K-7 long exposure bug?

Here we go. link

Fixed pattern noise includes what are called "hot pixels," which are defined as such when a pixel's intensity far surpasses that of the ambient random noise fluctuations. Fixed pattern noise generally appears in very long exposures and is exacerbated by higher temperatures. Fixed pattern noise is unique in that it will show almost the same distribution of hot pixels if taken under the same conditions (temperature, length of exposure, ISO speed).

The K200D is the last Pentax that you can turn off all DFS.
I use mine for astro work also. It is why I went with it, rather than a newer, higher MP camera.

The only stupid things it that it use CCD sensor and those are more prone to noise at longer exposure compared to the CMOS sensor which Pentax use now

I just tried my K7 on "B" and it too took about a minute before the ready lamp illuminated, Yet when i am using a normal timed exposure in other modes like "Manual" the Camera is ready to take the next shot almost instantaneously even with low speed NR switched on so if you are using 30 seconds or less perhaps you might find it better to use one of the normal shooting modes rather than B.
Regards - Pete

With Slow Shutter Speed NR turned off, B Mode on my K-7 only goes into a delay (DFS) after the exposure when it was a longer than 30 sec exposure.

The B mode is quite a specialized program mode and not used by many photographer besides for special types of photography.
I think it's safe to assume that people that use the B-Mode know what they are doing so why not give them an option to have it on or off?

Maybe Pentax really thought that no one would not want DFS. But they should know better! I'm not too bothered myself, but clearly a lot of photographers are bothered.

Same here because I hardly do long exposure photography still how hard is it to have an off function besides on/auto?
I've never understand Pentax doing these things with the DFS, they indeed should have know better.

This has been covered a few times. I was horrified the first time I took a 20 minute exposure wiht my K20D and wondered by the camera had locked up for a further 20 minutes.

Smeggy, the K20D doesn't have an "Off" setting for Slow Shutter Speed NR, whereas the K-7 does.

What confused me is that "Off" doesn't mean off! It means only off for less than 30 second exposures.

Perhaps this is mentioned in the manual. I forgot it if it is.

I don't see all this noise in CCD's that everyone hoots about. My DS and K200D are very smooth on long, low light shots. And I don't use the DFS or noise reduction in camera. If I need a better signal to noise ratio, I stack photos.

Please sign my petition to be able to disable DFS

http://www.petitiononline.com/p3ntax/petition.html

Thanks