K10D Inside Building.

Last night I took images indoors at a function for Halloween. A large metal building with fluorescent lights.

Dammed if I could get the K10 to perform even moderately well without flash. (forgot to take this flash)

I ended up using my KM7D and it worked like a charm, with and without flash. I took approx 100 images without and they all came out great. I dumped all the K10 images !!!!!

Set both camera's to RAW and worked at 800 ISO and 1600 ISO. This was my first major shoot using RAW only.
(I am now one of the converted. It was a breeze using RAW with Aperture)

Maybe it was finger trouble with the K10, however I doubt this was the only reason.

Anyone have any ideas as to why the KM7D killed the K10 in this instance ?

I would be very interested to know.

Thanks, RG.

Well you haven't said what the K10D didn't or couldn't do, except "perform". And you haven't said what the other camera did do, except killed the K10D, which sounds a little unkind. And you haven't given any examples of pictures produced by either.

So it's a little hard to tell what the issue is.

ChrisA.

Sorry about that.

I don't have any photos from the K10, they were so bad I couldn't even adjust them to any suitable image.

I used various camera settings on the K10 with the P setting the most used. The only constant was 800 and 1600 ISO.

On the KM7D I just used the P setting and the same constant ISO's as the K10.
No problems at all in getting good images, even without flash depending on where I was in the building (just one big space)
I believe most of the time I was at 60 and f5. I might add even when using the flash it was just angled up at the high ceiling for every shot.

All the shots I took were in the same areas of the building with both camera's.

K10 with Sigma 17-35mm 2.8-4.0
KM7D with Sigma 28-70mm 2.8

I appreciate the lenses are different, however I believe I should have got some good quality shots with the K10.

The K10 will rival just about anything in natural light, I was shocked by it's performance last night.

I have read horror stories on the web about the K10's inside performance, now I know why, unless I am totally off base.

Hence my killer remark.

Thanks, RG.

I'm a bit puzzled by the non-specific nature of the comments.

Indoors without flash at events has been highly successful with the K10D, but we haven't used "lots of settings", just the usual Aperture Priority and a high ISO. White Balance might be adjusted to Fluorescent or Tungsten if needed. Always using JPEG the results have been fine, even under very adverse lighting conditions, such as the Doctor Who exhibition.

A disco setting at a wedding just using a fast 50mm lens and again the same camera settings also produced fine results.

Can you be a bit more specific as to what sort of problem you found?

Are you being a little bit slow today? You still haven't said what was wrong with the images. Was it focus, exposure, colour balance?

If the last, experiment a bit, and best of all, use a grey card.

Although I have to say that, in a building with multiple light sources (especially a mixture of halogen and tungsten), correct colour balance is always going to be tricky.

NEVER throw away pictures with which you are dissatisfied until you have identified the cause of the problem.

And 99% of the time, it is safe to blame the user, not the equipment.

I would hazard a guess that the camera was set to daylight colour balance, but we'll never know.

G

Well, these were with my K10D, under mixed (fluorescent and halogen) lighting, ISO 400, 1/30s, f/2.4 with my FA50mm 1.4, no flash. I could post many more which I'm more than happy with, but they're of kids for which I don't have permission to post here.







So I don't see that it's a 'K10D' problem, but something in the way that you were using it. And without a more specific description of what was wrong, I don't see how we can help. And if you've just deleted all those images without figuring out how to avoid the problem in the future, then shame on you!

Dan

I didn't say it was impossible (in the hands of an expert!), just tricky.

The problems occur when different parts of the image take their primary lighting from different sources. You then can't get the colour balance correct for everything.

G

I hadn't seen your post George, I was replying to Hot Shot's query. Just happened to mention the mixed lighting as it was (presumably) a little different to his under purely fluorescent.

But how strange that our posts are actually very similar George. Are we one and the same person? Twins seperated at birth perhaps...

(I wish my battery would hurry up and charge, so that I can get outside and actually take some pics, rather than random postings on here. )

Anyway, you can see the difference in colour balance on my pic of the girl, who was lit by a mixture of halogen and fluorescent, but the room behind here was purely fluorescent, and that has a resulting cooler, greeinsh tint.

Dan

I suppose that's possible, Daniel. Are you damned good-looking, multi-talented, but modest withal? Yes? Well, I'm afraid that blows your theory out of the water.

G

A rhetorical question if ever I heard one!

Dan

Hotshots, you either have a fault with the camera or the problem is down to the user, as others have said its a shame you didn't keep some images for us to look at

I find the K10D outperforms anything I have ever used and usually just leave it on the AWB setting, in fact this often (IMHO) gives better results than choosing a specific WB as the attached image clearly shows.

This is something I justed snapped while sat having a coffee, it wasnt intended to be anything special (I just shot it for the name Chapman )


1/6th sec handheld (though it shows )
Shot in PEF RAW and converted to jpeg in Pentax PhotoLab, absolutely NO adjustments made before converting to jpeg, resized for uploading in photoshop nothing else.
The lighting was all over the place, daylight, tungsten and flourescent.

Quincy Market Interior, Boston.


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[/quote]PS this image will probably be deleted form my photobucket later, so if your viewing an old post then tough

Ok I will try and answer the questions.

1. The images were totally useless out of the K10, I didn't see any point in saving them. Probably should have saved a few examples.

2. Both camera's set at 800 ISO or 1600 ISO depending on where the subjects were, mainly two locations.

3. Like I stated I used the P setting mostly (Not Green) I did try all other settings apart from M & B.

4. I tried various combinations of shutter and aperture

5. I did not have to try anything else with the KM7D, I just left it on P and went between 800 & 1600 ISO as needed and mostly shutter at 60, aperture f5. Yes I had a flash mounted and pointed up all the time, I don't believe it helped much and I still got great images.

6. Buildind is metal, painted gray inside, gray floor. gray roof. F lights, lots of shadows from equipment etc.

7. Shot everything in RAW on both camera's.

My point is both camera's were used in the same locations, both with same settings. Main difference are lenses. K10 Sigma EX 17-35 f2.8-4.
KM7D Sigma EX 28-70 f2.8.

Here is one of my converted RAW shots with the KM7D.




Thanks for all the suggestions etc. RG.

What, exactly, was the matter with them???????????

That looks to me like the flash helped more than a little, in fact it looks like a bounce flash picture with some direct spill (eye reflections and shadow round the wheel in the background). Another camera with no flash isn't going to get that sort of lighting IMHO.

Ouch, my ears...no need to shout, Chris!

The question is valid though, what exactly do you mean by totally useless. Out of focus? Wrong colour balance? Noise? Under exposed? Over exposed?

We need some clues...

I am a little concerned with the notion that you used lots of different settings as it implies a sense of confusion over the use of the camera. If something was set up radically wrong perhaps a clue as to what specifically the faults were would point us in the right direction?