[shutterpuppy]

Hey All,
After seeing my State Fair of Texas pictures come out slightly underexposed in Auto mode, I'm curious if I should go +1 on E/V as a default setting on my camera in this mode since it seems all Pentax cameras discussed on here and other review sites point to always underexposed pics from the camera right out of the box. Any other tweaking default settings you can recommend? Is this mostly a problem with the kit lens (18-55mm) only or all Pentax lenses?

Thanks
Barry

[egordon99]

It's not a problem with Pentax, it's just how metering works. If you want to permantly set EC to +1, go ahead, but then you'll run the risk of overexposure in high contrast scenes.

[egordon99]

Did you even READ my long post to you on that other thread? I went into detail WHY the first shot was very underexposed. If you can get a grasp on that concept, you'll be much better off. Don't just blindly set EC to +1. Learn how to read the scene you are photographing, and come up with the appropriate exposure value.

[713alan]

My K10 and K20 both shoot dark. I shoot RAW so data is not lost. To make PP easier I look at the histogram of the first shot of a scene and adjust eV (always up). The few times the red highlights blown flashes, I drop the eV and reshoot. Then check the histogram again.

[shutterpuppy]

My K10 and K20 both shoot dark. I shoot RAW so data is not lost. To make PP easier I look at the histogram of the first shot of a scene and adjust eV (always up). The few times the red highlights blown flashes, I drop the eV and reshoot. Then check the histogram again.

I re-inserted the memory card and decided to experiment with t6he k200d's in camera processor. First pic was shot without any PP done to it except resizing to fit on here, the second was brightened later in the camera, not too bad considering I didn't use any of the editing software I have on my computer, nice to know it's there when your away from home

Before



After

[Marc Sabatella]

I agree with those who say the camera is *not* underexposing. It is doing what it was designed to do - render scenes a little darker on average than an 18% gray card, unless protecting highlights means rendering them even darker. The way to avoid underexposure is to learn what the camera is doing and why, and how to use this to override the defaults when appropriate. Setting positive compensation all the time will only guarantee blown highlights much of the time.

If you want pictures that match you expectations more often - inlcuding the blown highlights that inevitably result from this - you are probably beter off switching to center-weighted metering. This is more likely to blow highlights only in high contrast settings, and produce overall lighter pictures much of the timel simply because of how this metering style works (and how the default multi-segment style works).