K20d settings

Roger, have you checked to see whether your K20D and lenses are focussing accurately?
It could be that you have front or back focus issue with your lenses.
Luckily with the K20D it can be relatively easily corrected with a few tests and menu setting changes

The first thing you should do really is check you focus settings with a focus chart, download from herelink
and make sure your camera/lenses are set spot on first. Then make adjustments to your style of shooting, Jpeg, Raw, or both etc..

Thats not quite 100% true Stefan

At least on the K10D, any adjustment to saturation for instance WILL be applied to the RAW file, or at least the file remembers the setting and displays the RAW file with the oversaturation applied

Trust me, I know from experience what a bummer it is having to reduce the saturation slider on a couple of hundred images because I overcooked the setting

Depends on the RAW converter

The embedded JPG image always has the settings applied, but the RAW image is just that - the data straight from the sensor with absolutely no processing applied (saturation, sharpness, curves or otherwise).

ALL camera settings and information are buried in EXIF data (which doesn't actually change the image, but are like little post-it note tags on the image).

But note that the Pentax supplied software reads the settings from the EXIF and applies it to match what you had set

Other software completely ignores the embedded EXIF data and just applies the defaults in the software (e.g. Silkypix) - so the camera settings are not relevant. In these cases you'll see the preview change - for example Silkypix will show the embedded JPG until it has had a chance to decode the RAW and apply its values. You'll see the image change as the RAW converter works out its stuff (which is actually annoying sometimes, since I like the look of the out-of-camera embedded JPG!).

Matt

How strange, I would have thought RAW converters would be basically the same as regards importing images, Is Pentax PhotoLab unique in this respect?

Lightroom aplies for some setting something else, sharpening and colour profile are the ones that come up. White balance and exposure values are just picked up from the exif though.

In a way, yes - it's very specifically Pentax. The Pentax PhotoLab reads the settings from EXIF that were set on camera and starts the RAW conversion with that.

Other converters start from their own default position. The third party converters do this because some manufacturers still keep a lid on the complete EXIF information

Matt

ttk

Thanks for the reply

I completed the focus chart check a couple of months ago. One of my kit lenses has a back focus problem that is so far out, the k20 focus adjustment will not correct. I must send it back to SRS for replacement. The focus chart test on the 16-45 is however spot on so I normally use this lense.

On the natural and bright custom image setting, I have set the sharpness setting to +2 but still the shots are soft. Any futher advice would be appreciated.

Have you tried manual-v-autofocus on the same subject/target?

And what settings are you shooting, a photo with EXIF data would be very nice.

Also don't expect the photo to be looking perfect on 100% zoom simply zoom to 50% and make a judgement then. Even the smallest movement can make the image softer at 100%.

Anvh
I will try and post some photos if I can work out how to post them.

try a shot with a tripod or else lay it on a solid table and use 2second delay and aperture on f/8. The lenses is the sharpest at f/8 and 2seconds delay reduce camera movent so all you have is the lens sharpness and the sensor.

Also if you shoot in JPG your photos will be soft looking at 100%, Pentax thinks your photos looks better then when printed and in a way it makes senses. If shooting in jpg up the sharpness with two points and it will be in par with the other brands.