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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-07-2010, 11:15 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-07-2010, 01:28 AM
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I appreciate all the comments/advise. I do however have a request.
I have a F 50mm 1.7 prime. It is obviously resolves better than my kit lens. Using the above mentioned prime ... how would the Tammy 17-50 compare to it?
While I'm at it .... are the older M primes sharper than the F series?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-06-2010, 11:34 AM
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Please explain.....in detail. (Now I'm going to be sick)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-06-2010, 10:34 AM
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Hey guys...
I picked up the Canon Rebel T1i just to see what the fuss was all about by that camera. My K-x CRUSHES this Canon for outdoor autoexposure. The Canon always typically over exposes..... yuuuuuck.... enough said.
HOWEVER .... I was awstruck as to how the kit lens (18-55) blew my K-X out of the water......and into the next state :). Razor sharp through the entire range. A vastly noticiable improvement over my K-x kit lens. The resolving power was amazing. BTW although I don't intend on buying that Canon ... and do intend on keeping my K-x .... I must say, I am very very impressed with the quck and deadly accurate AF of that big ugly plastic Canon..... and it doesn't seem to suffer from focusing inaccuracies by focusing close range in incandescent light....like my K-x woefully does.
Here's my question to you guys. If I pickup the Tammy 17-50 ... will THAT lens on MY K-x produce the same wow factor? OR .. how much does the tack sharp IQ of the Canon have to do with it's 15mpx sensor?
I'd hate to commit to spending $500 to chase a ghost.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-02-2010, 10:14 AM
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I know that .. But try this:
Shoot at the highest quality level in your camera - leave it at default sharpening.
Open the image in Silkypix .... and save it back to the lowest setting ... one star.
Now use a viewer that will alow you to open two sessions ... I use VUEPRINT. Open each sample and zoom in to each section you want to study and ALT-TAB between the two. This will give you an exact-instant method of switching between the two. You'll not see the difference. :) But your 5+meg file will now be about 1.5meg.
Now having said that .... If you load the images into Photoshop, and save to lowest setting, yes you will see the difference, albeit small. But Silkypix? Nope. :)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-02-2010, 10:08 AM
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Now that I've done the focus tests correctly .. about 3 to 5 meters ... outside ... I've found that the 18-55 was in focus all along as well as my F 50mm 1.7 prime. ..... End conclusion.. the 18-55 is soft at the 55mm mark. When I had the two long zoom Pentax's, the softness at the high end of zoom was worse than the kit. Sorry I don't have comparative samples... I erased them all in disgust :(
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-02-2010, 10:04 AM
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Whereas I've always shot Pentax SLR's - I am by no means a fanboy. Prior to me buying the K-x. I had the D5000, and the Canon Rebel. I played with all three for about a week. Weighed all the features and advantages and disadvantages of each. Bottom line the K-x smokes then all in all catagories....... lock stock and two smokin' barrels :)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-02-2010, 05:48 AM
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I recently installed the software that came with the K-x. I rarely if ever work in RAW. But I have noticed that if you were to take the original JPEG out of the camera at about 5 megs a file on average, and load them into the software and save them at the lowest quality of "*"; you end up with a file that is approximately 1.5 megs. If you were to load both the orginal and the newly saved file and pixel peep till your eyes bled, you would not see a difference. My question is - what is the advantage of keeping the huge files?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-02-2010, 05:42 AM
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All I can say is that the K-x replacement better be spectacular, because if it isn't, you'll see the used K-x market go through the roof. :)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-01-2010, 11:04 PM
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Well, this is not my first copy of the K-x - I did have for a couple of days a Pentax 18-250 and a Pentax 55-300 - I found them both to be soft lens at the high end.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-01-2010, 06:04 PM
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Yes, I've come to that realization as well.
I did notice that you have the tammy 18-250. Part of my reasoning for holding on to my s100fs is that ..... I haven't seen an all in one zoom for the Pentax that I can be happy with. ... though I've only been going by resolution specs/reviews. The Fuji's 28-400 has stunning tack sharpness throughout it's range. How happy do you think I'd bee if I took the plunge to the 18-250? According to the review's I've seen (resolution tests) .... it drops off significantly on the soft side in the upper zoom range.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-01-2010, 09:27 AM
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Yes sir, as a matter of fact, I shoot Center AF all the time.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-31-2010, 12:48 PM
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-31-2010, 12:45 PM
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Thanks for the tips guys .... I guess I will have to use a target further away. ... And depending on the type of target .... seems to affect the results. But yes, I will be doing further tests outside. The K-x is my first digital DSLR and now that I can pixel peep, I guess it gets me paranoid .. the type of paranoia I never experienced with my film SLR's. On the other hand ... My FUJI S100fs is smack on ... razor sharp focusing one end of it's 14x zoom to the other. As much as I like the K-x .... they'll have to pry my S100fs from my cold dead hands :)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-30-2010, 09:20 PM
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GOOD GRIEF! You can't be serious??!! Of course you are. Wow, that is a MAJOR design flaw if you ask me. Here I am slamming my head against the wall trying to figure this out - Why on earth would it ever occur to me that .... in 2010 ... I'm dealing with a camera that hasn't figured out how to focus properly under ..... the first ever form of indoor lighting invented. Do Nikon's, Canons etc. have this quirk also? I've always owned Pentax camera's since my first spotmatic ....... but THIS? ...... I'm speechless.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-30-2010, 07:16 PM
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I've been going nuts for the past week trying to figure out if there is something wrong with the K-x autofocus system. I've always thought my 18-55 kit was a little too soft at the 55mm end wide open. So I've been doing all kinds of focus tests with other lens's I have. In particular my SMC F 50mm 1.7 prime.
Here's what I don't get.
I set up a 6 x 6 inch text target 3 feet away from the camera ... tripod mounted, remote activated. F1.7 .. wide open. The autofocus consistantly had it front focusing.... making the text blurred. I went into debug mode and found the perfect correction of -150. Autofocusing was bang on razor sharp. So then, I take the camera outside and start taking some shots. All shots taken farther than 10 feet or so were blurred. I'd have to stop down to f11 or higher to get resonable results.
Here's what I can't figure out. If my fine tuning made an obvious clear improvement on the target, why the h*ll didn't it hold the correction throughout the range of the lens?? Also ... even before the correction, I would go into live view and focus from there using contrast detection and it focused beautifully. Surely this is a defect that Pentax must know about? Why would they use phase matching when the alternate contrast detection clearly works better?
Am I chasing an imaginary boogyman? Am I being to fussy?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-01-2010, 05:05 PM
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Thank you kindly .. I kind of figured those were F2+ shots. Very nice work!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-01-2010, 03:03 PM
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Don't get me wrong, I think those are fabulous shots, I just thought his answering here would benefit anyone else who's curious what the settings were. I just got the lens for second time. First time was when I owned an SF10. I don't seem to recall that lens being that bad wide open. Perhaps the lens behaves much differently wide open when on a cropped sensor. |
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-01-2010, 10:24 AM
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I saw your pics in this thread:
Pentax Lens Review Database - SMC Pentax-F 50mm F1.7 Lens Reviews
Do you recall what settings were used? (F, SS, PP if any)
I have that lens with the K-X and there is NO WAY I can that that kind of resolution at f1.7. In fact f1.7 is all but useless. That lens begins to get sharp at 2.2 and higher... at least with my camera anyway.
Thanks for the anticipated reply!
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