[little laker]

Good luck with the exchange unit Maynerd. I shuddered when I noticed that you live in Canada. I'm hoping that you bought it through the US, where Pentax actually cares about their customers

[MikePerham]

Good luck with the exchange unit Maynerd. I shuddered when I noticed that you live in Canada. I'm hoping that you bought it through the US, where Pentax actually cares about their customers

I think you are extreemly fortunate to have Ned Bunnell head up the Pentax Imaging operation in the US ...along with the likes of John Carlson you have some great folks backing up the brand.

However, seems to me we get more media exposure here in Canada. Magazines such as Photo Life frequently have Pentax adds and give away for subscriptions and photo contest prizes etc.. Of course you have 10 times the population ...but I would guess that you do not have 10 times the number of Pentax sales because of the different demographic mix here.

[Maynerd]

I actually work at the camera store that I bought it from, Henry's in Scarborough, so I know that it wasn't a return. It was the first copy we received at this location and I snatched it up. I tested the other one we had available here and it looks MUCH better. I'll report back with more detailed findings.

Cheers.

[gfmucci]

if that happened to me, i'd ship the camera right back.
even if i could put the focusing screen back in, I don't know what else might have gone wrong.

just my 2 cents

jordan

Absolutely. It would have taken me 2 seconds to pack it up after I first saw a problem like that! If you try to monkey with it after seeing that abortion you subject yourself to being accused of tampering which could result in a lot of bickering when you return it - if you didn't work at the store you bought it from. I hope you are the owner or on very good terms with the owner.

[octavmandru]

I recently bought the K20.
Spotted one gap in the body that was way too large for my taste. after a few days I took it back to the shop, and then to Pentax Customer Service.
They replaced it in an instant gave me a Pentax shoulder bag as present, and excused for such a happening. So nice people.
I am much happier now.

[Maynerd]

Well folks,

I swapped the original unit for a new one and apparently the overexposing wasn't just an issue with the original. I don't know if this is simply the way the new metering system has been set up, but I had never gotten this many blow outs with my K20.

Just to test it out, I turned on the highlight correction, and while it helped, I shoot in raw, not jpg, so it really won't do much for me in the long run.

I'm going to keep playing with it and see if I can tame this reluctant beauty, but let's just say that I'm glad I didn't put my K20 up on craigslist yet.

[nostatic]

Well folks,

I swapped the original unit for a new one and apparently the overexposing wasn't just an issue with the original. I don't know if this is simply the way the new metering system has been set up, but I had never gotten this many blow outs with my K20.

Just to test it out, I turned on the highlight correction, and while it helped, I shoot in raw, not jpg, so it really won't do much for me in the long run.

I'm going to keep playing with it and see if I can tame this reluctant beauty, but let's just say that I'm glad I didn't put my K20 up on craigslist yet.

I too found that the K7 is "hot" compared to the K20d. I found a rather significant drop when dialing in -0.3ev. Give that a shot (I went as low as -1.0ev). Part of the problem though is one of expectation and what you're used to. According to the histograms the K7 gives a "better" exposed shot, but I find that my eye prefers a left-shifted histo and darker image. That is maybe one reason I like the K20d images so much.

[Maynerd]

Thanks for the tip, nostatic. I'll give that a shot and see what kind of results I get. I know some people complained about underexposure with the K20, but I'd rather bump up some brightness, as opposed to trying to recover highlights.

[cwood]

Well folks,

I swapped the original unit for a new one and apparently the overexposing wasn't just an issue with the original. I don't know if this is simply the way the new metering system has been set up, but I had never gotten this many blow outs with my K20.

Just to test it out, I turned on the highlight correction, and while it helped, I shoot in raw, not jpg, so it really won't do much for me in the long run.

I'm going to keep playing with it and see if I can tame this reluctant beauty, but let's just say that I'm glad I didn't put my K20 up on craigslist yet.

PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES.

No sense in "telling" everyone about what bad pictures your camera produces if you're not gonna show them too eh?

Show us a picture that you think the camera should have metered more accurately please. This is a photography forum after all

Hey Maynard
But since you work at the store, that must have helped. Why did I not know you worked at a camera store??? It is a job I would love to have... Oh wait there are no camera stores in the U.S.

Sorry to hear about your over exposing issue. Many of the shots I am seeing on the other forum are also 'Nikon' hot. I find it kind of funny that many of the same folks who have been talking about how much better it is for pentax to preserve the highlights are now saying how much more 'perfect' the exposures now are with the K7.

They just look slighty too cooked to me. The flash shots even more so. I know that very well could be because our eyes and brains are so trained to the K10/K20 metering. But I think tiny hot spots are tiny hot spots...

I hope you figure out a good exp comp work around to get you closer to the ballpark that you like.

We are ready for some pics now

I too found that the K7 is "hot" compared to the K20d. I found a rather significant drop when dialing in -0.3ev. Give that a shot (I went as low as -1.0ev). Part of the problem though is one of expectation and what you're used to. According to the histograms the K7 gives a "better" exposed shot, but I find that my eye prefers a left-shifted histo and darker image. That is maybe one reason I like the K20d images so much.

[Clem Nichols]

Do you suppose that Pentax intentionally pushed the exposure to the right in order to minimize noise?

CN

[forestmage]

It sounds like you may have a problem with the second body, though not as severe as the first. I only say this because I've fired off a thousand frames on my K7 and am just not seeing much in the way of overexposure at all. I've shot mainly with primes, the 35, 55, but have also shot quite a few with the new 18-55WR. My camera certainly isn't underexposing to the degree that my k20 did but I'm not seeing much in the way of nuked highlights at all. Of course we haven't had much sun this summer either, so perhaps take this with a grain of salt!

[Maynerd]

PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES.

No sense in "telling" everyone about what bad pictures your camera produces if you're not gonna show them too eh?

Show us a picture that you think the camera should have metered more accurately please. This is a photography forum after all

Here are a few quick examples all taken in aperture priority (this is after I'd already applied some negative adjustment to the high/low key adjustment in Bright mode) using multi-segment metering. When you get into very contrast-y landscape scenes, the sky will blow out every time, whereas the metering on the K20 seemed to err on the side of caution to avoid blowouts.

1/640 @ F2.8 | ISO 100 | 0 ev comp


1/1250 @ F2.8 | ISO 100 | -1 ev comp


1/640 @ F8 | ISO 100 | 0 ev comp


1/640 @ F8 | ISO 100 | -1 ev comp



Maybe I'm just being too picky... Maybe it's just that I was so used to the way that the K10/K20 exposed that this will just take some getting used to.

[FotoPete]

Haha you must get the Pentax Shelf all to yourself over there! (jealous)

Yea I find that alot about my K20D. It would look just about right on the LCD screen and then on my computer, I have to like crank almost every shot by +1ev in post. LoL. Seems like they tweaked the exposure in the K-7 in the right direction!

[mtngal]

I've had two K-7 bodies, and they metered somewhat differently. The first one (which suffered from the green line) was too hot, I used -.3 Ev and was happier with that. My second K-7 body seems to be fine, I don't dial in any Ev. I think this second one is actually more accurate than my K20, which I pretty much leave at +.3 Ev because it underexposes. I think that Pentax is reacting to so many who have complained that it underexposed routinely, so they've tweaked it a bit. But based on my own personal experience, I don't think its consistent from one body to the next. As long as the camera is consistent so you can dial in an Ev and forget it, it doesn't really matter.