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09-09-2016, 07:51 PM   #1
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Too much noise on K-1

I am struggling with noise with the K-1 and a 28-105
I shoot only RAW at a speed around 200 and f:8. I use lightroom 6.
When I enlarge 1:1 this is very bad. IQ, sharpness and noise
I cannot go over 800 ISO without bad noise, even under 800 I have always to
use a lot of noise reduction.
By the way the K-5 is a much better camera than the K-1 question of IQ.
Should I get the camera for service?

09-09-2016, 07:57 PM - 1 Like   #2
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Can you post an example? The noise performance of the K-1's sensor is normally exceptional for its resolution.

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09-09-2016, 08:55 PM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by gerardbaron Quote
I am struggling with noise with the K-1 and a 28-105
I shoot only RAW at a speed around 200 and f:8. I use lightroom 6.
When I enlarge 1:1 this is very bad. IQ, sharpness and noise
I cannot go over 800 ISO without bad noise, even under 800 I have always to
use a lot of noise reduction.
By the way the K-5 is a much better camera than the K-1 question of IQ.
Should I get the camera for service?
Not possible if everything is working properly. The only way you could be getting a ton of noise at ISO 200 is to severely underexpose and boost the image several stops in exposure.
09-09-2016, 08:55 PM - 1 Like   #4
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Alamo and Ageless, I don't believe Gerard is tolling. He's from Canada and 71 years old. Not the typical profile of a troller.

Gerard, I see that you also have a nice 90mm Macro lens. It's very sharp. Could you please try that lens out on your K1? If the macro noise is acceptable, then you've just proven that the noise problem is more with your lens than with your K1.

I also own a K1, and the only time I've seen unacceptable noise is when I greatly underexpose the image and then try to bring it back in post. But just about any other camera would also produce unacceptable noise under those same circumstances.

Also, the K1's 36MPs produces giant images that when viewed at 100% on a large monitor are much larger in size than are the images produced from your APS-C 16MP cameras. That alone will give the "appearance" of increased noise. Down sample the K1 image to the same size as your APS-C images and you will then be able to do a more fair comparison - you should see clearly less noise and greater sharpness in the K1 image.

Properly exposed, the image quality (IQ) of my K1 is terrific!


Last edited by Fenwoodian; 09-09-2016 at 09:11 PM.
09-09-2016, 09:48 PM   #5
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JPEGs are not so good with noise. The RAWs are a different story. You can apply a bit of NR to them and they're really quite clean.
09-09-2016, 09:52 PM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by gerardbaron Quote
When I enlarge 1:1 this is very bad. IQ, sharpness and noise
I can't speak in regards to the noise you are seeing, but the complaint about IQ and sharpness reminds me of when the K-3 was first released. Many experienced users complained that they could not get good results with the K-3, despite having no problem with their lower resolution cameras. As it turned out the higher resolution demands somewhat better technique in regards to camera support and focus.

QuoteOriginally posted by gerardbaron Quote
By the way the K-5 is a much better camera than the K-1 question of IQ.
Shoot your K-1 in crop mode with the lenses you used on your K-5. I suspect you will get similar results.

QuoteOriginally posted by gerardbaron Quote
Should I get the camera for service?
It is possible that there is a problem with your camera if you have excessive noise. It was recently determined that some K-1 cameras had improperly calibrated sensors from the factory that resulted in exaggerated noise with long exposure and/or a dark bar at the top of the frame under the same conditions. The last several pages of the thread below detail discussions between Ricoh/Pentax and effected users.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/190-pentax-k-1/327326-k-1-white-dot-issue.html

I hope your K-1 results improve with practice. By most reports, it is a spectacular camera and one I would like to own at some point.


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09-09-2016, 10:56 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by gerardbaron Quote
I am struggling with noise with the K-1 and a 28-105
I shoot only RAW at a speed around 200 and f:8. I use lightroom 6.
When I enlarge 1:1 this is very bad. IQ, sharpness and noise
I cannot go over 800 ISO without bad noise, even under 800 I have always to
use a lot of noise reduction.
By the way the K-5 is a much better camera than the K-1 question of IQ.
Should I get the camera for service?
Photos, or it didn't happen.

If you are getting noisy, low resolution shots with the K-1 you are doing something wrong; the K-1's resolution and noise performance are the best of any K-mount digital camera ever produced, by a substantial margin.

Pixel peeping at 1:1 is not the same with a 36MP file compared to a 16MP file. Any noise you see in a K-1 file will be much less when you downsize or print compared to the K-5.


Last edited by Sandy Hancock; 09-09-2016 at 11:17 PM.
09-09-2016, 11:16 PM   #8
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Gerard, can you show a few examples? My K1 produces very low noise images.
If I push my PP with +3 and use extreme sharpening the images can look very noisy but that's to be expected.
09-10-2016, 12:04 AM   #9
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I don't have the K-1, so my observation can be taken with a grain of salt: I have a K-S1 and a K-3 II and made a load of images at ISO 12800 with K-S1 without noticing any significant image quality loss (meaning the existing noise doesn't ruin the photo) OTOH made a lot of images with K-3 II at ISO3200 and 6400 where I noticed that it's often not so noisy at ISO6400 like at ISO3200 and analyzed what could be the cause of the perception that at lower value I feel the're's more noise. My conclusion, based on personal experience and analyzing the content of the photos that the perception of the amount of noise often depends on the content of the photo and the other settings on the camera. It would be the easiest thing to say that the K-3 II is broken or bad but it isn't, it's what I do when I want to take a shot with the best or worst choice of settings (with the same lens) in a particular scene/situation... That's where experience and paying attention to what you do pays off... And the sensor size also falls into account...
09-10-2016, 01:28 AM   #10
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Perhaps Pixel-Shift artifacts in Lightroom?
09-10-2016, 01:39 AM   #11
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Seems odd OP posted a pretty fine image @ISO3200 3 days ago. Show us the image/s that has high levels of Noise for others to judge.
09-10-2016, 02:52 AM   #12
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Must have left the zero off the model number - K10d? Still, even that gets good shots at iso 800.
09-10-2016, 03:54 AM   #13
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Why calling user a troll again? If his camera body is affected by the white dot issue it can be seen with ISO100 exposures pushed few stops in post with 30 second exposure. Sharpness is another thing though, that issue has nothing to do with image sharpness.
09-10-2016, 04:51 AM   #14
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Might as well call me a troll too because my K5 and K5-IIs both kill my K1 regarding noise. My experience is similar to the original posters. I was wondering about all the praise this camera gets about how great it controls noise. Some of my higher ISO shots have me scratching my head too. Easy enough to get rid of, but it is more pronounced that I thought it would be based upon various comments I have read about noise on the K1. I was going start a post about the same thing, but now, I am glad I didn't.

I was going to sell my K5's but based upon my personal experience, I am going to keep them for high ISO situations. They simply rock in that situation.

Below are two images. Both taken with at ISO 6400, no post processing other than converting to jpeg using PDCU 5 that came with my K1. Top one is from my K5-IIs. Bottom from my K1. Enjoy.
Attached Images
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K-5 II s  Photo 
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K-1  Photo 

Last edited by gaweidert; 09-10-2016 at 05:34 AM.
09-10-2016, 05:27 AM - 4 Likes   #15
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two accusations trolling and then a postulation the OP could be on drugs.. some of you are too much with the personal attacks.. and that is what you start with... first response to the OP. incredible.


Gerard, what aperture are you using? Higher F stops could potentially soften the image... f/22 or higher and especially on the longer end of that lens. That with a higher ISO and/or a stronger NR settings could give poor results. Could be due to shot noise or some other anomaly perhaps.. pushing the shadows too hard in post?

Post processing the images on the PC?

I see you mentioned ISO 200 and f/8 but I see an image you posted of ISO 800 at f/10 and another of ISO 3200 at f/10.. the leaves in the first do look mushy and overly punchy in color. The later is also quite mushy across the frame. But neither are ISO 200 f/8.

I'm also wondering, if perhaps some of the color settings are adjusted on your K-1 ? Is there some form of shadow protection enabled? disabled?

Throwing some ideas your way to consider..
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