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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-06-2022, 11:12 AM
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I don’t think you will see much difference on a monitor if the photo is not enlarged/cropped or high ISO.
I have k110 (6mp), k50 (16mp), and Nikon d750 (24mp full frame). I have huge catalogs in Lightroom. The differences on a 24" monitor with full screen preview (not cropped) are not very significant — without knowing it would be hard to guess which camera took which photo if the ISO is low. I have taken crap photos and stunners with all of them.
For that matter I have enlarged and framed prints from all of these cameras. I have done a 36” wide canvas print from a k110 file. Sure the d750 would have had more detail but it doesn’t matter for the image. People love that canvas.
To me, so much more depends on the subject, framing, lighting, and lens, than the camera body. Certain images when enlarged also simply don’t demand the same resolution of other images.
Once the ISO goes beyond 400 or the cropping starts, the differences become much, much bigger and more and more easily recognizable. Even still I do a 20” print at ISO1600 from my k110 and someone who knows my gear looked at it and commented about the amazing high ISO thinking I used one of my newer bodies. They could never get that with their Nikon d90 they said. But I used the k110! The subject and the noise software masked the noise. Another subject could have looked much worse, but for that subject it really wouldn’t have mattered much which body I used, unless I went beyond 20" -- that was as big as I could go.
Also if you decided you wanted to autofocus on action shots with new lenses then the body can make a really big difference. The k110 autofocus feels poor after the d750, but at the time when it was new I was impressed by the k110. I was coming from all manual focus like you. I cut and put a canon EeS manual focus screen in the k110 which also makes it still my favorite dslr body for manual focus lenses. Makes it manual focus like my film bodies. So incredibly easy! For me it is better than live view on a back screen.
Anyway that was a long way to say: More pixels and better high ISO in the k70 gives better cropping and lowlight. You will also get more dynamic range which can help some scenes quite a bit -- like landscapes with bright clouds and dim foregrounds. But if those things don’t matter to your style, the images won’t be much different.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-25-2022, 10:45 AM
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Thanks! Yes, it seems to be the same even in dark scenes. The camera actually underexposes at higher f stops and has for as long as I can remember. Maybe this is related, but not I think because of clipping since underexposing would have the opposite effect. Still, in my tests I also tried compensating by a 2/3 of a stop at f8 to get the exposure the same as wide open. But whether I under or over exposed the results were always better f4 and wider.
---------- Post added 10-25-2022 at 10:10 AM ----------
Something like this is really what I am leaning towards. I hadn't thought of light bouncing back off the aperture but that would make sense. I was wondering if it is sort of like a dirty/foggy car windshield that only looks dirty/foggy when light hits it from certain angles. Stopping down changes the light angles and maybe that is what is revealing a haze across the whole sensor? I dunno! It really does look like a veiling flare effect across the whole frame so that points to some sort of reflection. When I can part with it for a few weeks and make the drive I will get it to Nikon for a clean and inspection. Would be great news if it is just an oily/dirty sensor! I'll post an update...someday :-)
At least I also have my venerable k50 to use when I send the d750 to Nikon :-) The K50 body/sensor to me has beautiful colors, even better than the d750 (tweaking can make them similar but still...), and I can get gorgeous flare streaks with the old FA50. But for action, the autofocus of all my pentax stuff is a hassle (not saying it can't be done, just isn't as easy or with nearly as many keepers, and I don't have any of the new faster pentax gear) and the high ISO of the K50 is about two stops away.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-30-2022, 08:35 PM
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Hmmm...Good find. So, that definitely shows that flare can occur in the body not just the lens. It does act differently since it goes away stopping down, and mine appears stopping down. I tried to have a good look in the mirror box and nothing stood out as strange or reflective.
I've had it for six years and taken about 40,000 pictures and they claim the body should be sent to them for calibration and maintenance every year or two...funny thing is that it could have been this way a long time. I was shooting mostly portraits and sports and rarely went above f5.6 until I restarted an old interest in landscape and compared my new (to me) 16-35 to my Pentax 10-17...and fell down this rabbit hole!
I still suspect they may just tell me nothing is wrong since it is a weird problem and not super obvious, and bill me for the privilege.
If it is flare I wonder if it will be less noticeable or go away in very dim indoor light. I'll try that next with some long exposures.
---------- Post added 09-30-2022 at 08:16 PM ----------
Indoor test same result as outdoor. Shutter speeds were up to 2 seconds to get ISO 100, again f4 sharper and more contrast. I took several shots and no sign of motion blur. It is the same mild hazy veiling effect I see on every other test.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-30-2022, 04:33 PM
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Right -- if the photos are side by side the left photo is actually f4, not the right. So by thinking that the left is the f8 photo, I think Peter is actually proving for us that the f4 photo is sharper (except where it is beyond the DOF). So maybe we all see the same thing.
If we all agree it is weird and should not be diffraction at f8 then I guess, yeah, I will try a factory reset. I think the d750 lets me save and reload my settings if that doesn't help (I'm doubtful it will help).
And then I guess the best we have so far is a dirty sensor somehow causing a type of flare/glare on the image when the lenses are stopped down? I've never heard of that for a sensor like for a lens, but...? It really does look like veiling glare/flare to me although it is even across the frame and occurring on all lenses so it seems like something reflecting or leaking light evenly in the mirror box. Maybe when less light is coming through the aperture the reflection or leak increases as a percentage of the light on the sensor making the glare bright enough in comparison to degrade the image, or something like that?
Lots of horror stories about Nikon service...maybe I will just never shoot above f5.6 :-) There are much worst problems.
Thanks again everyone, and let me know if you have any other ideas! If I solve it I will try to remember to post what it was.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-30-2022, 11:58 AM
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By the way, in case anyone is interested, the Pentax 10-17 (APSC) compares really well with Nikon 16-35 (FX) in their overlapping ranges above about f6.3.
Wideopen, my 10-17 is totally trounced by the 16-35, but at f8 the 10-17 is a little sharper with more pop than the Nikon, except in the corners. So for shooting stopped down, they are pretty even (at least on my maybe unusual d750 camera body where stopping down doesn't help).
Of course the 10-17 has more distortion. That is a mixed bag though, because the fisheye effect does not stretch out objects toward the edges of the frame like the rectilinear does. So, lines are curved, but the ratio of shapes height to width is truer on the fisheye.
The 10-17 is way smaller, lighter, and cheaper, and goes even wider but with the dramatic fisheye distortion. Oh, and purple fringing can be worse.
I like them both.
---------- Post added 09-30-2022 at 11:02 AM ----------
The difference in sharpness behind is because of the greater depth of field at f8. The point of greatest sharpness and focus for both is on the lantern. With the rest of the image is a little easier to see the focus point is the same.
---------- Post added 09-30-2022 at 11:07 AM ----------
I wonder if you might be right. I shot some blue sky at f22 and there are several small dirt spots on the sensor, but not an oily patch that I can see. I used a rocket blower with mirror up and could not get them to disappear. I wonder if they could be having some sort of influence? I haven't tried actually cleaning the sensor by touching it since I don't want to mess it up. Nikon will do this for about $50 I think. Maybe I should have them do that...but I have never heard of some dust on a sensor doing this...has anybody else?
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-30-2022, 11:13 AM
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This is such a great community! I've been reading for years and keeping up on Pentax, but have not posted in a long time. Thank you all for your responses!
Yes, lens hoods on.
Yes, live view, shutter release with a wireless remote. I just tried with some very slow shutter speeds on a static object (just in case) and same results.
Live view refocus for each shot.
At this point it is several hundred photo tests with various test setups and subjects and the same pattern repeats every single time. I even downloaded Nikon's own photo software in case it was some weird Adobe RAW issue (no, and Lightroom is better).
The way it continues in a linear fashion f8, f11, f16 with each progressively worse makes me think it is defraction. But I don't understand why I am getting it at f8 (actually even f7.1) when other people apparently don't?
It is not a radical loss of sharpness and contrast but it is a sort of soft glow over the photo at 1:1 in Lightroom that is particularly noticeable on complex foliage or very small details. I've added two test photos that had every variable eliminated. These are part of the frame, 1:1 crops representing maybe 1/20 of the full photo. So, yeah, this is pixel peeping, but what got me here was printing 36" wide canvas landscape prints, and then it just became a weird puzzle to try to solve. Photos are from a 16-35mm lens at 35mm. According to Opiticallimits and everywhere else it should be sharper at f8 than at f4. Again, my other lenses do the same thing so it is not lens specific. The sharper more contrasty image at the top is f4 (with the distant foliage out of the depth of field). Unfortunately, the compression when I upload them here has made the difference much less noticeable but it is still visible, especially the lines near the base of the lamp. The compression has really made the foliage look more similar than it does before upload. These are both SOC.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-30-2022, 12:19 AM
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Thanks for your reply Kevin! I had this same idea, and I tested at 1/320 and 1/500 and it looked exactly the same as at longer shutter speeds. I also tried without tripod and with the lens VR on and off.
This whole thing came about because I was testing out a new lens and was baffled by what I was seeing....so I kept going with more lenses until it was just undeniable. So now I've become obsessed with trying to solve it!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-29-2022, 11:31 PM
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I am a both a Nikon and long-time Pentax user, and I'm trying to figure out what could be causing what I am seeing. On my Nikon D750 every lens I test has decreasing sharpness from f4. Lenses that online tests show are sharpest at f8 are clearly sharper for me at f4 (and by clearly I mean clearly at 100% not at 50% in Lightroom). And the lenses all look terrific at f4. I have tried 3 very different lenses (16-35, 24-85, and Tamron 45 1.8) with controlled tests (tripod, controlling for ISO, live view focus and viewfinder focus) and it is unmistakable on all three lenses with multiple real world subjects and throughout the zoom ranges.
My Pentax k50 does not show this pattern. Same test, with FA50 it sharpened up and stayed sharp up to f8 as expected, so the test procedure is good.
It is not a focus issue since no part of the frame, forward or back, shows the same wicked sharpness I see at f4 when at f8. The Tamron is even clearly sharper at f1.8 than at f8.
I understand from online defraction calculators that it should not be defraction at f8.
That leaves the camera body, but I can't imagine what in a camera body could cause this behavior?
Does anybody have any troubleshooting ideas? I don't really want to pay a bunch to Nikon for them to do ???
I know the answer is to ditch Nikon :) But any other ideas?
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
09-29-2018, 08:20 PM
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That is a really cool blur pattern! Lens baby like....but with a great sense of motion in the chicken shot. Lots of great uses for that effect.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-01-2018, 09:05 PM
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I see what you are saying about the color and contrast! Ah, polarizer, but the colors still seem unusual even for that.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-30-2018, 01:24 PM
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Saw a few other mentions -- very compact for 2.5, beautifully built, buttery focus action. Most of all makes really beautiful portraits, sharp enough even wide open with smooth bokeh and great skin tones. Just pleasing. Much better than the takumar labeled one it is confused with. Purple fringes a bit wide open but less than some of my modern lenses! Bonus it even has good edge sharpness.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
07-02-2017, 12:40 PM
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The k1 and the 70-200 look like a terrific combo. Great shots! I'm impressed with the lack of fringing and aberration in the bokeh highlights.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
07-02-2017, 12:34 PM
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For that much gear I really like using a sling style bag. Backpacks are too difficult to grab gear from and messengers are too heavy and awkward with that much for me. The slings combine the best of both with the weight carrying advantage of the backpack and the access of the messenger. I've used kata and Lowepro slings and like them both. I'm currently using the Lowepro bc I found it a little more comfortable, but that's totally personal. A lot of people really like the look of the kata slings.
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Forum: Pentax KP
03-30-2017, 08:32 PM
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I've been waiting for their comparison scene shot. Wow. Compared to the vaunted d750 there is some detail loss at ISO 12800 in RAW for sure in the letters and numbers in particular, but noise grain and pattern look amost identical. Impressive for APSC even if not quite as good as the d750. I think DPR claims it is as good so that's something for Pentax from them! And 50% size I assume it would look the same.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-27-2017, 08:57 PM
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Dynamic range gets pretty cramped, in addition to the noise. Outside the dynamic range is a bigger problem to me at 3200 since as others have mentioned the noise in bright light is less noticeable. The ability to mask noise is pretty subject dependent though. Once highlights are clipped, ugh, and exposing to the left brings up even more noise in the shadows in post. Plus everything, especially color starts to look flat and lacking in tonal range. Fine for some scenes, but the DR issue is real.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
03-12-2017, 01:58 PM
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To answer the question of how much to spend to shoot indoors with very low light with autofocus on a subject darting towards the camera: infinite amounts of $ at least in my experience. My D750 can't consistently catch a toddler running towards me indoors at night time with typical household lights with the 85 1.8g wide open. That's really pretty dim light though and a depth of field of a few inches. The D750 is about as good as it gets.
I think the technique advice provided by a few posters above is great. I wouldn't mess with the sports mode myself. I usually shoot manual or TAv. 1/200 would be the minimum shutter speed and it won't freeze a foil. If you need ISO of 3200 to achieve 1/200 f2.8 I don't know if any autofocus system will reliably catch a fencer mask darting towards you in a small room. I haven't tried it though. You should still be able to get good shots.
You can also spray and pray, and also play around with shutter versus focus priority for the autofocus as well as back button.
I grew up with manual focus and still got great shots, but you are right that our expectations have changed a lot as we have gotten spoiled in the DSLR age!
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
03-11-2017, 02:48 PM
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Agree on the need to see samples with EXIF. The shutter speed needed to stop the action is the same regardless of camera. I don't know which model the canon you reference is, but it is unlikely to have susbtantially better high ISO noise perfmormance if it is a school loaner. That leaves focus blur. The K50 should be able to focus fine on a fencer parallel to the frame. If the fencer is darting towards the camera it will struggle. I have not used many canon bodies but the autofocus on something like a Nikon d7200 is more capable of capturing objects moving towards the camera in my experience. Indoors my K50 is pretty hopeless at subject moving towards it. But frankly if the light is very low every camera will struggle with moving subjects towards it (I also own a D750 -- one of the best autofocus).
So if the canon is performing much better it may be the autofocus, but it might also be settings or user error. Finally, the K50 could be faulty. I expect mine would be fine in a school gym parallel to fencers for comparison.
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
11-20-2016, 02:37 PM
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Is $369 the price on the 17-50?
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
11-16-2016, 10:04 PM
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I'd say: The camera body is probably the least important part. The body behind the camera and the lens on the front are the most important parts in that order. Since the OP does not have an unlimited budget I'm with those saying classes or books and lenses. Classes from a skilled photographer will change how you see and teach lots of skills. Lenses shape what you can see.
As to buying the best Now to last 8 years, it won't be the best in 4 years even and it will be much cheaper.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
11-08-2016, 02:07 PM
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Second gatorguy's Samyang/Bower 85 1.4. I've compared it to every fast lens I have and it is stunningly sharp with buttery bokeh and strong contrast even wide open. It really pops. Factoring in its price It is truly exceptional and worth a try - hardly even counts as LBA at its price.
I have used it outside for promotional portraits (it is long on APSC indoors for most of what I do) -- the clients were absolutely thrilled. Only a small part of that is the lens versus any other 85, but I offer it as evidence that it should be able to satisfy any need despite its bargain price.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-29-2016, 01:31 PM
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Another vote for 77. 50 1.4 is great for portraits on APSC, but not as flattering on full frame.
Of course 50 is versatile in other ways. Back in the film days 77-135 were portrait lengths. 135 is very flattering, especially outdoors were you can have the working distance, but 77 is more useful: First lens I would buy with a K1.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
10-26-2016, 01:23 PM
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No doubt a disappointment. I've given up on last X I'll every buy thinking with new consumer electronics. It's not designed to last a long time, regardless of manufacturer. Leaving things unused also seems to lead to problems. Softens the blow if you just expect it to fail! It seems like 3-4 years is the expected life cycle for most electronics to fully function. Anything more is a bonus ��
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
10-04-2016, 08:24 PM
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Wonderful news Monochrome. Sounds like a very difficult time, but happy, happy news for a loved one to become cancer free.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-22-2016, 09:57 AM
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I do not really factor reliability into my purchase decision on these cameras since there is little evidence, and the existing evidence suggests broad similarity. Anecdotally, I have two friends who are regular DSLR users both using Nikon. I am the heaviest user, and have had no problems with my K110D which is now about a decade old, and none with my K50. One of my friend's D70s had a total failure of the PC board. Had to buy a new body. Pentax has been offering a cheap extended warranty, but the service center reports are hit and miss.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
09-09-2016, 08:10 PM
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There could be blur at 1/400, especially in the feet or hands. Potentially in the face. Depends if it matters? Sometimes a little blur in extremities is cool...sometimes not what you want.
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