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08-05-2015, 12:37 PM   #1
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K-3 II overexposing?!?

I have noticed this from the first shots, but I wasn't worried because the histogram on the display looked perfect.

One of the things I've been looking forward to experiment on the new K-3 II was the mixed TAv shooting mode, as well as the JPG compression engine inside the camera. So I shot 99% of the first 3 - 400 shots with these setting, slightly playing with the WB or the color profiles here and there.

All the images displayed a perfect histogram on the camera, I have copied them to my computer and never checked the histogram in any photo editing software because they didn't look like they needed editing.

Recently I have shot about 1500 DNGs on a trip in the Danube delta, and I wanted to test this more thoroughly, so at first, I have enabled the highlight alert for the picture review mode. I was surprised to see that more than half the images shot in the same TAv mode, displayed a perfect histogram, but had highlight alerts flashing on the reviewed image.

I've switched to Manual mode and shot a few images with one line under - 0 + . Better results, still a few highlight alerts, although much fewer, but now the histogram indicates considerable underexposure, with the left side clipping.

Ii was now time to check the DNGs on the computer. I've opened them in Lightroom 5.7 and the histogram was way to the right / overexposure side to all the images that displayed a perfect histogram on the camera. The ones that displayed underexposure in the camera, looked good in Lightroom, with very little of the histogram cramped to the left side.

At this point I'm not sure what to make of it.

Is the camera overexposing in automatic modes? Is it a calibration issue of the metering system?

Is the display not calibrated correctly? Then why does the histogram look fine on the camera? And why so differently on the computer?

I never shoot Full Auto, so I can't tell if things are different there, but all the other semi-automatic modes give the same result.

Anyone else experiencing this issue with their K-3 II?

08-05-2015, 01:12 PM   #2
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QuoteOriginally posted by RahZee Quote
Is the display not calibrated correctly? Then why does the histogram look fine on the camera? And why so differently on the computer?
My only guess would be different development settings in LR. Also, as for the shadow/highlight alert in camera, even if it goes off it's not necessarily the case that the shadows/highlights are blown out in the RAW file. If it's just slight underexposure or underexposure, things should still be recoverable.

Another possibility could be vignetting / lens corrections which are applied in-camera to JPEGs but not RAWs.

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08-05-2015, 01:55 PM   #3
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In Lightroom settings, uncheck the box for "auto tone" at import or something along those line.
08-05-2015, 11:11 PM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by Adam Quote
My only guess would be different development settings in LR. Also, as for the shadow/highlight alert in camera, even if it goes off it's not necessarily the case that the shadows/highlights are blown out in the RAW file. If it's just slight underexposure or underexposure, things should still be recoverable.

Another possibility could be vignetting / lens corrections which are applied in-camera to JPEGs but not RAWs.
All images are visibly on the bright side, nothing is "neutral" in the camera's default output, JPG or RAW.

I've been blaming the software immediately myself. Still , I don't recall seeing such a difference in histogram display at JPG or RAW files from Fuji X100-T, Canon 5D mkII, Canon 5d mkIII and Canon 7D mk II, which I've been rolling thru this version of Lightroom.

I'll read the K-3 II manual again, maybe there are some settings regarding the metering system that need adjustment.

08-06-2015, 12:57 PM   #5
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As Adam has noted, I think what is going on is most likely this: what you see on the rear display of the camera in playback mode is a small JPEG preview generated by your settings for JPEG's. What you see on your computer when viewing RAW's is subject to whatever your RAW processor settings are, and will be different from what the camera's JPEG preview will look like - unless your RAW processing settings are 100% identical to your in-camera JPEG settings ...

It may also be worth looking at your:
- Exposure Compensation settings (they are often saved in memory between sessions);
- D-range settings (for highlight and shadow correction);
- make sure you aren't shooting in HDR capture mode, or some weird exposure bracketing mode!;
- check if 'Auto EV Compensation' is turned on;
- examine whether you have set your exposure to be linked to an AF point, or you are accidentally locking your AE-L to your AF. If your focus is regularly off to a dark area, that could skew the metering.

Or just check your custom camera settings. If in doubt, reset to defaults, then use Green mode for a while, see if the problem recurs, and gradually re-enable modes and features.
08-07-2015, 03:56 AM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by rawr Quote
- examine whether you have set your exposure to be linked to an AF point
I did

QuoteOriginally posted by rawr Quote
reset to defaults, then use Green mode for a while, see if the problem recurs, and gradually re-enable modes and features.
I'll do that

Thanks
09-08-2015, 06:24 PM   #7
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I just sent my K-3II back for exchange because I was getting terrible, overexposed shots. I have basically the same camera settings on my K-5 that I had on the K-3II and the pictures on the K-5 look great with good exposure. I also use lightroom and my guess is that it's something with the camera, whether it be a setting or a problem with the camera itself is hard to figure out. The rep at Ricoh said his guess is a bad actuator arm in the camera with what I was describing.

01-09-2016, 07:27 AM   #8
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I seem to be having a similar issue with overexposed shots. I've had my K-3II for a couple weeks and had a chance to shoot my sons BB game last night. I started the shoot with the same settings I would use on my K-5IIs and the K-3II shots were overexposed -- especially spot metering. I ended up using the multi-segement mode to get good exposure.

This morning I took some test shots on both cameras using a kit 18-55 lens. The K-3II seems to overexpose in all metering modes, but like I realized at the game it is worse in spot metering mode.
QuoteOriginally posted by Jool Quote
I just sent my K-3II back for exchange because I was getting terrible, overexposed shots.
I'm planning to exchange, but wanted to ask if your exchanged K-3II work out?


thanks
01-09-2016, 12:15 PM   #9
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Before going down the exchange route, I did some more testing this morning. It seems each metering mode is working as expected with my the test shots. As for the comparisons I did this morning...I found the setting "link exposure to AF point" was turned on for K-5IIs but off for the K-3II. After setting them the same (“link exposure to AF point”) and doing another comparison the spot metered exposures are much more similar.

It was still a little puzzling/concerning to me that the spot metered shots at the bb game were so overexposed, so I decided to take another look. When the bb game pics were originally imported last night I immediately rejected the overexposed shots thinking I was looking at the RAW file image. They were overexposed enough that I didn't think it was worth trying to correct. This time I took one of the overexposed spot metered images from Lighttable into Darkroom. I use Linux with Darktable photo editing software. In this software the Lighttable is where you see your collection of photos after they are imported. The Darkroom is where you apply adjustments to the RAW image. After your adjustments are made it also shows those results in the Lighttable. In the Darkroom the image was properly exposed. I toggled back and forth between the two views a few times trying to figure out what settings were being automatically applied. After some research I discovered that there is an option which causes the Lighttable to display the embedded JPEG stored in the RAW file. After turning this option off and re-importing the spot metered images they were now now showing the correctly exposed RAW file.

I need to learn to rely on the histogram and not the displayed image on the camera – especially when making adjustments. My histogram knowledge is somewhat limited, so a new element to learn and add to the tool bag. I'll be shooting another game next week, so I'll get to see the difference in the changed setting and also try my hand at using the histogram more.
01-11-2016, 03:25 PM   #10
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Metering mode is probably the biggest cause. If you are in spot meter mode, the point you select will be set for exposure and the other parts of the frame are ignored, so spot metering on a person can make bright lights and backgrounds overexpose quite easily. I generally use center-weighted or auto rather than spot metering in order to prevent overexposure of most of the frame. As long as nothing is overexposed, you can always lift or lower the exposure when you post process. And as mentioned by others, the jpeg highlight alert is a nice indicator, but not always 100% accurate.
01-12-2016, 05:03 PM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by rawr Quote
..
It may also be worth looking at your:
- Exposure Compensation settings (they are often saved in memory between sessions);
- D-range settings (for highlight and shadow correction);
- make sure you aren't shooting in HDR capture mode, or some weird exposure bracketing mode!;
- check if 'Auto EV Compensation' is turned on;
- examine whether you have set your exposure to be linked to an AF point, or you are accidentally locking your AE-L to your AF. If your focus is regularly off to a dark area, that could skew the metering.
...
I have just received my K3II and looks like I might be having a slight overexposure issue as well. I have tried to duplicate my shots with my K5II and it seems to consistently underexpose them compared to K3II by about +0.5 stop (same lens and settings on both cameras). Of the settings you mention, is there a suggested optimal set for K3II? (D-range, etc)

I'll give it a couple more sessions and if it proves to be a real issue, I will probably send the camera off to Pentax for calibration, rather than trying to exchange it. I don't see this being a major hardware issue, should be easily fixable through software/calibration - no reason to replace an otherwise perfectly working SLR. In the meantime I will just compensate my exposures, no big deal.
01-15-2016, 01:55 PM   #12
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I've done a couple more basketball game shoots (no pun intended). I've turned most of the automatic correction settings and have not seen the issue again, even in spot metering mode. My main problem was relying on the embedded jpg presented instead of the histogram, the actual RAW image was in much better shape. I have yet to reproduce what happened on this handful of images. I do check the histogram periodically now. Almost to the point of just checking the first few and going on...I hate chimpn' at sports shoots as it may blow an opportunity.

What i'm most pleased with is how much better it resolves white balance. The basketball games are played in high school gyms or privately owned school gyms and 95% of them are gyms with less than desireable lighting. I've only used auto white balance it it does a really good job.
01-15-2016, 02:33 PM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by RahZee Quote
I have noticed this from the first shots, but I wasn't worried because the histogram on the display looked perfect.

One of the things I've been looking forward to experiment on the new K-3 II was the mixed TAv shooting mode, as well as the JPG compression engine inside the camera. So I shot 99% of the first 3 - 400 shots with these setting, slightly playing with the WB or the color profiles here and there.

All the images displayed a perfect histogram on the camera, I have copied them to my computer and never checked the histogram in any photo editing software because they didn't look like they needed editing.

Recently I have shot about 1500 DNGs on a trip in the Danube delta, and I wanted to test this more thoroughly, so at first, I have enabled the highlight alert for the picture review mode. I was surprised to see that more than half the images shot in the same TAv mode, displayed a perfect histogram, but had highlight alerts flashing on the reviewed image.

I've switched to Manual mode and shot a few images with one line under - 0 + . Better results, still a few highlight alerts, although much fewer, but now the histogram indicates considerable underexposure, with the left side clipping.

Ii was now time to check the DNGs on the computer. I've opened them in Lightroom 5.7 and the histogram was way to the right / overexposure side to all the images that displayed a perfect histogram on the camera. The ones that displayed underexposure in the camera, looked good in Lightroom, with very little of the histogram cramped to the left side.

At this point I'm not sure what to make of it.

Is the camera overexposing in automatic modes? Is it a calibration issue of the metering system?

Is the display not calibrated correctly? Then why does the histogram look fine on the camera? And why so differently on the computer?

I never shoot Full Auto, so I can't tell if things are different there, but all the other semi-automatic modes give the same result.

Anyone else experiencing this issue with their K-3 II?


Do the images look OK when you download them ?
01-16-2016, 09:05 AM   #14
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I think my overexposure problem was different. Everything would be working fine with good exposures and then I'd start to get totally blown out exposures and not just certain areas of the picture, the whole thing. These were with my RAW files not just the jpegs. Then the camera would work fine again for awhile and then I'd have the same thing happen. Ever since I exchanged my camera back in September I have not had the same problem. I think the Ricoh rep was correct when I called them, the camera actuator arm may have been sticking. Anyway I'm glad that I exchanged mine because otherwise I would have had to send it in for repair.
02-15-2016, 02:21 PM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by hjoseph7 Quote
Do the images look OK when you download them ?
What looks overexposed on the camera, has a right side clipping histogram on the computer, in Lightroom or ACR.
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