It’s good that DPR updated the review. At least it no longer contains blatantly misleading samples, but I can’t help feel that DPR’s testing methods emphasize AF and pixel level image quality, while missing out the things that Pentax does well at. By reducing their tests to the things that are easy to compare between makes, they miss out on the unique features that brands put in to distinguish their products.
I feel very sorry for Ricoh in this case. They had very good feedback on the accelerator in the K-70 and KP, including from DPR, and it is only natural that they would want to apply it to the K-1 as well. Suddenly, one messed up test has brought a huge amount of criticism on this decision. I’ve still yet to see any real world images where the lessened detail has an impact. On the other hand, I’ve seen a number of successful images at very high ISO, where you would normally expect the color in the scene to completely fall apart. The accelerator is very effective at making the 6400-512,000 ISO range more usable.
There are a few questions that I don’t feel have been answered by people criticizing the camera.
- How easy it is to equal Ricoh’s noise reduction in the K-1 mark 2 with editing software on a K-1 image?
- If it is, how much more potential is there in the files than what the accelerator extracts?
- How much time and effort does it take per image to treat the noise?
- If you spent the the same amount of time and effort on a mark 2 file, what could be achieved?
My opinion after seeing the files is that I would always want about that much noise reduction applied. The K-1 mark 2 would simply save me time allow me to take better photos in low light.
Finally, I’m going to add a post that was on the Japan Facebook page shortly after the K-1 mark 2 was released, where a Ricoh engineer explains what the accelerator does. It’s difficult to understand though Google translate, but what he is saying is that the accelerator’s “image quality design” was tuned manually at fine intervals (100, 125, 160, 200), so it is not just a simplistic processs applied across all ISOs. It’s also interesting what he says about improvement in rendering the color blue. I’m not sure if that has been mentioned by any users yet. The notion that putting this kind of attention into image quality is “cheating” is kind of absurd to me. They are doing their job with attention to detail and sound judgement, in a way that I wish certain camera reviewers would.
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From Ricoh Imaging Facebook, late Feb
こんにちは、ラリーです。
先日発表した35ミリフルサイズデジタル一眼レフカメラPENTAX K-1 Mark IIのニュースは、もうご覧いただけたでしょうか。
新製品が発表されると、新しいデバイスや新機能など、どうしても目につきやすいスペックの話題が気になると思いますが、今回は評価基準が数値化しづらいため、良くある高画質、高精細、低ノイズなど、毎回同じような表現でしかお知らせできていない“画質向上”について、少しだけ紹介させていただきます。
デジタルカメラの心臓部とも言えるイメージセンサー、その進化はとどまるところを知らない勢いですが、では、最新のセンサーさえ載せれば今までよりずっと超高画質な写真が撮れるかというと、実はそう簡単ではありません。最新のイメージセンサーであっても画像処理を何もしていない素の状態で出てくる画像を見ると、どれも一様に写真とは程遠い画像だったりするのです（画像を載せたいと言ったら、皆さんの夢を壊してしまいそうなのでダメと言われてしまいました･･･）。それを、画像処理エンジンやアクセラレーターユニットなどを駆使して画質設計の開発者が写真として成立する画像にしていくわけですが、その作業は一つのパラメーターが決まればOKではなく、全感度ごとに最適の処理を個別におこないます。
一段ずつのステップではなく設定可能な感度全てですから、例えばISO100の次はISO200ではなく、1/3ステップのISO125、ISO160と1/2ステップのISO140でも個々に画質設計をおこないます。今回、PENTAX K-1 Mark IIでは、撮影可能な最高感度が一気にISO819200へと跳ね上がりました。もちろん、新搭載のアクセラレーターユニットがあってこそ達成できた感度ですが、このアクセラレーターユニット、効果があるのは高感度ノイズだけではありません。そこで、開発陣がおこなったのは、全感度の画質再設計でした。その背景には、ユーザーの方々から届いていた、定評ある緑の発色に加えて、最近増えてきた青の発色に対しての高評価の声があったのかもしれません。
PENTAX K-1では、初採用のセンサーながら素性が良かったこともあり、当時としては最高画質を実現できたと自負していたのですが、その後に発売した機種でアクセラレーターの効果を確認できたことで、担当者的にはK-1は、もっと進化させられる、青の発色もまだまだ改善できると考えていたようです。そして誕生したPENTAX K-1 Mark IIは、アクセラレーターを搭載しただけで画質が良くなったわけではありません。開発者達が、PENTAX K-1の発売後もイメージセンサーの特性を深く理解し、もっと使いこなせるように続けてきた日々の技術開発と、開発者自身がカメラを手にして撮影をおこない、時には被写体として家族にも協力してもらうなどの実写テストを地道に繰り返したことでK-1を超える画質が実現できたのです。それを数値でお伝えすることはやっぱりできないわけですが、開発者が「低感度も良くなってるし、青は多少感度上げて撮っても超キレイ！」と作例データを見せながら教えてくれた時の満面の笑みに、彼の揺るぎない自信を感じています。
発売まではもう少し時間がかかりますが、私も製品を手にしたら、真っ先に青が綺麗な被写体を撮影しに行こうかなと、ニヤニヤしながら考える日々なのです。
Hello, it is Larry.
Have you already seen the news of the 35 mmfl size digital single lens reflex camera PENTAX K - 1 Mark II announced the other day?
When a new product is announced, I think that you will be concerned about new topics such as new devices and new features that are easy to see, but since it is hard to quantify the evaluation criteria this time, the high image quality, high definition, low noise, we will introduce just a little about "image quality improvement" that we can only inform you with similar expressions every time.
The image sensor can be said to be the heart part of a digital camera. Its evolution is momentum that does not know where to stay, but, if you put even the latest sensors, if you say that you can take a picture with super high quality far more than it actually is, There is none. Even with the latest image sensor, if you look at the image that comes out in a raw state that does not do any image processing, none of them is an image that is far from the picture uniformly (if you say you want to put an image , It seems I'm going to break your dreams, so I was told you no good ...). It is to make it an image that the image quality engineer develops as a photograph by making full use of the image processing engine and the accelerator unit, but this work is not OK if one parameter is decided, Perform optimum processing individually.
Since it is all settable sensitivity, not step by step, for example, next to ISO 100 is not ISO 200, but image quality design is carried out individually for ISO 125 and ISO 160 in 1/3 steps and ISO 140 in 1/2 steps. In PENTAX K-1 Mark II this time, the highest sensitivity that can be photographed jumped to ISO 819 200 at once. Of course, although it is the sensitivity that could be achieved only with the newly installed accelerator unit, this accelerator unit, the effect is not only high sensitivity noise. So, what the development team did was redesigning image quality with full sensitivity. To that background, in addition to the reputed green coloring that was received from users, there may have been a highly-valued voice for the recently increased blue coloring.
With PENTAX K - 1, we were proud that the features were good as sensors were used for the first time, but as prime we were proud to have achieved the highest image quality at that time, but we were able to confirm the effect of the accelerator in the model that we released later By doing so, it seems that K - 1 thought that the color development of blue, which can be further evolved, can be improved still more in person in charge. And the birth of the PENTAX K - 1 Mark II is not just improving the picture quality with just the accelerator. Even after the release of PENTAX K-1, developers have developed daily technological developments that have deeply understood the characteristics of the image sensor and have been able to use it more frequently, and developers themselves take photographs taking the camera and sometimes subjects By repeating live-action tests such as cooperating with families as a steady image quality exceeding K-1 was realized. Although it is not possible to tell it by a numerical value, it is still impossible to tell it, but when the developer tells me while showing the example data "Low sensitivity is getting better and blue is super clean even if you shoot with slightly increased sensitivity" I feel confident and confident in his full smile.
It will take some time to go on sale, but when I also get the product, the first thing I think about while grinning is whether to go for shooting a beautiful subject with blue.
