DL2 versus K10D Landscape Test

Hi Folks,

I went out yesterday to a deserted Donegal beach with my K10D and DL2 to do a bit of real life testing.

I took 2 identical tripod mounted RAW shots using my FA 50mm 1.7 at f8. The K10D was set to ISO100, the DL2 was set at ISO200 as I wanted to compare the very best that each camera had to offer. Everything was else kept the same.

Then I exported both into bibble and applied default identical processing to both. Printed them on my Epson 1800 at A3.

I can see no difference. They are identical, even under a loupe. Now I accept that this was a print test. Prints are what matters to me but I have to say that even at 100% pixel peeping the K10D only won by a fraction.

Still, the functionality of the K10D top notch. It just goes to show what a great little camera the DL2 is.

Andy

The only thing I would add to that is that because of the higher pixel count I have found that I prefer to increase the amount of USM (Unsharp Mask) for the K10D from the 50% I used before yo maybe 100%. I also slightly increase the radius of the effect. The logic for this is that a radius of say 3 pixelswould be a much smaller dimension on the print so a slight increase means the effect can be seen.

It did the trick in giving me the sort of image I wanted. Has anyone else made similar adjustments to their procedures?

Ive just gone to a K10 from DL2 and im not getting the same results as i did with the DL2. I can take a better picture,colour wise,with the DL than i can with the K10,but i think thats down to the general setting up of the K10 not being as staright forward as the DL. The prints im getting off the K10 are a lot brighter,almost over exposed,than the DL. Its not a complaint just something ive noticed,ill have to reset the icc profile and do some fettling i think

This is also my conclusion, I have decided to keep my DL2 and have the 18-55 lens on it to keep the better handling and SR of the K10D free for long and specialist lenses.

An improvement in day to day image quality is not what I bought the K10D for, I bought it for SR, the .95x finder, the front E-dial, Sv mode, a 9 frame Raw buffer, and support for future SSM lenses.

Another interesting question might be, how much does 10MP vs 6 increase your ability to crop.

Interesting question. That might be my next test.

Andy