Originally posted by GoremanX Yeah, I'm just happy with the results, I don't care enough to actually downgrade to the 1.00 firmware just to find out.
Famous last words
I can't actually downgrade to 1.00 since there's no such firmware download (the camera was shipped with 1.00). But I did download 1.01 and downgrade to that, then tried the above shot again under the exact same conditions.
I was trying REALLY HARD to be steady for this shot. I even tried bracing my right elbow on the desk so the camera would have less chance of moving when I press the shutter button. This is the best I was able to get:
and here's a 100% crop of the same area as in my previous post:
Once again, the one I took with firmware 1.03 for a direct comparison:
I wasn't even trying for that one. I can get that result repeatedly with 1.03 on a whim. With 1.01, it took me 5 tries to get that blurry result, and that was the best I could manage. The other 4 attempts were all worse.
This may not be scientific, but it makes it conclusive to me. That silent 1.02 firmware update improved shake reduction performance noticeably, and I'm real happy with the results.
edit: I did not check noise reduction performance. I hate the 1.01 firmware and wanted to switch back to 1.03 as quickly as possible. I'm not comfortable constantly switching firmware versions back and forth. Besides, I don't really care about noise reduction performance. If anyone else wants to test out that aspect of it, you can get the old firmware files here:
http://www.pentax.jp/english/support/digital/firmware/k7_e102w.EXE (this is the silently updated one, not the original one)
http://www.pentax.jp/english/support/digital/firmware/k7_e101w.EXE