Any ideas what is happening here?

I bought the K5 last week, but to day, after some sunny weather noticed the effect in the top right hand of the 1st photograph and all across the 2nd. I was just playing with the settings. I thought it was the lens so I looked back at the first ones I had taken last week and the same effect was there. I have dropped the highlights on the photo to make it more visible. In some shape or form this is visible in many of the shots taken.
Many thanks in advance, Rob.

Do you have one of the "effects" turned on?

I presume te camera is new to you. Did you do a reset to default before using it? If not, it might be worth trying that and then trying again.

And also, update to te latest firmware:
http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/support/download_digital.html

edit to add:

They are called digital filters and are referred to on P265 of the K5 manual.

Or maybe the options for Image Finishing Tone on P222

As above, factory reset.
Check firmware is OK too.

Hi Gamka and dougf8 and thanks for the reply. Yes, the camera is new to me Upgrade from a K-r) Not that I know of and nothing is indicated in the Pentax utility exif. I will scurry of and have another look and reset to factory. As regards the firmware I was tying to find out what version I had, but without success. Back in a bit
Cheers, Rob

Holding down the menu button while turning it will tell you the FW version.

Hi again- firmware is 1.11, so out of date. There were no digital filters etc activated but I have reset to factory. I will have another go. As a thought could it be the memory card ?? Thanks bettyswolloks- just sussed it.
Thanks for the input.
Rob.

Looks like the Jpeg compression level is too high. E.g. The first of these was saved with compression set at 10%, the second at 90% -







Philip

I wondered about that too but the fact that the only areas affected is the sky - I might have expected some on the grass.

No.

It's possible the problem stems from processing post capture -- saving an image at too low a resolution can cause the posterization. Are these converted from a RAW file or are they a straight-out-of-camera jpeg?

On the other hand, the advice above may sort it for you.

EDIT : Im slow on the draw: I now see others have already said pretty much was I was trying to say

No, it shows up less in detailed areas - look at the tree and the stone work of the cathedral. Compression shows up much more in areas of uniform but gradual colour changes, just like skies.

The Exif data of Rob's photos show that they were processed in LightRoom - so that's probably where the Jpeg setting is wrong.

Philip

Hi folks- just trying to catch up with you. I'm looking at the process they have been through. They were DNG's originally. They were converted to jpeg in faststone for posting purposes. The effect shows in faststone as well as lightroom and in the Pentax/ SillyPics utility. The church (they do it big in Malvern), has never been in light room. I'm thinking it may be faststone's rendering, looking at what you wonderguys have posted. Maybe faststone does not handle DNG so well. I will have a look and confirm the process. Back in a tad
Many thanks again
Rob.

If they were DNGs, then try Pentax Digital Camera Utility - first check the shots in the Image Preview pane. This will display the embedded JPEG created by the camera - this will tell you if it is to do with camera processing. Then select the image in the browser to open it for editing in PDCU and carry out some minor adjustments.

If the sky is blown then activate the 'Highlight Recovery' panel and try and get it back within the histogram range again - it may not become blue, but you should be able to get a realistic looking grey / white without any artifacts. At least if you can achieve that you know it is not the actual image data that is corrupted, but something within your previous processing chain.

Ok- thanks Greg- I had just imported straight into Silkypics from file and got the same results. I then came and read your bit, and went back and followed your process and it was still there. Looked at some other shots, picked one, bought up the exposure and could not see what I knew was there before a few seconds before. Dropped the exposure down again and could see nothing there.. Went back to the shot (landscape) that I had posted here and nothing. My process usually has been to open in faststone then import individually into lightroom, edit, then export back to file and view in faststone. It would appear too be faststones rendering, but I am away to check again that what I have just posted is true.
Thanks again, back in a while.
Rob.

It is faststone, I had exactly the same outcome when on holiday in Scotland and used my laptop to post some shots to flickr, the laptop has faststone on it only. Once I got home I processed the same shots with Lightroom and no banding appeared. I now only use fast stone as a quick raw viewer to delete the obvious dross (leaving myself wide open here) i.e. out of focus or blurred images.

example - with faststone



example - with LR