Focus issues.

Mike. It is not a physical thing but I do struggle with nervous issues and my hand shakes like nobody's business when I am nervous.
It is more in the mind. I think I inherited the saying..If it can go wrong, it will. and it generally do.

Your offer is generous. I doubt that I have the latest firmware loaded.

Let me try out the 300mm tomorrow and be satisfied that it is a problem. A quick flip through my portfolio will show that the camera did once behave.

regards Thoramay.

that worked a treat on my new K10D ( 1.03 ) - simply copied the MODSET.TXT file to a card and turned on the camera with the card door open. Iscrolled down and found a paramter called

AF PINT DISP
and hitting OK it displayed

ICCD PINT: -15[UM]
OBJ 2M : -23[UM]

PINT SHIFT: 0[UM]

I can't seem to change those values though

Ok found it. The above was just a setting display

with debug mode on it's in MENU/SETUP/scroll up/AF TEST. I'll test some lens later and compare with my K20D

The amount of magification of wobble over the whole frame is related to the angle of view rather than the focal length, so as the angle of view on APS-C is reduced with respect to 35mm for any given focal length you do need to scale up the minimum shutter speed - so 1/500 for 300mm is a good 'rule of thumb'. Of course if you brace yourself against something solid, turn on SR, and take half a dozen pics in the hope that one will be OK, you can get away with much slower shutter speeds.

Of course for any test of focus issues they really must be done with a tripod to eliminate other variables. A 'quick and dirty' test is to point the camera at a sloping tiled roof and see which tiles are in focus. If the tiles in the middle are sharpest there are no focus issues. If the tiles in focus are nearer the top the camera is back focusing. If they are nearer the bottom the problem is front focus.

Very useful. I need a pint dispenser in this hot weather.

G

When you go to the Pentax-hack.info site you got more info.

I'm very curious since you got some command to force the info from your EEPROM to the card and vice versa, I wonder if you can use it to make your K10D to a GX10 and the other way around and maybe force firmware from other models onto it

Anyone has an old camera they want to donate?

btw didn't someone brick their K100D last month, maybe with some luck it might work although I don't think so

I must check out the Pentax-hack website.

btw - Does anyone know if you need to keep the camera in debug mode for the K10D AF adjustment to be continually applied?

No, you can take it out of debug mode if you wish, the settings will stay as you left them.

Sorry, but it seems to me that some people go through a whole of trouble when confronted with focusing issues on K10Ds.

My K10D back-focus issue was resolved by our Pentax Service Centre here in Melbourne for $A100 (55GBP) and included a service check and sensor clean.

Focus is spot-on and I did not have to go through the anguish of hacking firmware etc.

Surely Pentax service cannot be that expensive in the UK to preclude this fix?

Pentax service in the UK? It's partly done in Germany, and partly been sub-contracted to a private firm. If you send your camera to Pentax you have no idea when it will be returned.

And if you send it outside the country, you have problems with VAT.

Thus the anguish of hacking has its attractions.

G
PS: Years ago, our Prime Minister of the day, Harold Wilson, had a legal advisor, Lord Goodman, who was fond of his food. Hence his nickname - Lord Two Dinners.

Your monicker seems to suggest that you are a sort of Aussie-Japanese equivalent - Mr Two Lunches.

Thanks Mike.

Ok, got Thoramay to download the focus chart, camera on tripod at approx 45 degrees and here are the results.

Thoughts?


[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/Sockpuppetuk/IMGP3239-resized.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/Sockpuppetuk/IMGP3240-resized.jpg[/IMG]

Apart from not being square on to the target, I'd say that's about as good as you'll get from experience. That looks like the N***n test chart I have BTW.

So.................it's not the lens.........I doubt it's the camera..........dare I say technique

Regards,

John

John. If you compare the 6. 10. 14 either side of the focus line there is some difference there.

I have just taken a macro pic of a dead butterfly. When I pull it right up the sharpness is just off.

When I try the 300mm on a day lily, I get the same result. The sharpness is just off.

If I am being fussy it is because I know what the camera did produce. A quick check of my portfolio will testify.

Being a macro person it is important that the focus is dead on.

thoughts, please.

thoramay