh my god. So they used some almost-ready piece of software with my unit and sent it back fixed. What kind of dumb monkey could not see the band? So easy, just put iso 25600 and 30 seconds in there.

My 15-30 just left for service. Out of 4 pentax products at least 3 have been duds out-of-the-box. I may return all my stuff and ask for refund. Kind of done with this kind of QC.

Can't say a lot about dark frame from camera's display. It looks about the same or slightly better as the loaner unit.

Oh my god. So they used some almost-ready piece of software with my unit and sent it back fixed. What kind of dumb monkey could not see the band? So easy, just put iso 25600 and 30 seconds in there.

My 15-30 just left for service. Out of 4 pentax products at least 3 have been duds out-of-the-box. I may return all my stuff and ask for refund. Kind of done with this kind of QC.

Can't say a lot about dark frame from camera's display. It looks about the same or slightly better as the loaner unit.

So what is wrong with the 15-30?

[Paul2660]

Okay I got my unit back just now and...dark band is not gone but now the band looks like sandwich which has three layers. In the middle the dark band remains.

Amount of white dots is even lower than my loaner unit had. Loaner had no band though.

Now I'm puzzled what to do...

I was a bit afraid that this would happen. This needs to go back to Japan to be fixed IMO. Sensor calibration is not an easy task.

I hope they will allow it to be sent to Japan.

Paul C