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10-16-2009, 07:02 PM   #1
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K10d Firmware Question

Hey there,

My K10 was dropped by a friend a couple of months ago whilst I was back home in Australia. The mode button was broken and following this I could shoot but only in TV mode.

I took it in for repair (here in Vancouver B.C). The damage was repaired, but when they returned it too me, I would horribly over expose everything.

I returned it too them and was told I had changed some settings and I was at fault. Knowing I hadn't altered anything, I rest everything in the camera to factory defaults and showed them that the problem still existed. It was not my fault, but something else was amiss. They repaired it again and informed me that there was a software problem. I have the sneaking suspicion that they just couldn't find the initial problem and were covering themselves.

I picked the camera up yesterday and everything seems to be functioning as it should. However I have since noticed that it now has Firmware 1.0 installed as I cannot use my 540 flash.

I had personally never upgraded the firmware since purchasing the camera in April 2008, but I think it must have had at least 1.1 installed as I remember the wireless flash option.....

Questions I have are:

1. Would my camera have come with 1.0 installed, or something more current?

2. Am I at risk installing the newer (1.3) firmware in the camera following the damage that has occurred to it?

I'm nervous given I have been informed that it was a software problem, but at the same time a little dubious.

I'm shooting a wedding on Sunday so I won't be making any changes to the camera before then, but I do want to enable the wireless flash at some point.

Any advise is definitely appreciated.

Cheers
Andrew

10-17-2009, 04:18 AM   #2
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Andrew,

Do not worry.
All new K10D PC boards come with version 1.0 out of the factory.
Go to Pentax downloads and follow the instructions.
Many thousands of people have done the upgrade.
You will have no problem, believe me.

- Bert
10-17-2009, 08:01 PM   #3
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Original Poster
Thanks Bert,

I'll do that.

I was out today taking some pictures. Making sure I'm happy with all the settings....
I'm not sure the guys fixed it all properly... It's showing significant noise from ISO 400 and up.
More than I'm used too at 200 as well.

Did any of the firmware updates alter the amount of noise at relative ISO's??

I've got access to a friends camera for tomorrow, so I'll probalby use that for the wedding...

Cheers


Andrew
10-18-2009, 03:13 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by lats Quote
Thanks Bert,

I'm not sure the guys fixed it all properly... It's showing significant noise from ISO 400 and up.
More than I'm used too at 200 as well.

Did any of the firmware updates alter the amount of noise at relative ISO's??

Andrew
Andrew,

No, the firmware upgrades do not influence image noise as far as I know.
There are 2 types of noise in these cameras: 1) sensor noise and 2) cross talk.
The first is mostly temperature and silicon/chip design related, the first has to do with how the high frequency electronics in the camera is shielded.
Cross talk noise typically shows up in vertical bands in the K10D and there have people with K10D samples that had a particulary problem with cross talk. Since this is a hardware related issue, the only solution is getting the camera changed.
The sensor noise can be more or less depending upon the specific K10D item, but is unlikely to differ a lot between cameras. Sensor noise does not show any particular pattern.

If you are shooting jpeg, maybe someone turned off the noise reduction in the customs settings.
However, personally, I would always shoot RAW for a wedding session.
There is some good noise reduction software available, search this forum for references.

The best thing to do in a wedding shoot, is to overexpose a little (1/3, 1/2 up to 1 stop) in darker situations and correct that in post processing.
You will avoid noise that way, since noise in more visible in darker areas (less signal to noise ratio there).

Has this been to technical? I hope not.

10-18-2009, 07:02 AM   #5
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Firmware "Downgrade"?

Very interesting that Pentax supplies new circuit boards with Firmware 1.0. My K10D is now a lightly-used back-up to my K20D, and my idea was to downgrade the firmware back to 1.0, so that IF my SDM failed on any of those lenses (my DA*50-135 has failed and was repaired by Pentax), I could still use them with screw-drive on the K10D.

I downloaded the firmware version 1.10 from the Pentax Hack website. I also compared that download to the same thing from the Vietzon website, as well as comparing it to the K10D de-bug menu download (which I have used successfully), and the actual Pentax firmware upgrades that I still have for the K20D. The 1.10 looked authentic, and everything went fine up to the actual point of installation into the camera, BUT, it would not load to the camera because my camera gave me a message saying that "Firmware version is old- cannot upgrade."

Now in your situation, with the K10D as your primary camera, I would certainly want Firmware 1.3. And I don't mean to threadjack, but can anyone tell me if they've had experience downgrading firmware? Or is it just not possible and only "upgrades" are ever possible? My experience with the De-bug menu seems to indicate otherwise. Thanks.
Paul
10-18-2009, 06:46 PM   #6
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Hi guys,

Thanks for the information.

The wedding went well today.
I upgraded the firmware last night with no problems (but I did have my heart in my throat) whist it was doing it's thing.
And much to my relief, the camera performed as I hoped it should....

Bert, I was shooting as you suggested. Thanks for the tips. I will look into the noise further so I am better able to understand all of this.

I must say though, having my friends K7 on my shoulder with a different lens on it, has made me want to upgrade when the bank account allows it.

Andrew
10-19-2009, 04:03 AM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by lats Quote
Hi guys,

Thanks for the information.

The wedding went well today.
I upgraded the firmware last night with no problems (but I did have my heart in my throat) whist it was doing it's thing.
And much to my relief, the camera performed as I hoped it should....

Bert, I was shooting as you suggested. Thanks for the tips. I will look into the noise further so I am better able to understand all of this.

I must say though, having my friends K7 on my shoulder with a different lens on it, has made me want to upgrade when the bank account allows it.

Andrew
Thanks Andrew,

Perhaps you could put some photos of the shoot here on the forum?
And yes, the K-7 is worth while, but maybe a couple of good lenses even more .

- Bert

10-19-2009, 01:09 PM   #8
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Bert,

I'll do that when I get a chance.

Andrew
11-30-2009, 03:52 PM   #9
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I have looked but obviously not in the correct places. Where can one download the firmware updates? Also, I am assuming you would recommend doing such?

Thanks
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