K-3 Picture Quality

Hi,
I recently upgraded to a K-3 from a K20D. I am disappointed with the quality of the pictures produced from the 3 compared to the 20. I am convinced that it is me that has got some setting(s) wrong somewhere.
The 20 delivers really punchy and vibrant colours in the pics whereas the 3 is a lot softer and paler. I set both cameras on green setting, using the same lens and took the same shot. The difference is marked in favour of the K20D.
Is this what you get from the K-3 or is something wrong with the camera settings?
Anybody any ideas?

Andrew Goble

Turn high iso noise reduction off, this seems to be the culprit -)

I love my K3, the colours and sharpness are great. High ISO noise reduction has been mentioned in some quarters, I have mine set to 'Low', but I shoot in RAW anyway, so this isn't a particular concern for me. I would recommend setting one of your memory cards to shoot RAW and the other JPEG. Also, I would avoid using the 'Green' setting as you will not get the best from your camera with this mode. I always have mine set on the 'natural' colour setting, shoot in AV mode and set either 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop under exposure on the exposure compensation setting. Leave the white balance on the 'multi auto WB' setting as this is superb on the K-3.

What settings do have on the K20? Do you have colour set to 'Vibrant' by any chance? This will over-saturate colours in your images.

I've had various Pentax DSLR's, from the K-m (CCD Sensor), through the K-x, K-5, K-5IIs, K-01 and K-3. Of all these cameras the colours are best on the K-3 and the K-m.

Regards
David

Thanks for this hogboy. I will give that a go and see what the results are. I hope your are right.

Andrew

As a 'by the way', if you're worried about colour reproduction on the K-3, take a look at my gallery on here, or take a look at some images by some other K-3 owners, e.g. Blythman who has posted some suberb shots in the Forum recently with the K-3.

I'm certain you won't be disappointed once you have the settings right.

Regards
David

This Youtube video is pretty helpful

link

Cheers David. I will review my settings in line with your comments and hopefully the problems I see can be resolved.

Andrew

David,
Just a footnote, I do not use the green setting as a rule but thought it might be the best way to get both cameras as close on setting to each other. It made sense to my simple mind.

I pick up the K-3 by default, reverting to th K-5 if I need to use ISO of 1600 or over.

I was using it on the Farnes on Saturday, and every shot on the rear screen looked washed out. I just had to have faith, looking at the histogram that everything was ok.

Couldn't work out what was wrong until I got home. Seems I'd accidentally changed the JPEG preset to "Muted". Thankfully, it didn't effect my shots as I always process the RAW.

Must read the instruction book sometime. If I had, then I would have put things right on the day. Come to think of it I must read the K-5 manual sometime too

I had to read the manual on my washing machine just to find out how to start the self clean cycle. How does it not get cleaned whilst washing clothes?

Best regards

Just for others interest, he gets to the point about halfway through this 20 minute ramble.

Seems the 'High' ISO noise reduction cuts in quite early on the K-30, around the 400 ISO mark, and in some cases this is causing a reduction in sharpness.

Me too