New Pentax K7

[tony3dd]

Hi all. It's been many years since I have been on this form. I decided to get a new Pentax K7, and have a few questions. Has anyone noticed that the images are a bit soft right out of the camera? It seems that my old Lumix FZ30 with it's Leica lens seems to produce a sharper image. The Pentax seems to be focusing fine, but needs to have some unsharpen mask applied. Has anyone else noticed this?

[Hards80]

DSLR's output is designed as such. giving you more latitude to adjust the sharpening/contrast/saturation in post-processing. the detail resolution is there, just needs unsharp mask. its working as intended. enjoy!

[tony3dd]

Originally Posted by Hards80

DSLR's output is designed as such. giving you more latitude to adjust the sharpening/contrast/saturation in post-processing. the detail resolution is there, just needs unsharp mask. its working as intended. enjoy!

I'm really going to like this camera. The detail with the 55-300mm DA lens is wonderful considering the cost of $350.00.

[Rodney9]

Congratulations, have fun.

Rodney

[mole]

Tony - congratulations on your new purchase! Will look forward to seeing more of your fine photography!! As Hards80 says, this will give you more room to use your creativity with the results.

[cameanee]

Congrats on the new camera.

[mtngal]

Congrats on the new camera. As far as your question about the sharpening, you have a couple of options. Are you shooting raw or jpg? If jpg, then I prefer to use the natural setting and set the in-camera sharpening to "0" - natural defaults to "-1". The default setting of bright is at "0" and if you want a bit more, try "+1", or try one of the two fine sharpness settings offered (download the latest firmware to get fine sharpness 2). I tend to prefer to do my sharpening in photoshop as it's much easier to add some USM but really hard to take some out.

[tony3dd]

Thanks to everyone. I will experiment with the sharpening and natural settings. So far I really like the feel of this camera. I'll post some images first chance I get. I just lost my brother, and photo buddy to cancer about a month ago so I'm taking it slow.

[snostorm]

Hi Tony,

Congrats on the K-7. I think you'll find it a great camera. I also moved to Pentax from an FZ30, but "way back when", it was to the DS, which is pretty ancient history in the DSLR world. Looks like you chose wisely with the 55-300. It's a fine lens that should be a good match to the longer FLs of your FZ.

Hards80's response is accurate as you seem to have confirmed. Personally, I prefer to use Focus Magic to do most of my sharpening, with PSPP X2's High Pass Sharpening as a secondary method.

One thing that should be noted is that the in-camera sharpening for the Pentax K-series is done a little differently than some other mfgs. Edge contrast is accentuated as is usual, but Pentax processing biases this increase in contrast towards the darker side while most sharpening boosts the brighter side (which causes those light halos when overdone). Because of this, a dark outline can become visible where it wasn't originally. For this reason, I tend to set up my bodies with 0 or less in-camera sharpening, then do this step in Post Processing.

Focus Magic uses deconvolution algorithms, so in addition to boosting contrast, it also has the ability to move some pixels. I only use it at low strength at low pixel settings and use multiple applications as opposed to one large step. It also has a mode where it can correct for some degree of motion blurring, so it can be very useful, especially when used selectively on portions of some shots. Of course, YMMV considering any PP process.

Looking forward to seeing some more of your work, and welcome to the Forum.

Scott

[mtclimber]

Congratulations, Tony from Orlando-

I answered your question over in the Pentax point and shoot folder. Enjoy you new camera and post a few photos now and then. Yes I agree that the Pentax 55-300mm lens is a honey.

Have a great day.

Sarah Joyce