|
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
10-18-2013, 06:00 PM
|
| |
Stormtech, the reason I sold my K-5 was exactly this AF float problem. After one year I got sick of checking every single day to see if the focus is right before actually starting shooting. I got the k-5IIs and I'm happy to say the problem is gone, thank God.....I also shoot indoors a lot and I don't have any problems with different light sources like I used to have with k-5....
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
07-20-2013, 08:56 PM
|
| |
I had all k5, k30 and k5ii-s cameras at the same time and I can add some differences here.
First and most important for me is the heavy noise reduction that k30 does to jpeg files. If you don't have time for PP and you shoot mostly jpeg you will notice the k30's iso files above 800 lack A LOT of detail compared to those from k5. And I'm talking about a NR the camera does regardless of your settings. Even if you turn off the in-camera NR, the jpeg's will still be heavily processed. This alone was a deal breaker for me.
Somebody said the movie is better....I don't necessarily find that true. The k30 movie files are plagued by the jelly effect which doesn't happen with k5. Also, a lot of people complain about the raw (mjpeg) format of k5's movies. I find that ideal because there's no loss in quality and I can compress my movies to any format and bitrate I like with ease. The k30 can shoot 30fps in fullHD but again, that jelly effect is really annoying once you know how smooth k5 deals with movies.
Another big difference for me was the shutter noise...If you don't want people to turn their heads when you take a picture behind them, choose the k5.
And finally, the last reason that made me drop the k30, is the much better dynamic range you'll find in k5ii.
If you ask me the k5ii-s ( yes, I like the extra sharpness, and no, I still didn't see any moire in my pictures) is a no brainer when compared to k30. I hope this helps.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-20-2012, 02:32 AM
|
| |
I use 4 1900 mAh Eneloop's and I get much more shots compared to the supplied battery. I didn't actually check how many but I feel the 4 AA's are close to what I was getting with K-5's battery. OK, maybe not THAT many.....but close.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-20-2012, 01:19 AM
|
| |
If you ask me, I think the switch to Ricoh messed up their plans so they came up with some, as far as I'm concerned, doubtful decisions. I believe K30 could've easily been the flagship camera with proper implementation of the already proved sensor. K30 has the better processor which already brought better movie mode, focus peaking and should've brought better burst, 14bit conversion, expanded ISO etc. For some reason they chose not to use the capabilities of this new processor....The resolution at lower ISO seems to be better than K-5's. Pentax K30 already has a much accurate AF than K-5 as well. So I believe, with good implementation this could've been a better camera than K-5II, at least on paper....Pentax should've made K30 the flagship and leave K-5 in production as the entry/middle class. Just my 2 cents.....
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-19-2012, 11:13 PM
|
| |
The 2 bit difference has been brought up by JonPB. The shadow detail and excellent DR seems to pull K-5 in front which is a shame considering K30 is the much newer technology...Also, I don't understand why a pentax engineer would think something like this: OK, so our new camera is not great when it comes to shadow detail, let's completely kill that already low detail by applying some NR to it.....
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-19-2012, 09:18 PM
|
| |
The "fine" grain you are seeing is the smoothed luminance noise. That's the reason they are applying NR so that the usual, "healthy" grain looks like "fine grain" :). Yes the chroma noise is more visible but not the luminance noise which makes me believe the NR is targeting luminance noise. Unfortunately killing the luminance noise kills the detail as well if overdone, which seems to be the case for K30.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-19-2012, 07:19 PM
|
| |
Really? You really can't see it there??? I don't see any grain there. All I see is just a soup of colors....And I use the same software for both K-5 and K30 so I don't think the software can consistently make one camera look better than the other one although I may be wrong....
JinDesu I couldn't find any online service to accept my raw files.....
I'm not trying to convince anyone about this problem. Again, I am comparing K-5's ISO with K30's because I have both cameras and, to my eyes, K-5 looks much better. Of course this is subjective and other people can see thing differently. In rawr's post I see clearly the smoothing, he is seeing fine grain so....I don't want this thread to become an argument between us so I'll just stop here because we're going nowhere.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-19-2012, 09:50 AM
|
| |
Here's another comparison ISO 6400. It's more obvious on the right side of the can.
K5
K30
 |
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-19-2012, 08:54 AM
|
| |
Indeed the grains are there....interesting. I have no idea what's going on...Was this a production unit you used? Maybe they introduced the NR later somehow...here's a 25600 sample from my camera.....not much grain here...I mean you can see clearly NR has been apllied...
 |
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-19-2012, 08:28 AM
|
| |
That's probably because you had a fairly well lit scene. Like I said, that blotchy, messy look, kicks in when shooting a darker scene. I even said in a previous post, when I shoot my carpet at iso6400 but with good light, the detail is there.
 Quote: I tried both Pentax's Digital Camera Utility and Lightroom 2 with pretty much the same results. One thing I noticed for sure, this only happens with darker scenes. If I shoot the same carpet at ISO 6400 but with better light the detail is there and it's quite good. Also, with K-5 I got used to underexpose the scene, to keep the ISO low, because it was so good at preserving detail but it looks like it doesn't work with K30 anymore. |
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-19-2012, 08:13 AM
|
| |
Quote: By the way, does it strike anyone else that the K-30 sample images here seem to have more sharpening than the K-5 images?
Ooops, my bad. When he said "here" i thought he is talking about here on the forum not here in this thread....My mistake, of course RAW files are not affected by sharpening...:o
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-19-2012, 08:07 AM
|
| |
You can set your camera as you like, Richdog. I'm happy with my settings right now but the default settings are probably made to appeal to the entry level users. Very rich, unnatural colors, high sharpness that will give you a lot of artifacts and high contrast that will kill the DR. You can tune down all these setting so nothing to worry about. I definitely recommend the camera unless you like shooting in low light/high ISO situations in which case I would recommend waiting for the upcoming K-5II. K30 is really not too bad in the low light department but it is worse compared to K-5. BUT don't forget that K-5 is the best APS-C camera when it comes to high ISO resolution!
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-18-2012, 10:54 PM
|
| |
The default sharpening level in K30 is VERY high. I had to switch to fine sharpness and tune it down to -2 to get some good pictures. High sharpness with high ISO noise is not a good combination.....Also the default contrast and saturation are through the roof as well....Bottom line, I had to switch to the Muted setting and tweak it from there...
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-18-2012, 08:23 PM
|
| |
I agree K30 IS a good camera, like I actually said in the very first post. But being 2 year newer than K-5 I wasn't expecting it to perform worst than K-5 in this matter. You might be right about the extra 2 bits but that still doesn't justify the NR they apply, which entirely kills that lower amount of detail. But I repeat, apart from this problem, which most users won't even notice, K30 is indeed a very good camera I'm enjoying shooting with.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-18-2012, 06:33 PM
|
| |
I tried both Pentax's Digital Camera Utility and Lightroom 2 with pretty much the same results. One thing I noticed for sure, this only happens with darker scenes. If I shoot the same carpet at ISO 6400 but with better light the detail is there and it's quite good. Also, with K-5 I got used to underexpose the scene, to keep the ISO low, because it was so good at preserving detail but it looks like it doesn't work with K30 anymore. If you have a darker picture it's pretty much ruined as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately this seems to me like a marketing strategy.....If they would've kept the same ISO performance the sensor is capable of, and with the much better AF K30 has, there was no way on earth I would've even considered investing in K-5II. So they chose to ruin the capabilities of a perfectly good camera to make it unattractive for more advanced users and justify the higher price of K-5II....
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
09-18-2012, 06:05 PM
|
| |
Ray, this is exactly what I was thinking. As far as I know, the new 2.8 sensors will improve accuracy in low light but it will not fix the real problem K-5 is struggling with and that is the light wavelength issues. I own both K-5 and K30 and it's obvious to me the DO in K30 works really well. I too shoot most of the time in low light with fast lenses and it's been a quite frustrating experience with K-5. One simple thing that I think would've helped K-5's accuracy is for the AF assist lamp to light up sooner than it does. On the other hand I know that when K30 locked focus the accuracy is there. The AF is not fast in low light but at least I know it's accurate. I think it would be a big mistake for Pentax if they don't implement the DO in K-5II as well. Time will tell.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-18-2012, 05:02 AM
|
| |
The NR kicks in really bad when you shoot a darker scene with continuous patterns like hair, skin, carpet etc. If you don't shoot indoor at low light, the K30's image is beautiful. Yeah maybe I'm venting a little bit but, after more than a year of frustrating AF with my K-5, I was really hyped about K30's AF when I noticed my son's hair looking like a yellow patch and my wife's face looking like pinkish spot with eyes. In some situations it is really relevant and unfortunately for me, I like shooting in those situations K30 doesn't like.....I just don't understand why Pentax would willingly handicap their own product......
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-18-2012, 01:05 AM
|
| |
It's just a shame Pentax is limiting the possibilities of this camera with their NR. With the already much better AF of the K30 I guess they were afraid K5II won't justify the higher price.....I'm not sure how good the new AF system will be for the new K5 but I'm quite impressed with K30's AF and I shoot most of the time in low light with fast lenses. Unfortunately the noise reduction beats the purpose of the better low light AF which is a bummer.....
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-17-2012, 10:39 PM
|
| |
And here's your confirmation rawr....DxO's results:
Cons
A dynamic range slightly inferior to that of the Pentax K-5
Significant smoothing from 1600 ISO onwards that limits the resolution |
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-08-2012, 07:44 PM
|
| |
To my eye, it still looks that K-5 preserves more detail in darker areas whereas K-30's noise seems to have a "smudge" effect applied to it....It's even more evident at ISO 6400.
K30
K-5
 |
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-08-2012, 12:24 PM
|
| |
JohnBee, I know that comparison. If you look at the Kodak gray scale on the upper part of the image, at around 12-13 scale, you will see how evident the NR is. It's true, it's not visible on all textures and, of course, only evident in darker areas.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-08-2012, 11:40 AM
|
| |
I've got my Pentax K30 for a few days now and my enthusiasm dropped quite a bit today when I played with some high ISO files...I also have a K-5 and I compared the two cameras and unfortunately it looks like K30 applies some heavy NR to it's RAW files, by default. I will try to upload a couple of ISO 3200 samples to see for yourself. I hope it will work, I've never done this before... The K-5's white balance is a bit off but the NR in K-30's is really obvious anyway...
K30
K-5
K30b
K-5b
K30c
K-5c
 |
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-06-2012, 06:06 AM
|
| |
I received mine yesterday and so far I'm loving it. It will replace my K-5, plagued with low light focus issues. No problems so far with K30, definitely much more accurate focusing in low light, at least compared to my K-5.The only thing I don't like is the grip...I find K-5's more comfortable for my hand. Bought from Pentaxwebstore.sg for AUD650, express shipping included, quite a bargain.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-04-2012, 04:56 AM
|
| |
Ogl, just a quick update for you...I got my K30 this morning and, after 600 shots, I can say without a doubt that k30 is MUCH more reliable in low light than my k-5. I've tested with my fastest lenses, Pentax AF 50mm 1.4, Sigma 30mm 1.4 and Tamron 17-50 2.8 and, after the initial AF corrections (-4 for Pentax and +1 for Sigma), the focus was spot on in 90% of the pictures under bright sunlight, shade, fluorescent light and VERY dim incandescent light. The focus speed is not faster than k-5's in low light but definitely more precise. I would only get around 50-60% correct focus with k-5 under the same low light. Pentax k30 is definitely a keeper for me!
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-30-2012, 06:34 PM
|
| |
That's exactly how my K-5 behaves....The adjustment floating used to drive me crazy but I lived with it for more than a year. Every day I have to take a few test shots to check if the focus is good with any lens, pentax or third party. It was not a very big problem with outdoor shots but now that my little kid gives me so many shooting opportunities it gets annoying to miss some great shots because the focus is not the same as it was yesterday.....That's why my K30 is on it's way and looking forward to finally rely on my camera.
|
