[fulcrumx29]

Hi All,

Have you paid attention to the famous "dots" in K-7 picture which is more serious than K20d? I just find the fine sharpness can dramatically reduce these annoying dots in low ISO. It also has effects on high ISO!

Go fine sharpness!

Tony

[LeDave]

I wonder if it'll work with the K-m/K2000 too since it also has fine sharpness settings.

[nulla]

Hi All,

Have you paid attention to the famous "dots" in K-7 picture which is more serious than K20d? I just find the fine sharpness can dramatically reduce these annoying dots in low ISO. It also has effects on high ISO!

Go fine sharpness!

Tony

Thanks Tony will give it a try

Neil

[pcarfan]

What is fine sharpness? is there such a setting in the K-7?

Figured it out. The sharpness setting changes to fine sharpness by turning the rear dial (turning the front dial reveals more choices too). But, when the fine sharpness is changed, the sharpness setting changes by the same amount. So, I don't know what the difference is between the two settings. Also, it looks like it doesn't affect RAW files.

---

Last edited by pcarfan; 08-15-2009 at 04:35 PM.

[fulcrumx29]

I guess fine sharpness is just some adjustment maybe different calculation method upon same level of sharpness. To me it does not give you sharper image but just more smooth for fine structures.

[pcarfan]

I guess fine sharpness is just some adjustment maybe different calculation method upon same level of sharpness. To me it does not give you sharper image but just more smooth for fine structures.

So, do you increase the setting to remove the 'dots' or reduce it?

[eva2000]

Hi All,

Have you paid attention to the famous "dots" in K-7 picture which is more serious than K20d? I just find the fine sharpness can dramatically reduce these annoying dots in low ISO. It also has effects on high ISO!

Go fine sharpness!

Tony

Mate you have one weird K-7 hehe... never noticed dots before.

Fine sharpness K-7 : Digital SLR Cameras : PENTAX

The PENTAX-developed fine sharpness mode has received wide acclaim from discerning photographers. Unlike conventional sharpness-control options, it intensifies the image's sharpness level and gives natural, smooth outlines to the subject without thickening or spoiling the outlines. By assuring edge-to-edge sharpness, it makes the image appear more true-to-life and livelier — perfect for making large-size prints and drastic image trimming.

Notes:
• The fine sharpness mode can be selected via the custom image setting menu during shooting.
• With RAW-format images, the fine sharpness mode can be selected during the in-body RAW-data development process.
• The fine sharpness mode cannot be selected when the RAW-data development process is made on a personal computer using PENTAX Digital Camera Utility 4 software.

Also http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/PentaxK2000/page14.asp

As well as being able to control the level of sharpening applied, the K2000 also gives control over the type of sharpening. This is a feature we first saw on the K20D, where Fine Sharpening (which appears to be a more conventional application of unsharp masking with a smaller radius) offered some greatly improved results.

---

Last edited by eva2000; 08-15-2009 at 07:19 PM.

[fulcrumx29]

Well, I don't believe I got weird. I am talking about jpgs. If you go dpr forum you will find several posts about it and you can also see it from image resouces website. Of course you need pixel peeping in low ISOs.

Tony

[simico]

Fine sharpness seems to make noise more visible at high ISO.

[mcjm78]

Fine sharpness seems to make noise more visible at high ISO.

That is what I found too. I've shared my findings on how different sharpness setting will affect the JPEG picture quality in terms of the "dot" in another post.

I find that using -ve sharpness setting will make the "dot" disappear, and give similar JPEG result as a K20.

Mike

[fulcrumx29]

Hi guys,

In low ISO like 100, fine sharpness is good to eliminate the dots. On high, maybe you are right but I did not see much difference.

BTW, what is -ve sharpness?

Thanks,
Tony

[Urkeldaedalus]

So, do you increase the setting to remove the 'dots' or reduce it?

By everything I've read, you should avoid in camera sharpening if you want to keep the image noise levels down. I think this holds true for most cameras and for RAW development, too. I usually do all of my sharpening as the very last step in photoshop, although I've read different workflows about that.

[Marc Sabatella]

It helps to be clear about what we are talking about. I'm assuming by "dots" you mean "noise". Using a high "regular" sharpness setting will magnify the appearance of noise. Using a high "fine" sharpness setting, in theory, wouldn't magnify the nosie as much. but of course, using no sharpening at all would magnify the noise even less. And using one of the in-camera NR settings would actually reduce it, at least at ISO levels where it kicks in.

All of this assumes you are shooting JPEG. By shooting RAW, you gain full control over all of this in PP rather than try to guess which of a few very coarse settings might produce results you like more often than not.

[nostatic]

I would like to know if anyone sees this "noise" when printing or outputting their images at the intended target size/use.

imho "high iso noise" is mostly an artifact of user pixel peeping rather than a real issue.

Well, it is "real" is you choose to spend your life pixel peeping I suppose. In that case buy your gear accordingly.

[fulcrumx29]

Agree with Mark. The only strong noise I notic at fit screen of my computer is that made by highlight correction. Of course, you do not need to pixel peeping to see the high ISO noise at 1600 or 3200 even NR is high.