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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-02-2012, 07:00 PM
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Plentax - Good to see you back!
Likewise, I am going to India on Friday and was debating whether to take the Pentax due to the Capture One DNG hassle. Also because I bought a Canon 40mm/2.8 pancake for my Canon 550D and it performs much better than the 40/2.8 I bought with my K30 where definition and purple fringing is not as good, but it may have a bit to do with the poor colour performance in Capture One. (At the moment I am experiencing my Pentax world through purple tinted glasses)
I found a chart of 24 colour and gray patches in the back of one of my photography books but I could not use it with the software that creates profiles as it was not identical to the commercial chart.
I actually find it hard taking a photo of the colour patch and being pleased with the output I see on my 27" iMac monitor screen. There are a lot of variables. It is similar to the problems I had making a passport photo without a slight colour caste, for the trip to India. Each time I went to "Officework" to get the photos printed they had a different colour. A Fujifilm Service Technician happened to be there and said every photo lab is producing slightly different output. I am in Australia and a real industry (beaurocracy?) has built up around what a passport photo should look like and mine were rejected three times and I gave up and let the women in the Post Office take my photo. I had better luck with my home made photos for my Indian Visa although they changed the size requirement and were rejecting many customers.
I am thankful you are devoted energy to this project which I find a bit complex. I think you need to have a calibrated monitor, a commercial colour card and its software, plus be able to load the resulting photo into Capture One free of any changes Capture One may try and make and I hear it even alters raws a bit.
I did get a response from the Capture One crew saying they would not just make a profile to load into an existing program as it was more complicated than that and the camera should be integrated into a new version of the program and I don't think I am entitled to an update.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-21-2012, 03:26 AM
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PLENTAX - How is your Capture One daylight DNG profile going?
I am using your "Tungsten Wrong" profile everywhere and it is saving my bacon. I found an Apple directory to put it in and it comes up in "Other". It is not loaded as a default profile and I add it to each photo and it magically changes the purples to blue. It is not perfect but very very good. I have to back the saturation off a lot. I am glad to be using RAW files again and find they have a lot more detail compared with the jpgs which seem to have excessive noise reduction. Without a dng profile I had to resort to black and white photographs.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-20-2012, 04:52 PM
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I am unsure of my warranty.
I have purchased from Emjay from Australia and have received little information from them.
I have asked whether the local Pentax Distributor, CRKennedy, is obliged to repair their products and they have not answered. It may be a touchy subject as I doubt whether CRKennedy welcomes Emjay intruding into their market and taking advantage of tax concessions to undercut local pricing.
At the time of sale, I asked for an International warranty to be included and what was this talk of a screen in the box? Others seem to find them more responsive than I do. I have given up after about 5 emails and hope my K30 performs in a trouble free manner.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-16-2012, 07:30 AM
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Pity about your camera and a pity about Putin.
Pentax Singapore do not respond to any information requests from me about warranty.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-13-2012, 04:07 AM
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I am fairly sure it worked for me. Made all the right noises when I pressed the green button when set in M mode.
It is rather fiddly and I prefer to use AV mode by attaching the manual focus lens and then backing it off about 10 degrees.
I set the lens on F22 and rotate it out until the aperture blades close to their smallest aperture then leave the lens in that position for AV mode to work.
The lens is working in stop down mode like a Takumar but the K30 prismatic viewfinder is such an improvement over my KX that I can still get a focus confirmation beep at F11 and I can see more detail in the target for focus.
You can pick your favourite manual focus lens and fine tune its focus with the global settings before tuning your auto focus lenses.
I have a bunch of manual focus lenses and find that they often have inconsistent focus and it would be good to have a different global setting for a few.
I read in a Forum that you may be able to use the personal configuration menus to do this but I didn't make notes.
The K30 makes AF so accurate that the manual focus lens have lost some of their charm. I have an AF 50/1.4 that now really preforms well. It seems primitive to try an use a Takumar 1.4 to score better bokeh and sharpness when lots of the shots are duds.
I don't know what the secret of success is for manual focus lenses. My best performer is a Canon 550D using an Olympus 50/1.8 with an EMF adapter ring that can tune the adapter to the lens and camera.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-10-2012, 06:06 PM
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I think give it +7 in the global settings and then readjust for individual lenses.
I found they interact. That may make you happy.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-09-2012, 06:36 PM
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Are you happy with your C1 jpgs?
I think they need tweaking as well. The reds can be inconsistent and go a bit violet. The blues can go a bit deep as well. They are good, but not quite there and this is with jpeg which you would think should be standard from camera to camera.
I like C1. It took me a long time to become conversant with it but now I find it natural and efficient. I use the little icons at the center top. The little straightening tool is a gem where you drag a line vertically or horizontally to correct a photo. I would like a greater variety of tools under one banner in the tools column so it was less fragmented. The color pallet thing defies me.
I opened Silkypix and was overwhelmed by its complexity and nomenclature. No image alterations I tried made any difference to my photo.
I am using Natural in jpg on the K30 and the jpeg file neutral icc profile with linear response on Capture One.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-09-2012, 12:09 AM
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Plentax(Joseph). I read your discussion with the Capture One guys. It did not seem very fruitful.
Yes I would like one of your home brew K30 daylight profiles.
I downloaded your K30 tungsten icm profile and wonder what I do with it on my Apple?
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-08-2012, 05:53 AM
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K30 kit took only 3 1/2 days to get to Perth from Singapore delivered by a lovely Fedex lady. Camera was in the best packaging I have ever seen. No warranty in the box or answers to questions about whether CRKennedy would be obliged to do the warranty as they are the equivalent Pentax distributors in Australia.
Camera works beautifully. No washing machine noise on video. All weather sealed doors open easily and it is my first Pentax with an on/off switch that is smooth to operate. Battery does not seem to last like a Kx so I ordered an Ebay one with a charger for under $12. I like the folding electrical prongs that you just bend with pliers to fit our wall plugs. The Kr AA adapters are suppose to fit a K30 and are on Ebay for about $4.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-07-2012, 05:56 AM
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WA-Surfer,
I purchased a K30 from Singapore. It is a much better camera than my KX. Focusing was the bug bear of my KX whereas the K30 allows you to adjust for the uniqueness of individual lenses. I have a AF50/1.4 which has always performed like a dog wide open or in low light. On the K30 it is showing its true pedigree. The k30's viewfinder is a delight compared with the dull Kx and you can actually see detail in targets to better focus in manual mode plus you can check for detail in the rear LCD when magnified which you can't do very well in a KX with the lower resolution LCD.
I am in Perth also, and wondered how you sold your KX. I tried Gumtree and it sat un-admired for months.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-04-2012, 06:56 PM
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The DNG dilema has caused me an initial loss of my navigation and appreciation of the photo quality of the K30 as I cannot dellght in my habitual Capture One strategies.
JPGs do not do it for me as they seemed flat compared with my normal Capture One output where I usually apply highlights, intricate sharpening, and stuff so skin tones have a more natural gradient.
The JPG colours seemed a bit off as well so I will have to find a K30 style to my liking.
I suppose it is all part of setting up the camera and lenses before you can set off into the outside world with confidence.
We could all share a few personally preferred settings. Not only about picture style but the whole gamut. e.g. I loved the way I could set up the K30 dials to apply ISO with the front dial and aperture with the rear although it is not readily apparent in the manual which I admit I don't read like a novel and find the index(es) unfriendly.
I even tried Picasa because it is so easy, and it digests the raws without the horrible purples but it seemed very limiting. even though I have the software altered to centre the sliders. Basic controls are just plain lacking and I wonder why Google have not progressed it further.
I guess I will have to open the SilkyPix packet and do a bit of research. Capture One may see the back of me??
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-04-2012, 02:56 AM
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I was very pleased with the way the K30 allowed tuning of focus for individual lenses.
I first set all auto auto focus lenses individually.
My manual focus lenses were all way out but became accurate with the global adjustment.
I then went back and readjusted the electronic lenses and some had altered such that one that was previously off the scale (+10) would also focus properly.
Its a bit like Xmas after the KX being so hard to get a reliable focus even after playing with debug mode.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-03-2012, 07:26 AM
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Jeffw - How did you find Emjay (Pentax Singapore)?
I purchase a K30 kit with a 40mm F2.8 XS lens for $S1069.
They were very efficient with the post and packing but reluctant to answer any questions.
I ordered on Tuesday and it arrived this morning (Friday)
I have never seen a parcel packed so well. Tom Hanks, if he really worked for Fedex, would have been proud of the waterproofing.
It took me quite a while to cut it out of all the layers. Maybe the Emjay guys have seen the way luggage falls off those conveyor belts going into planes.
I like the camera and lens very much.
I did not receive a warranty card and had asked for an international warranty form to be included.
I am in Australia and asked Emjay whether the local Pentax distributor (CRKennedy) were obliged to fix in some reciprocal arrangement.
I also asked what the screen was listed in their contents of box description as I fancied a matt viewfinder screen.(I can't find it anymore but don't think I imagined it)
I thought Emjay were good but non communicative. They did not even send me an email when the dispatched the item.
Thank you aseno for the tip about Emjay selling the K30s at the attractive prices.
I can not hear a washing machine noise in video. I don't like the DNGs in my editing program and currently think some of the jpeg colours are a bit off as well but maybe I have something set to vibrant somewhere.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-02-2012, 06:20 AM
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Plentax, I endorse your views about Capture One having a hard time with the K30 DNGs. They sure look horrible.
I like using Capture One and have served my apprenticeship on it such that I would not like to move on.
I always used PEFs but was surprised to see Capture One seems to have fixed the DNG problem with the KX DNGs so that I will confidently swap to DNG.
It sounds like the Capture One crew are not going to find it a push over making the K30 DNGs work and then we will have to load in a whole new program that may cost money rather than just add a new profile.
I do not understand how DNG can become a universal standard if it is so proprietary. That defeats the whole purpose and our great grand-kids are not going to bother looking at our photos in some weird format.
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Forum: Pentax Lens Articles
06-27-2012, 07:32 AM
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Diacouture has the solution but does not emphasise it enough.
Mount your lens fully and then back it out about 10 degrees and then just use it in stopped down metering mode.
It sure beats all that green button stuff.
The viewfinder gets a little darker if you stop down a lot and that causes focus confirmation to be more difficult but just twist the aperture ring wide open to focus before returning to the desired aperture.
This enables you to use all your Pentax and Takumar lenses the same way.
A similar technique is to lift the camera mount and short out the furthest data terminal (going anti clockwise) with a sliver of foil but I found the previous suggested method more consistent over all lenses.
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