Hello from Orlando

[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?

[mtclimber]

Hi there, Tony-

Welcome back to the Forum. Thanks for dropping by.

Please keep in mind that camera manufacturers when dealing with DSLR image output make several very important assumptions:

(1) Because the expectation of the camera manufacturer is that the user is going to be doing post processing of those images, there is much less in camera processing of the images. Sharpness in best corrected in good photo editing software.

(2) Camera manufacturers leave much more room for personal image preferences, that can only be achieved, using good photo editing software. Portraits are a good example. A softer image is desirable in portraits of older persons, as it minimizes facial imperfections.

The whole RAW image interest was generated by the DSLR users that wanted the camera to do no "in camera" processing at all. They wanted to handle all of the corrections in software during the post processing cycle.

Thus, the images from your FZ-30 had a lot of in camera processing as it was a point and shoot camera. That is how point and shoot cameras are programed. So there will always be a difference in the images outputed from a point and shoot camera when compared to the images outputed from a DSLR camera.

Have a great day.

Sarah Joyce

[gfmucci]

Yet there are tons of image enhancing options within the K7 - including the additional set of sharpening options.