My experience with a D300

[NonEntity1]

With the two shots being different sizes, it is hard to judge the sharpness anddetail. The deeper saturation of the Pentax shot is more appealing, but which one better reflects what they eye saw? While there are features and certainly lenses from other systems that I would like to have, my Pentax still suits me well and I would not want to give up the Pentax specific features either.

Tim

[ennacac]

The CMOS shot from the D300 seems to have less contrast even though it is sharp, but that seems to go with that type of sensor.

FWIW the OP is hard to read when you have a white background instead of the black.

Tom

[vIZnquest]

The shots do show a difference but the parameters used to take the shots between the two cameras are also different.

I checked the exif for both and they are dramatically different.

That said, I believe if the shots were taken with the same aperture, same mode, same shutter speed that there would not be as much as a difference between the two.

5.6 vs 8.0

1/640th vs 1/350th

iso the same for both @ 200

Metering same for both @ Pattern

Focal length the same @ 80mm

The Pentax DL has the latest firmware update where the Nikon D300 does not.


*Aperture vs Landscape


*Duly noted that the D300 does not have pre-set modes.

As is, the Pentax shot looks much better but the shots were not taken at the same settings for a true comparison.

For a true head to head comparison both these cameras should have been in the manual setting.

[Wingman]

vIZnquest wrote:

. . .As is, the Pentax shot looks much better but the shots were not taken at the same settings for a true comparison.

For a true head to head comparison both these cameras should have been in the manual setting.

Tom,

I was not intending to conduct a true head-to-head test, but rather evaluating the default (out-of the box) capability. What surprised me however wasthat the old DL (least expensive of the Pentax line at the time) produced JPEG shots that were comparable to if not better than the top of the line prosumer D300. I worked on the D300 for about a week thinking there's got to be something that Iwas not doing correctly. Alas, I was unable to figure it out, which is why I reverted to purchasing the K20D. I wonder if one has really to work that hard to prove that the D300 isa superior camera:?. FYI, I did not conduct any tests in RAW, nor any low light shots. The D300 is said to have strength in this area.

Jay

[bigdawg]

Glad you decided to hang around with us Jay. For me it ain't a matter of who looks at me in Awe with a high name camera around my neck...It's whether or not the photos from my camera keep a smile on my face! Pentax cameras and lenses have always done that so I'll probably stay with them a while. Same reason I have kept my Kodak DX6490 4 mp camera. It's photos still make me give a big grin!

Dawg

[Dal1970]

jelpee wrote:

vIZnquest wrote:

Tom,

I was not intending to conduct a true head-to-head test, but rather evaluating the default (out-of the box) capability. What surprised me however wasthat the old DL (least expensive of the Pentax line at the time) produced JPEG shots that were comparable to if not better than the top of the line prosumer D300. I worked on the D300 for about a week thinking there's got to be something that Iwas not doing correctly. Alas, I was unable to figure it out, which is why I reverted to purchasing the K20D. I wonder if one has really to work that hard to prove that the D300 isa superior camera:?. FYI, I did not conduct any tests in RAW, nor any low light shots. The D300 is said to have strength in this area.

Jay

No offence, but if you check the reviews for the Pentax jpgs, then you should see that the reviewers always consider them to be soft.

Which leads me to believe that the Nikon was probably too much camera for you, as you used picture modes on the Pentax.

When you use the picture modes, the camera does a hell of a lot of processing for you, regardless of any manual changes you make. That is why the image on the Pentax look so good.

Shoot the same again in manual mode of in AV mode and the picture will be different - less saturation, less contrast, less sharpness.

I know, as I still have a DL2




Dal

[Wingman]

Dal,

Sorry to disagree with you on your last point re. the quality of performance of the DL in the landscape mode vs. AV. I have had equal success in using the AV mode (which largely is what I use) and obtained very satisfactory pictures. To illustrate my point, take a look this posting: http://forums.steves-digicams.com/fo...mp;forum_id=80 Pictures taken in AV with my humble DL and an even more modest DA 50-200mm lens. No sharpening was applied to these. The clarity and sharpness of these pictures exceed my expectations for the relatively inexpensive gear used. If the D300 requiressuch a lot of gross (vs. tweaking) adjustments, it is not what I was looking for init. I do not intend to keep debating this issue ad infinitum...bottom line is when it comes to image quality, Pentax holds its own very well!


Jay

[danielchtong]

jelpee wrote:

Dal,

Sorry to disagree with you on your last point re. the quality of performance of the DL in the landscape mode vs. AV. I have had equal success in using the AV mode (which largely is what I use) and obtained very satisfactory pictures. To illustrate my point, take a look this posting: http://forums.steves-digicams.com/fo...&forum_id=80 Pictures taken in AV with my humble DL and an even more modest DA 50-200mm lens.
Jay

I second that.

http://forums.steves-digicams.com/fo...844540#p844540

There was a little contest between my DL in AV + FA28mm & a cheapo Sigma basic 500 flash dueling with a prof Nikon D200 + a prof F2.8 Zoom + a prof flash + flash bracket as in this thread
The contest is entirely uneven in term of total costs of each set up. Yet DL has stood up quite well indeed. There is an argument that there was some operator error involved which is true though.
BTW I love to use AV. I would say 80% of all my shots are AV with the rest be M. That is it

Daniel

[Pastorbbc]

Well, I finally got all my stuff sold -- and my pentax k20d and lens should be here Tuesday or Wednesday. Look forward to being back in the saddle with this camera and lens.

[mtngal]

Did you get the K20 with all of the lenses you were planning on? If so, you'll have a really outstanding selection, and I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures from them all!