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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
12-03-2012, 02:01 AM
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
01-31-2011, 11:38 PM
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@bjan "Are you happy with it?"
It's a nice toy, and it has the same sensor. And video is quite nice, just a little noisy (AF). But I am a low light shooter and it is easy to see that the translucent mirror swallows some of the light, resulting in more noise and less DR than the K5. And it is slower in reaction, as either liveview or the electronic viewfinder at any time have to be feeded by the processor. Or when system is idle and you want to be fast it takes some time. IQ is not too bad but with the kit lenses there is no comparison with the K5. At the moment I put a 1.8/50mm glass on it, and this is much better. But this makes me dream of a similar lens on the K5... must be like heaven! Also my timeline is March. We will see...
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
01-31-2011, 12:19 PM
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Hi bjan,
as I can see you're still fighting. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. You and I and many others know that the ff issue is true and big enough. As many others who suffered this issue or the bubbles thing, I too returned also my latest K5 some tie ago. I hope P is not getting back more cams than they're selling because this will not be very healthy.
I got bored by these guys claiming there is no issue. All K5 that I had in my hands (also recently) had ff - maybe it's my hands? At the moment I am using an A55 to distract myself from waiting on the Pentax fix. If it takes too long I might get used to another brand.
While taking back all these cams I hope P will have some time left to resolve this problem.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
01-06-2011, 03:46 PM
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1) It's interesting that still some confirm a serious issue and some do not. The one's who do complain say it's so obvious even an i*iot would see it. Others start doing semi-scientific tests under special, more or less controlled conditions and sometimes see something, sometimes do not.
After having possessed three K5 (and one D7000 in between) within the last two months (and detected additional four K5 with the same issue in the store), with around 6000 pictures shot, and belonging to the group of i*iots that do see the issue on all these eight K5, I believe that it is exactly as we can see in this post: Some have the issue and some do not. (Among them in this thread who are not sure: with some testing you always can prove something is not as you expect it to be, just test hard enough! But this is NOT what bjan had in mind when he started this thread about a severe FF issue).
2) The new FM 1.02 does not fix the issue. I don't know how YOU see it, but I believe Pentax tried to do something about the FF. My K5 used to perform ONE focus operation, in rare cases maybe two. Now it does the first focus step as before, and then very often a second, even third smaller one until it finally locks. This is different than before. But: It did not solve the issue.
3) From these two statements I conclude that we have a hardware issue: Not everybody has it, and a firmware update does not fix it properly. From my job in electronics I can tell you that in 2010 we (global markets) have had massive quality problems with fake electronic components (all global players have global sources that went short with deliveries in the ramp-up situation after the crisis - so they got parts from other, presumably safe sources). Never this fake issue had such a dimension compared to this last year. Why Pentax should not be affected? This is my personal explanation.
4) I for my part today returned my 3rd (or 4th?) K5 after having tried out 1.02. I was as loyal as one could be. And if Pentax some day delivers a good batch to my store, I will get me a new one. I do not blame Pentax if there is a fake issue, as this is a problem that affects all manufacturers. And in practice, it was possible to use the preview CAF to get the right picture, but after thousands of shots my experience is that I just do not want any more to be trapped with a 1500 $ camera in that situation where I hate it to be too late with the contrast AF of preview. Too many shots that I missed due to being too slow after repeating the pic because of FF with the viewfinder. (And again: FF in this thread is meant to be really bad FF, not FF that can be adjusted)
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
01-04-2011, 05:33 AM
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Ray, this sums it up pretty well. Only want to add, that the preview function with CF saves the one or other picture, but not all the situations where you don't have the time to start preview, wait for focus which is very slow, and then hope you don't have to refocus again. "Hey my son, could you pls look the same way you were looking 10 seconds ago? It was so nice I'd love to take a picture. But pls hold this look for 5 seconds, as I have to focus in preview mode..." Bad if your child is still a baby or your subject of interest is an animal, or.., or...
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-23-2010, 10:27 PM
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yes kenyee, too me too this looks like matter of shake. I do not say you don't have a front focus, it could be both, but in the pictures you posted the shake issue is prevalent.
I don't think we need more samples, I am sure a dozen of you guys could post tons of FF pics here, myself I got hundreds from all that experimenting and no-I-can't-believe-and-make-another-one shooting.
It's a comforting experience for me to see my problem is not only my problem, everything is said so far, the Pentax engineers are due now to deliver. I hope it does not take too long, all we can do is wait for some time, and welcome the fix if it does not take too long, and if it does, return the camera.
It's unlucky for us that here in northern hemisphere it's winter time and most shooting occurs under K5-adverse conditions. In summer it might have taken much more time to find out there is a bug.
Have a nice time and thanks for the comfort. Shared pain is half pain.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-23-2010, 02:56 PM
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But did you notice? The paragraph about AF was suspiciously short...
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-23-2010, 02:37 PM
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not a good year for Pentax and the Japanese. Stains on sensors, FF, not functioning front/back wheels, flash issues, hot pixels, ... But I do think positive: I'm glad the K5 has no foot throttle ;-)
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-23-2010, 02:20 PM
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@dgaies !!
Wait! Would you mind to swap K5 bodies with me? I am pretty sure mine does NOT have stains on the sensor. Just some ... well ... small FF issue that might be just something else, nothing a good photographer could not deal with! What do you say?
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-23-2010, 01:25 PM
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Oh, I hope so... What I heard about possibe HW issue was that some unit on the pcba was not activated. But I don't think this was more than a hypothesis.
Yes, I am aware of that. It's just less than a mediocre workaround. If normal mode gives me FF -> try USER1-TUNGSTEN. If this does not match -> use the LV contrast AF or do a quick AF adjustment ...
Somehow I should step aside and look at myself while I am doing that ... so ... firmware 1.02! firmware 1.02! firmware 1.02! ... Come on guys, start yelling together, maybe this is being heard over there in Japan...
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-23-2010, 04:09 AM
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@tommot
I very well understand your situation K5/D7000. First I had K5 - 4 times, and I returned them one after the other mainly because of FF issue described in this thread. After this experience, having also only two lenses, I bought the D7000. It is a great camera, and I cannot subscribe to your statement that K5 IQ is better. AF is a really good feature (and after the K5 traumatic experience to me was the main point!) and some other details are really nice. But: This cam had hot pixel issue at slower exposure times with higher ISO.
Finally, after my store guy told me that Pentax Europe (Hamburg) had acqknowledged the issue and confirmed Pentax is working on that (note: not yet clarified if hard- or firmware issue), I gave back the D7000 and got the last K5.
--- Now I'm waiting for the fix!!! And getting along with unperfect work-arounds like USER1 w/ -10 adjustment (which I named "TUNGSTEN" ... ) and LV-Focusing. A pity that there are many situations where the adjustment would be in between ... :p
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-20-2010, 11:43 AM
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@Pentaxeros: This is quite an interesting statement. Is it based on experiments with different kinds of lens systems only, or is there also a rationale to it?
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-19-2010, 03:26 PM
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Oh thanks to all posters here claiming this FF issue under different light conditions! :)
Of course I had the same issue and posted here and there just to realize that it was simply ignored. So my thinking was all others have well-working K5?!!:(
I had four (4) K5 during a week or so, and all of them had the same issue. (however, it seems that not all batches are defective, judging from some replies) :fedup:
I agree with Horst-Helmut that this is a mayor problem for Pentax if they do not react soon. This post is the first one I see showing more than one or two affected customers. Hopefully it will help put something in motion, so do Pentaxeros (adelante!).
I for my part returned also my last K5 and bought a D7000. HEAR THAT PENTAX?? And I tell you: I was a great fan (and - desperately - STILL AM, hoping for a fix!!). I owned K10 and K20 and was happy until THAT DISAPPOINTMENT.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-14-2010, 12:01 PM
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I made similar experience under artificial light of different sources. The AF shifted away. After many shots and trials I ended up setting the AF adjustment to -10 in one situation, and in another with +2. Also the distance makes a difference. I never managed to get reliable sharpness.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-13-2010, 03:01 PM
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Hi Rupert,
I like your pic of Otis. 500mm handheld with such narrow depth of field, wow! And now you are eager to get your K5 to continue shooting great pictures...
I just returned my K5. It was the 4th K5 I had in the last 10 days or so. They had a few issues, but the biggest one was: None of them managed to focus correctly. Neither with my Sigma lenses (17-70, 70-300) - which is no surprise according to other posts along the forums - nor with the kit lens (18-55). Focus was always way in front of the point I focused on. Pentax told me there were issues in low-light / room light situations, but should be addressed by 1.01. Unfortunately, not with the 4 cameras I tried out...
Of course I applied AF fine adjustment. In different situations I had different results, but never good enough. With the 4th camera I finally managed to achieve sharp pictures using -10 in the adjustment (maximum). The next day I had to re-adjust to +2 in another situation (other light?), or to -5, or even -10 were not enough. If the mismatch had been more or less steady! - It was confusing... but more than that it was disappointing, and finally, after hundreds of shots under various shooting conditions including great support from the store I lost confidence in this camera. I owned the K10 and then the K20, which served me so much! I never never imagined I could get such kind of issues with a Pentax. So I sold my beloved K20 the day before I got the first K5.
Now I own some lenses, and some other nice equipment - but no cam. I will wait for some time if these kiddies' diseases get solved - who knows, I might try again, as the "rest" of the K5 is just what I need.
So, to the guy asking about K5 or D7000: Take your card with you, go and shoot in the store, try to take some pics in different light situations if it is possible, take your time to do some focusing exercises, and then analyse your results back at home on the screen before you make up your mind.
Rudolf, would be interesting to hear about your and Otis' experience with that future K5 and that narrow DOF...
Regards
Heinz
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