[UnknownVT]

I received a new Kx on Tues Nov/24/2009 purchased from NewEgg.com.

I think I may have a possible issue (or two)

On my Kx the Instant Review (display of the photo on the LCD right after taking the shot)
takes nearly 4 seconds to show (3.8 secs average) for JPGs
RAW+JPG takes nearly 5 secs (4.9 secs average) -
whereas watching a Kx battery issue YouTube video
I can see the Instant Review takes just over 1 sec on their Kx for JPGs,
which seems much more reasonable.

I have now used the Kx on 620 shots, and the Instant Review has always been slow.

I only use fast SD(HC) cards and have tried A-Data Turbo (150x 4Gb SDHC); ATP Pro Max (150x 4Gb SDHC); RiData Supreme (150x, 1Gb & 2Gb) - which have all tested fast on write (and read) cycles.

The batteries (eneloops) are in good condition.

I personally don't think this is normal -
has anyone else encountered this slow display of the Instant Review?

Any advice on how to best address this please?
I am obviously interested in getting a good working unit (replacement, or some easy fix if I am doing something wrong) as quickly as possible.

eg:
should I return this to NewEgg for a replacement?
or
should I contact Pentax (USA) to address this?

another possible issue is the batteries
seemed to work fine on eneloops (topped-up before use on Maha C9000)
but showed half orange at about 370 shots
and at about 560 shots it is showing Red (nearly empty) - this count seems low -
but battery issues are well documented elsewhere on this forum.

FWIW -Serial # 3434XXX

[johnnl]

Very likely you have "Lens correction" switched on in the menu.
So the poor K-x is calculating like crazy to compensate lens-distortions,
and keeps you waiting a bit.
Switch it off, saves batteries as well

[Eruditass]

Do you have lens correction (distortion and CA) on? This takes several seconds to process on this camera and is kinda annoying.

If only LR had distortion correction...

[rawr]

I would hesitate to assume that there is any issue with your new Pentax at all due to the delay in image review you describe. I wouldn't rush to any conclusions.

Two issues spring to mind here:

(1) Why are you using those cheapo no-name SDHC cards? Get a Sandisk Ultra or just a regular Sandisk SDHC card and try again. Really, all SDHC cards are NOT the same, as many threads in this forum will attest. You need quality SDHC cards in your camera if you want it to perform to specification.

(2) The camera may be taking time to display the review image because you might have enabled some options that delay the processing of images taken by the camera. Options that spring to mind include: using RAW+ (ie two images get created for every photo), and turning on the options to implement lens distortion correction and CA correction (Menu > 1 - Lens Correction > Distortion Corrrection - Lat-Chromatic Ab Adj). You may have also enabled other image processing options like D-Range Correction (Highlight and Shadow Correction). The more you ask the camera to do, the more work it has to do in order to capture, process, save and display the image. The lens distortion and CA correction feature in particular can add a second or two delay per shot, as noted in the manual. It's the same story with RAW+.

[UnknownVT]

Do you have lens correction (distortion and CA) on? This takes several seconds to process on this camera and is kinda annoying.

Thank you - yes I did have both On.

I turned off Distortion and CA correction and now the Instant Review takes about 1.5 secs
- which seems much more reasonable
might still be a slight fraction slower than the one in the video -
but not enough to complain about.

Thank you very much for helping solve my "problem".

Now I just need to know if the seemingly shorter battery life/capacity is a problem or merely because my Kx is new and I've probably been playing with it and using up the battery.....

[UnknownVT]

(1) Why are you using those cheapo no-name SDHC cards? Get a Sandisk Ultra or just a regular Sandisk SDHC card and try again. Really, all SDHC cards are NOT the same, as many threads in this forum will attest. You need quality SDHC cards in your camera if you want it to perform to specification.

Thanks for your advice - as you see it was the second suggestion that solved my "problem" (I had both distortion and CA correction On).

Although I do acknowledge your point about SD(HC) cards - all the cards I tried are much, much faster than the SanDisk SD card I have (I do not have the Extreme 30Mb/s card - as that is really expensive).

Although it is no longer the issue - all the cards I tried are rated 150x - have all tested (both reviews and myself) to be very fast - much faster than the average class 6 SDHC (the current fastest rating).
The all important write speeds for all the cards quoted are comparable to the Patriot Xporter XT Boost 8GB Flash Drive which is one of the fastest USB flash drives available.

Although SanDisk and Lexar are the most well known names
and are obviously safe bets (but only their top of the line are really fast)
- the cards I use are not really "no-name" brands -
eg: ATP is a very well regarded memory manufacturer.
RiData cards have tested very well in many dSLRs,
A-Data Turbo has a very good reputation for being fast.

But I do thank you for your helpful and valuable advice.

[rawr]

I didn't mean to offend you by dissing your favorite SD card brands. LOL

But problem solving is all about eliminating variables, and a big variable here was the SD card type. The Sandisk's are a known baseline. Many people have reported that they work reliably for regular shooting and video on the K-x, and (I think - somewhere on the Pentax USA site) Pentax have tested them etc. So in eliminating SD card as a variable I wanted to recommend going back to a known baseline. If the Sandisk's worked OK, saving images quickly, then the issue would more likely be not with the camera, but with the cards you were using. And so on.

But I'm glad the issue has gone away now. And once again sorry if you were offended by the tone of my response.

I do however sometimes wish folks would not assume a manufacturing flaw is behind every issue or problem they encounter with complex devices (with 300 page manuals) like modern DSLR's.

If I were to drive my car everywhere with the hand-brake on, and felt the car was driving slowly, I wouldn't rush to call it a defect in the car.

[UnknownVT]

I didn't mean to offend you by dissing your favorite SD card brands. LOL

I do however sometimes wish folks would not assume a manufacturing flaw is behind every issue or problem they encounter with complex devices (with 300 page manuals) like modern DSLR's.

If I were to drive my car everywhere with the hand-brake on, and felt the car was driving slowly, I wouldn't rush to call it a defect in the car.

No offense taken, and I know none was meant.

I am very grateful for your response -
you are absolutely correct to eliminate obvious possibilities.

I set the distortion and CA correction thinking those were good things right from the start -
and didn't realize that was the cause of slow instant review display (it is obvious now that I know...)

That's why I posted here before trying to contact either Pentax or Newegg.

Thank goodness this forum came through
even if I'm shown to be stupid -
it's much better this way.

[opiedog]

i got mine from newegg as well. sn is 3434xxxx so same batch as yours.
eneloops seems to work okay, but NIzn's work great.

i'm not sure if buying a lacrosse bc9009 would help "charge" the eneloops and my other NiMh's better or would i be better served by buying more nizn's?

i wish pentax would come out w/ a fix already!!!!

[Conan]

i got mine from newegg as well. sn is 3434xxxx so same batch as yours.
eneloops seems to work okay, but NIzn's work great.

i'm not sure if buying a lacrosse bc9009 would help "charge" the eneloops and my other NiMh's better or would i be better served by buying more nizn's?

i wish pentax would come out w/ a fix already!!!!

Buy more NiZn's! I have 12 pieces already in anticipation of my acquiring a K-X.

[opiedog]

thanks, conan,

i was thinking the same.
the cost of the lacrosse charger would equal 1 nizn charger + 8 AA's.

only disadvantage i see with the nizn's is that they don't hold their charge as long as eneloops do.

oh, well. some pros and cons.

[bazzie]

I know disposable batteries are not politically correct atm, but (purely for research purposes) how do NiZn disposables compare to lithium ones?

[opiedog]

NiZn's are rechargeables. of course at the end-of-battery life, you'll still need to throw them out.
according to powergenix, these are environmentally friendly.

[bazzie]

NiZn's are rechargeables. of course at the end-of-battery life, you'll still need to throw them out.
according to powergenix, these are environmentally friendly.

I was thinking of these nickel zinc batteries, which are not rechargeable:
Link

[UnknownVT]

only disadvantage i see with the nizn's is that they don't hold their charge as long as eneloops do.

There may be more than that -
The main problem is that the NiZn batteries come off the charger at about 1.85V (open circuit) which can be dangerously high for sensitive electronics.

ie: the Kx expects about 6.0V total - NiZn freshly charged can be measured at 7.4V - which is obviously way over that.

Now lithium primary AAs can measure 1.7V (o-c) which means the Kx can at least handle up to 6.8V - but even allowing for that, NiZn freshly charged are still significantly over that higher measurement.

This is something one should bear in mind - there might be sudden death (which does not seem to be the case, since many are reporting success with NiZn so far) - however there might be long term damage......

So for me it's risky - and may be out of spec.

My usage of eneloops has only been respectable
(only gone through a single set) - shot count was lower than I was hoping for.

BUT in mitigation when I just did a discharge to see the remaining capacity it was in the 20-33mAh range (Maha C9000) so they were pretty much completely (safely) depleted.

So at least the Kx is capable of utilizing almost the full capacity of eneloops. Perhaps my lower shot count is merely me playing with a new toy and wasting battery capacity?