[rawrphoto]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to this forum and recently purchase a Pentax K-1. I've 'upgraded?' from a Sony A65 and chose the pentax as an upgrade as my Sony was used / abused by others and was looking for a Full Frame WITH GPS (yes, I really want GPS on my camera).

After spending a few days playing around with it, I'm kind of hitting a brick wall as far as getting nice sharp / crips images. It's a kind of hit or miss, and the Pentax K-1 does not appear to be very forgiving compared to my Sony a65.

I'm using a Pentax D FA 28-105mm F3.5-5.6ED DC WR HD Lens and after using the default settings for a while I've been trying to follow some of the recommended settings from: Pentax K-1 Review - Recommended Settings | PentaxForums.com Reviews

However I'm still finding that the images are grainy in 'lower' light conditions. Outside bright light is out of focus at times, but then nice and sharp other times.
Perhaps something I have to get used to, or can someone give me some pointers / ideas to make better use of the AF?

Currently using the following settings
Program Line: MTF
AF mode: AF.c
AF active area: SEL S
Contrast AF: Auto
Focus Peaking: On

I'm usually shooting in auto ISO or 100 through 800
F8-F11

I'm definitely no expert, enjoying the hobby and would like to learn more about this camera. Thank you for your time and input

[walgarch]

Welcome to the forums

I think there's a few things that might help you out. So some suggestions:

• It looks like the Sony A65 has an APS-C sensor, so you may see some difference in DOF between the two. You're shooting at F8-F11 which would be closer to F5.6-F8 on your previous camera. This can make focusing less forgiving as at the same aperture FF produces a thinner DOF
• The lens you're using might need fine focus adjustment (Fixing Front and Back Focus - Introduction - In-Depth Articles for more info)
• I've found AF-c to be a little fidgety at times when it comes to catching focus. Try switching to AF-s and see if the situation improves
• You might need to upgrade your firmware (
  You Tube

  You Tube

  )
• The graininess issue might be related to the extra megapixels of the K-1 vs your previous camera. There can be a perception of more blur and noise since you're zooming in further when viewing at 100%. You might want to try a comparing uncropped images from both cameras using similar ISO/aperture/shutter speed settings

You might also want to test focus just using contrast detect AF in liveview on a tripod. You should be getting sharp pictures with that setup. If you aren't then there's defintely something wrong (could be your lens or camera). When you do, use the 2 second timer option as that'll automatically disable the shake reduction mechanism and place the mirror in an up position



Hope this helps


Cheers

[sibyrnes]

Switch to AF-S. Your 28-105 is capable of great photos.

[kiwi_jono]

Agree with the previous comments and also a couple more considerations:
1. From the higher ISO samples I have seen, the Sony A65 by defaults applies a lot more Noise Reduction than the K-1 will (which errs on the side of retaining more detail)
2. Are you shooting RAW or JPG? You can achieve better results with RAW than the K-1s JPG engine can

I am very pleased with how good the K-1 is in low light, and its certainly a capable camera. It probably comes with a bit a of learning curve coming from a Sony A65, but the effort of getting the K-1 well set up and spending more time with it, is well worth it.

[pschlute]

Follow Will's advice and do a fine focus adjustment. It really helped when I got my K1. The K1 will show any misfocussed pictures much more starkly than you previous camera when viewed at 100 %

[rawrphoto]

Thank you all for your quick replies! - I had previously already updated the firmware to 1.41 - and now I've been doing some more testing - this time in a more controlled environment doing some product photography - same lighting / same products - on a tripod. Putting the Sony A65 aside of the Pentax K-1. I'm using a kit lens on the a65 18-55. I've set them both to ISO 100 same f-stop - the A65 was a tad sharper on the details when both shown at 100%, which is disappointing.
I've been shooting the K-1 in RAW and JPEG (2 cards) and the a65 just jpeg.

Per walgarch comments, the next step I will take is the "Fixing front and back focus" - see if that makes a big difference or not.

[normhead]

Thank you all for your quick replies! - I had previously already updated the firmware to 1.41 - and now I've been doing some more testing - this time in a more controlled environment doing some product photography - same lighting / same products - on a tripod. Putting the Sony A65 aside of the Pentax K-1. I'm using a kit lens on the a65 18-55. I've set them both to ISO 100 same f-stop - the A65 was a tad sharper on the details when both shown at 100%, which is disappointing.
I've been shooting the K-1 in RAW and JPEG (2 cards) and the a65 just jpeg.

Per walgarch comments, the next step I will take is the "Fixing front and back focus" - see if that makes a big difference or not.

The A65 is only 24 MP. Reduce the K-1 image to 24 MP and see which is sharper, but as well, a K-1 at ƒ8 should display a higher level of detail than the A-65 at ƒ5.6. Using the same aperture the A65 will have more depth of field which will lead to the more sharpness in some areas of the photograph. It's actually harder to keep your whole image sharp on a full frame if that's what you are going for. You are not understanding the difference between the two formats.

I frequently go to ƒ11 on my K-1, ƒ8 is about tops for my APS-c camera.

Also for product photos, you want AF.s not AF.c. and MF if you are really serious. My only use of AF.c is when tracking moving subjects. Product photography requires a working understanding of hyper-focal techniques. even if you use AF you have to position your focal point 1/3 f the way down your subject and adjust the aperture so the depth of field includes the whole subject. I suspect it's a bit more complex than what you are doing.

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Last edited by normhead; 07-24-2017 at 12:31 PM.

[rawrphoto]

Fair enough, you might be right and I'm not following the difference between the two formats - it might be nothing more but a expectation I had that is not correct.

[BigMackCam]

Just an additional comment regarding Sony's in-camera image processing... I have a couple of Sony cameras, and the JPEG processing is, in my opinion, outstanding. It's quite heavy on noise reduction, but selective detail sharpening is excellent, with the result that straight-out-of-camera JPEGs in most situations look really impressive at normal viewing sizes and distances. Pentax generally doesn't do in-camera JPEG processing all that well (although I believe the K-1 does a much better job than the K-3 and K-3II that I own). Shoot RAW, however, and the playing field is levelled. Pentax cameras really do come alive when shooting RAW. Careful post-processing on K-1 images will yield incredible results - better than you'd get from the A65, for the most part

[normhead]

Just an additional comment regarding Sony's in-camera image processing... I have a couple of Sony cameras, and the JPEG processing is, in my opinion, outstanding.

I was thinking that about my Pentax XG-1 the other day. Great out of the camera jpegs, but if I take the time, I do better with the K-1 or K-3.

[BigMackCam]

I was thinking that about my Pentax XG-1 the other day. Great out of the camera jpegs, but if I take the time, I do better with the K-1 or K-3.

Yes... yes, yes, YES.

After years of resisting, I recently upgraded to a smart-phone (I may be the last person in the civilised world to do so ), and it has a pretty decent camera - using a current Samsung sensor and an f/2 lens. At full-screen viewing sizes on my 17" laptop, the JPEGs it produces for daylight photos are, frankly, jaw-droppingly good. Punchy, sharp and just... lovely. I'm amazed. Of course, look closely at 1:1 reproduction and there's noise reduction galore, loss of detail, over-sharpening, all manner of artefacts... but for general use, the images are really impressive - better (subjectively) at these sizes than the straight-out-of-camera photos from any of my DSLR and mirrorless kit, regardless of manufacturer. For typical screen viewing, the illusion is very good indeed.

BUT...

If I take a real photo in RAW format with my Pentax DSLR or Sony mirrorless kit - then process it, stroke it and tease it into life in Lightroom - it looks better than the phone could ever manage. Of course it does...

Apologies to the OP for the diversion - but there might possibly be the tiniest bit of relevance in the above (perhaps not?)

[Pentax_WA]

Hello Pentaxian,

I was debating between Sony A7RII ( love the eye AF feature ) and Pentax K-1. Since I have collected many Pentax Lenses over the past 12 years, I decided to stay local.
Please take a look at these photos and let me know if they are sharp to you. I Feel like some are front focused on the nose eventhough I mostly used single AF point, with focus priority setting on. Lenses I used was Pentax FA 77mm, DA* 55, Tamron 90mm Macro with Metz 58 flash on the camera along with flash diffuser

[rawr]

New Pentax K-1 User

Great user name.

You'll probably like it here.

Currently using the following settings
Program Line: MTF
AF mode: AF.c
AF active area: SEL S
Contrast AF: Auto
Focus Peaking: On

My 2c: I have to say that your AF settings are all over the shop. Unless you have a need for AF.C, stick with AF.S, and just keep your active AF area to Auto or maybe Zone Select. And ensure you normally have your AE metering set to Multi-segment - it can help the AF work better under some circumstances. I'd also be inclined to set the program line to just Auto, rather than MTF Priority, unless you have a need for the camera to set all of your lenses according to their optimal MTF, rather adopt settings that might better help you nail focus on your target, or reduce blur.

Contrast AF and Focus peaking settings are also only used for LiveView shooting, not normal viewfinder shooting. Strange to see them mixed together with the other AF settings. Take on one battle at a time ...