Olympus to Pentax - change over or not?

zdwagner · 02-21-2013, 01:29 PM

I am in the process of selling off my m4/3 gear (Olympus) and moving to Pentax. The Pentax is extremely user friendly (K-5 IIs), more so than any dslr I've used. I really appreciate this fact. The noise of the Pentax (or lack thereof) is stunning, though the OM-D did pretty well for itself in this respect.

I think you have to ask yourself if you're willing to wait. Oly has said they are dedicated to supporting their 4/3 users, and there's lots to indicate some form of that support is coming this year. Will it be an E-7? Honestly I doubt it. I think you're looking at an OM-D Pro with on-sensor phase detect/contrast AF, that fully supports AF with all 4/3 lenses. If the AF works well enough, and the form factor is the right size, then it may be worth waiting for, especially if you've invested heavily in 4/3 lenses.
That said, Oly has said they are supporting their dslr sector in the past many times, and exactly how much 'support' has that group seen from them in the last few years? Pretty much none.

I suppose this doesn't help you much. I'm pretty happy with my move, so there you go. Lol

zekewhipper · 02-22-2013, 06:46 PM

Originally posted by JimJohnson

Are you shooting jpeg or RAW? If you are looking at jpeg images as produced within your Pentax camera, did you know you can adjust the default rendition of jpeg images? More or less contrast, more or less saturation, warmer or cooler - it is up to you.

So many of us in this Forum shoot RAW and make our adjustments in post-processing that you don't see many posts that deal with the tools available for tweaking the camera's built-in jpeg output.

JimJohnson: I shoot both Pentax and Olympus. (As a matter of fact, I use an E-520 like the OP.) I can tell you that color-wise, shooting RAW is not needed when you use Custom WB on an Olympus. Olympus does a great job with WB, better than the Nikon or Sony I also shoot with.

**JimJohnson** · 02-23-2013, 11:19 AM

Originally posted by zekewhipper

JimJohnson: I shoot both Pentax and Olympus. (As a matter of fact, I use an E-520 like the OP.) I can tell you that color-wise, shooting RAW is not needed when you use Custom WB on an Olympus. Olympus does a great job with WB, better than the Nikon or Sony I also shoot with.

We that shoot RAW don't do so only for the color as you suggest, but for the greater range of manipulation choices via post processing. Color is only one aspect of image manipulation.

ALL digital cameras shoot in RAW format. And I am not sure if there is any digital camera that doesn't have a built-in jpeg creation engine - code to interpret RAW and create a jpeg image. Most point & shoot cameras automatically convert all its RAW images to jpeg and don't allow the photographer to store the RAW image. The reason is that RAW images are unusable without interpretation code - meaning in most cases a computer of some kind is needed, plus more specialized software. More advanced cameras will allow the photographer to store the RAW image as seen by the sensor and/or create a jpeg image in the camera and store that.

There are plenty of threads in this forum discussing the pros & cons of storing the RAW image, the jpeg image or both, on your memory card. I am not trying to justify one or the other here. I am making a simple statement that many forum members choose to store the RAW image, and in my opinion, this is why there are not a lot of posts discussing in detail the wealth of in-camera jpeg manipulation tools provided by Pentax. Using those tools, there is no reason your Pentax camera cannot match the color you see in jpegs produced by your Olympus (or Sony, Canon, Nikon, ...) camera.

I will second that I don't like how Pentax's programmers coded its factory default in-camera jpeg creation engine. The good news is Pentax makes it easy to change the factory defaults to your liking ... Set you camera to any mode other than AUTO PICT and hit your INFO button (or hit your MENU button and go to the first menu option) and decide whether you want one of the alternate pre-built jpeg color schemes, or you want to create your own completely custom color scheme. Again, your choice here only affects jpeg images created within the camera.

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02-21-2013, 01:29 PM	#16
zdwagner Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Albuquerque, NM Posts: 136	I am in the process of selling off my m4/3 gear (Olympus) and moving to Pentax. The Pentax is extremely user friendly (K-5 IIs), more so than any dslr I've used. I really appreciate this fact. The noise of the Pentax (or lack thereof) is stunning, though the OM-D did pretty well for itself in this respect. I think you have to ask yourself if you're willing to wait. Oly has said they are dedicated to supporting their 4/3 users, and there's lots to indicate some form of that support is coming this year. Will it be an E-7? Honestly I doubt it. I think you're looking at an OM-D Pro with on-sensor phase detect/contrast AF, that fully supports AF with all 4/3 lenses. If the AF works well enough, and the form factor is the right size, then it may be worth waiting for, especially if you've invested heavily in 4/3 lenses. That said, Oly has said they are supporting their dslr sector in the past many times, and exactly how much 'support' has that group seen from them in the last few years? Pretty much none. I suppose this doesn't help you much. I'm pretty happy with my move, so there you go. Lol

02-22-2013, 06:46 PM	#17
zekewhipper Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Photos: Albums Posts: 307	Originally posted by JimJohnson Are you shooting jpeg or RAW? If you are looking at jpeg images as produced within your Pentax camera, did you know you can adjust the default rendition of jpeg images? More or less contrast, more or less saturation, warmer or cooler - it is up to you. So many of us in this Forum shoot RAW and make our adjustments in post-processing that you don't see many posts that deal with the tools available for tweaking the camera's built-in jpeg output. JimJohnson: I shoot both Pentax and Olympus. (As a matter of fact, I use an E-520 like the OP.) I can tell you that color-wise, shooting RAW is not needed when you use Custom WB on an Olympus. Olympus does a great job with WB, better than the Nikon or Sony I also shoot with.

02-23-2013, 11:19 AM	#18
JimJohnson Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Summer:Lake Superior - Michigan Winter:Texas Hill Country Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,772	Originally posted by zekewhipper JimJohnson: I shoot both Pentax and Olympus. (As a matter of fact, I use an E-520 like the OP.) I can tell you that color-wise, shooting RAW is not needed when you use Custom WB on an Olympus. Olympus does a great job with WB, better than the Nikon or Sony I also shoot with. We that shoot RAW don't do so only for the color as you suggest, but for the greater range of manipulation choices via post processing. Color is only one aspect of image manipulation. ALL digital cameras shoot in RAW format. And I am not sure if there is any digital camera that doesn't have a built-in jpeg creation engine - code to interpret RAW and create a jpeg image. Most point & shoot cameras automatically convert all its RAW images to jpeg and don't allow the photographer to store the RAW image. The reason is that RAW images are unusable without interpretation code - meaning in most cases a computer of some kind is needed, plus more specialized software. More advanced cameras will allow the photographer to store the RAW image as seen by the sensor and/or create a jpeg image in the camera and store that. There are plenty of threads in this forum discussing the pros & cons of storing the RAW image, the jpeg image or both, on your memory card. I am not trying to justify one or the other here. I am making a simple statement that many forum members choose to store the RAW image, and in my opinion, this is why there are not a lot of posts discussing in detail the wealth of in-camera jpeg manipulation tools provided by Pentax. Using those tools, there is no reason your Pentax camera cannot match the color you see in jpegs produced by your Olympus (or Sony, Canon, Nikon, ...) camera. I will second that I don't like how Pentax's programmers coded its factory default in-camera jpeg creation engine. The good news is Pentax makes it easy to change the factory defaults to your liking ... Set you camera to any mode other than AUTO PICT and hit your INFO button (or hit your MENU button and go to the first menu option) and decide whether you want one of the alternate pre-built jpeg color schemes, or you want to create your own completely custom color scheme. Again, your choice here only affects jpeg images created within the camera.