[hray]

Ok, my K-x has arrived (I tried to see if I was satisfied with my DH's P&S...but I was not...

The learning curve is steep but I have figured out how to use M mode and set the f-stop, shutter speed, ISO, and to focus with AF and MF. My first adjustment was to get rid of the five sensors and go to the center spot!! (I can see that the five or 11 sensors might be good for a group photo, etc. but not when I want to control the focus!)

But...I've come up with some probably DAN (dumb-a$$-Newbie) questions, but here goes:

1. Is there any reason NOT to expand the ISO range available?

2. What does the " mean in the VF shutter speed indicator?

3. When the manual discusses P mode, what does it mean when it refers to "Program Line"?

4. What does it mean when the Info box says "Custom Image Bright?"

5. What settings do you find most useful for the "green button"?

As I said, probably DAN questions, but I appreciate any help!

[KxBlaze]

1. I cannot think of a reason. The day I got mine I expanded it and have never changed it back. Why not use ISO 100 if it's available.

2. Seconds. Once you get close to and above 1 second shutter lag it will shot that sign indicating seconds.

3. I do not know

4. It's just different settings you can use for your photos. I believe there's bright, vibrant, monochrome, etc... It applies different color balances, sharpness, saturation etc...

5. This is completely up to the user but I use optical preview.

[twitch]

I only expand ISO when I'm on a tripod wanting to use ISO100 to squeeze out the last possible drop of IQ and DR. Otherwise though there is a tiny difference in IQ b/w 100 & 200 (as 100 is not a true ISO setting native to the K-x sensor), but I'm sacrificing 1/2 my shutter speed which matters a lot handheld.

On the K-5 you can alter the lowest limit on auto ISO, on the K-x you can't, nd too often it selects ISO100 when I'd rather 200 and a faster shutter.

[drugal]

...
3. When the manual discusses P mode, what does it mean when it refers to "Program Line"?
...

I think this is a great question.

I was totally in the dark on this one, but after reading the k5 manual ... I think that the K-x has the program line set to 'normal exposure' all of the time.

The k5, by way of comparison, can have this set to (p104):
auto, normal, hi-speed priority, dof deep, dof shallow, mtf priority

This is my guess and I'd love to be corrected

[SpecialK]

The "Program Line" is the shutter/aperture combo the camera will select for a given exposure value. You can bias it in a few ways...


(At ISO 100)
"Normal" is about 1/350 at f6.7 for daylight.
"Depth" will increase the f-number to, say, f11 and decrease the shutter accordingly. So, you will have a lot in focus.
"Hi Speed" will increase the shutter to, say, 1/1000 and open the lens according to freeze action better.
"MTF" will set the lens to the optical sweet-spot such as f-5.6, or whatever Pentax says the sharpest aperture is.

[Hypocorism]

3. When the manual discusses P mode, what does it mean when it refers to "Program Line"?

5. What settings do you find most useful for the "green button"?

3. Go to Menu > Camera icon, across to tab 4 > select Green Button > select Action in M mode [Refer each dropdown picklist item's help]

Iow; it seems to cross relate to what action Manual mode will take, ie. follow what [Line] Program mode is set to do, else act more like Tv, Av, Nil.
Make sense? Please correct if it doesn't.

5. I leave it on Green Button -- because any of the others, although desirable, seem to cancel out or modify the default Green Button action in a lot of circumstances.
K-x/K-r only have one (Green) Custom button, so we're limited.
All too confusing so I swallow the default pill.

.R.

[hray]

Thank you, everyone!

K-x blaze: I thought it might be seconds, but was thinking of angles, degrees, radians..and couldn't figure out how seconds worked there. Duh!!!

K-x blaze and twitch: thanks for the ISO setting help. I'm still trying to get out of film mindset re: ISO levels; I have to remember that the K-X isn't going to give me hideously grainy shots at ISO 400 (I used to almost always use ISO 100 film for daylight dog portraits...so putting in a roll of 400 to shoot indoors was often wasted!)

Thanks Drugo, hypocorism and SpecialK, re: Program mode/Program line. I'm glad I'm not the only one who questioned that.

Well, we had a little snow last night so I have more shots and settings to play with today!

[asp1880]

The "Program Line" is the shutter/aperture combo the camera will select for a given exposure value. You can bias it in a few ways...


(At ISO 100)
"Normal" is about 1/350 at f6.7 for daylight.
"Depth" will increase the f-number to, say, f11 and decrease the shutter accordingly. So, you will have a lot in focus.
"Hi Speed" will increase the shutter to, say, 1/1000 and open the lens according to freeze action better.
"MTF" will set the lens to the optical sweet-spot such as f-5.6, or whatever Pentax says the sharpest aperture is.

Unfortunately, program line is not directly selectable in the K-x menus. It's only available on the highlevel cameras K-7, K-5, K20 etc. The OP has the K-x and it uses the Normal program line for the P,A,S,T modes.

That's not to say that the K-x doesn't have the other program lines. They are coupled to the scene modes. For instance, the Macro, Kids and Night scene modes use the MTF program line. You can tell from the exif.

Sincerely,
--Anders.

[hray]

Thank you; that sort of describes what I figured was going on; it's magically set to what the K-x computer thinks it should be, i.e., it's PROGRAMMED in. :-) It's nice to know what it meant...but that confirms that mostly I'm staying in Av and Manual modes.

[SpecialK]

Unfortunately, program line is not directly selectable in the K-x menus. It's only available on the highlevel cameras K-7, K-5, K20 etc. The OP has the K-x and it uses the Normal program line for the P,A,S,T modes.


Sincerely,
--Anders.

Ah, my bad.

[Hypocorism]

K-x blaze: I thought it might be seconds, but was thinking of angles, degrees, radians..and couldn't figure out how seconds worked there. Duh!!!

Well you're not alone, I first thought it was Inches. So it's not us, it's just the old brain-dead imperial measurements system doing what it does worst.

The double prime symbol ″ (no it's actually not double quote ") can stand for inches, arcseconds, and (sometimes) seconds [which the latter is common and can then be confused as angular* or time unit -- *so please... let's all hurry up and adopt radians instead of the present degree system (that also applies to temperature) and drop all this conflicting bullshit].


.R. -- Prime [sic] source of Trivia and useless information.

And just in case anyone's interested, the triple prime ‴ symbol represents a ligne. (that predates the metric system and used now only applies to watches though, not cameras - and ironically it's a distance [2.2558 mm], not a time measurement)