[thongnd]

Hi, I have just buy a new *istD with lens FAJ 28-80. But I very disappoited with it quality picture evenif compare with pics. of *istDS that I saw in Dpreview, or other forum. I alway take a pic. with RAW format.
I bough It because I read in forums, most of members talk it quality is the same with *istDS to k100D. But in actualy, it quality pic.s are very bad, evenif compare with Canon 530 that I used to have before. Pics. of *istD is not bright it is leaden, litle dark and blur ,
Have Any one can give some advice about that? About lens or sensor ( I checked it, and found it had about 10 hot pixel, but I am not in US so I dont know about warranty service of Pentax because I bought it in US). What should I do?
Thank you so much!!!

[Adam]

The *ist D and K10D share many of the same "pro" features that the DS and K100D don't have, but the image quality should be the same.

The D is a bit slower because it's older, but there's no reason for the photos to be bad. Did you buy it brand new? Are you sure it's not damaged?

Have you tried using any other faster & sharper lenses?

[thongnd]

Thank you for your reply Mo,
I bought a new one, in Cameta Camera in ebay, with warranty document of Pentax. The lens is FAJ 28-80 is inclucded with the body. I no have change for use other lens. So I dont know what is the cause. Most of pic is underexposure, especially when choiced >50mm and use outdoor. Please give some advice! Thanks

[*isteve]

Thank you for your reply Mo,
I bought a new one, in Cameta Camera in ebay, with warranty document of Pentax. The lens is FAJ 28-80 is inclucded with the body. I no have change for use other lens. So I dont know what is the cause. Most of pic is underexposure, especially when choiced >50mm and use outdoor. Please give some advice! Thanks

Ah the good old *istD. Yes it did have a tendency to underexpose to preserve highlights.

Just dial in positive EV compensation as required or shoot with centre weighted metering, or link the AF and AE point. All these help to some extent. If you are shooting RAW, some RAW programmes produce much brighter exposures, some darker, so it may be the problem. C1 and Photoshop tend to start from a brighter default position than the Pentax software.

It also depends on the lens. The 28-80 was not a fantastic lens and may well be making things worse. The *istD exposure issues varied quite a bit from lens to lens.

The *istD is a great camera when you learn to workaround its little issues, but its not a foolproof auto camera by any means. Still, I took many of my favourite picture on it.

[thongnd]

Thank you so much *isteve,
Quality of its pics is the same with other *ist series in raw format? if yes, may be I will try with others lens? Could you give me some advice about lens for *istD?
Thank a lot!

[davemdsn]

Mine produces great images, depending on personal taste that is. I will admit that it does like to underexpose but I quickly learned when to adjust depending on the lighting conditions.

This was with the *istD and DA16-45, natural light. Shot in RAW and edited in Lightroom.

[*isteve]

Thank you so much *isteve,
Quality of its pics is the same with other *ist series in raw format? if yes, may be I will try with others lens? Could you give me some advice about lens for *istD?
Thank a lot!

Just about any of them will work well. The 16-45 is great but requires about +0.5 EV comp most of the time. Primes are nice to use too, and generally dont need any. If you can get a 50 F1.4 and a 35 F2.0 they are lovely and very sharp.

However for general use I would possibly get hold of a DA 16-45 and a DA 50-200 which will take care of most shooting needs.

The RAW quality from the *istD (provided the exposure is OK) is as good as any of the other *ist models, and JPEGs, though a little soft at default, had fewer artifacts than the DS and DL models.

Provided you get the exposure more or less OK (better slightly under than over) you can use a RAW converter to produce excellent shots from the *istD. Remember that a matrix meter will try and maintain exposure across the majority of the scene.

If there is a lot of sky in the pic, it will try not to blow out highlights in the sky so the foreground may be very dark. If you switch to centre-weighted metering and use the AE lock button you can meter on the area of the scene you want to expore correctly and then reframe the camera before shooting. A bit of experimentation usually pays off.

Digicams like the Canon will happily blow out the sky if they think the subject is too dark, but SLRs tend to maintain as much of the shot as possible and expect you to use Photoshop or similar to fix it. The shadow/highlight control in Photoshop is useful here but you can use the curve tool in Photolab as well.

With a bit of practice you will get the hang of it I'm sure.

[thongnd]

@davemdsn : your pic is very sharp and full colour. It very impressive if compare with my, I take near 700pics, but no any reach the same with yours. May be the cause is my lens FAJ 28-80. Thank you so much!
@*isteve : I will try to follow with your guide. Thank you so much! You are very kind.
By the way, Do you know any place, we can see pics collections of *istD, I very curious, and would like to have more change for learn from its.
Thank you so much!

[thongnd]

One more question, I used 1 filter HOYA, UV(0). Did it make any effects?

[eurostar]

You talked about blurry picture, that could just be a problem of use, just like the underexposure. Do some test, with the camera on tripod and check the histograms, try to overexpose up to the point the curve fall on the horizontal line just before the right end. Then, bring the raw into your raw converter and correct the exposure for a pleasing results to your eyes.
Also, focus manually, to check for incorrect autofocus.

This is from miy *istD and Pentax-A 24mm

[thongnd]

I post some pics was taken by my *istD, Lens Pentax FAJ 28-80mm, RAW format, and convert by Pentax browser. Please comment me.
. It was not clear and unfresh colours and seem fogs.

First pic:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n226/thongnd/IMGP0562_resize.jpg
Secon pic:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n226/thongnd/IMGP0482_resize.jpg
Third pic
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n226/thongnd/IMGP0353_resize.jpg
Fouth pic:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n226/thongnd/IMGP0348_resize.jpg

[thazooo]

[
By the way, Do you know any place, we can see pics collections of *istD, I very curious, and would like to have more change for learn from its.
Thank you so much![/QUOTE]


To see examples of ist D images you can go to PBase Photo Database - Photo Hosting - Photo Sharing - Web Photo Galleries
Do a search by Camera, there are 1000's of images to veiw.

[Rolly]

eurostar,

I just love that image.

It feels like one can actually walk into it and across the little bridge.

È molto suggestivo

[RiceHigh]

I think if you don't like the camera, just sell it and buy another.

I have had all the three camera models you've mentioned. I did buy a *ist DS to replace my *ist D, just because of the better image, and then I bought a K100D to replace my *ist DS, also because of better image quality and better AF. Enough said.

Hi, I have just buy a new *istD with lens FAJ 28-80. But I very disappoited with it quality picture evenif compare with pics. of *istDS that I saw in Dpreview, or other forum. I alway take a pic. with RAW format.
I bough It because I read in forums, most of members talk it quality is the same with *istDS to k100D. But in actualy, it quality pic.s are very bad, evenif compare with Canon 530 that I used to have before. Pics. of *istD is not bright it is leaden, litle dark and blur ,
Have Any one can give some advice about that? About lens or sensor ( I checked it, and found it had about 10 hot pixel, but I am not in US so I dont know about warranty service of Pentax because I bought it in US). What should I do?
Thank you so much!!!

[bdavis]

If your *ist D is disappointed, perhaps you had better give it a cookie and a hug and cheer it up a little bit...


You don't say how experienced you are with SLRs, but if all you have known are compact point n' shoots like your Canon, know that there is a learning curve with SLRs and DSLRs. I'd get some heat from other forum members if I didn't mention that there are some true 'stinker' cameras out there, but in this case, it's far more likely that the photographer is the stinker (and if I were an *ist, I'd be disappointed too). You need to learn how to use your camera. Image quality is directly related to photographer quality.

You've gotten some tips on EV compensation, that are relevant to that model, so it behooves you to learn what your camera and your style needs in terms of EV comp. My tip is to get out into the sun (any lens is pretty decent at f/8) before you buy any other lenses, and practice. Learn how to make great images, because the *ist D is capable of them.

As for the number of hot and stuck pixels, yeah, that's too bad, but its to be expected from an older (and possibly used? I forget what you said) camera. Most raw converters will clone them out automatically for you.