K30 does Christmas

I bought a K30 earlier this week. The weather's been a bit iffy and I've had lots of "chores" to do, so I haven't had much of a chance to give the K30 a whirl. We put a Christmas tree up this afternoon and, this evening after dark, I thought I might see what I could do with Live View and Focus Peaking, using a SMC-M 50mm f/1.7, at f/2.8.

These were taken with closed curtains, using available light in the room. Apart from the lights on the tree, the only lighting was a fitting with a cluster of 3 x 11w low energy lamps in shades about 20ft away - so it was pretty dim.

All the photos were taken hand-held. The first was taken at ISO 3200 and the others at ISO 6400. I used Live View and Focus Peaking (zoomed in). Focus Peaking definitely made focussing on what was intended a whole heap easier than I am used to. The photos are JPEGs pretty much straight out of the camera apart from a bit of cropping and resizing - i.e. only default in-camera noise reduction.

[IMG]http://www.moorside.net/photos/ukcs/IMGP0085_800.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.moorside.net/photos/ukcs/IMGP0086_800.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.moorside.net/photos/ukcs/IMGP0087_800.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.moorside.net/photos/ukcs/IMGP0089_800.jpg[/IMG]

I'm amazed at the K30's low noise at high ISO settings. I'm not convinced that I could have got anything usable (hand-held) with the K200D. I think I'm going to rather enjoy using the K30.

Andrew

White balance?

Auto

Andrew

If you check the EXIF data you'll discover what WB the camera actually chose. It won't say 'Auto'.

At a guess I'd say that the low energy lamps are 'warm', 2700-3000 Kelvin, which is probably why the images have a pronounced yellow cast.

They would perhaps look a bit better with some colour/wb correction to make them a bit less 'warm'.

Nice festive images though and the high ISO noise is handled very well. Some noise reduction would make them even better.

One thing to mention about using live view for focusing is that your battery will discharge much more rapidly.

I don't *think* that the colour temp is recorded in a JPEG, though the camera's white balance setting is. FxIF in Firefox, IrfanView, PSE8 and PhotoMe do just say "Auto". Yes, the low energy lamps are "Warm White" and their colour temp is around 2700degK, which is not that far off the colour temp of the tree lights.

Thanks for the tip about Live View and battery life.

Andrew

Good results for 6400ISO.

I would have thought the AWB would have done better, but it
does sometimes get caught out sometimes, it does sometimes
In a wood with green light from the leaves is one case.

I always use CUSTOM WB indoors even with flash, because it
gets warmed up bouncing off walls etc. You can preset different
values say 3000K, 3500K or 4000K and try each one.

-

The 'chores' I can accept as a reasonable excuse for not having a chance to get out with your camera but 'iffy weather'?!?!? Poor show andrewk, poor show! She be WR don't you know...

I like the images you've posted (1st and 4th best) and the 'warmness' noted by others imo fits with the subject matter (I imagine a roaring fire and stockings nailed to the fireplace) and as Algi noted: Good results for ISO 6400!!

I'm not really sure what "better" WB means for these photos. It's an artistic judgement (and I don't really have any of that). The wall behind the tree is a sort of creamy, parchment sort of colour. Father Christmas's beard is white/grey in daylight. If it's corrected to that, the photo looks ghastly (try it!!).

I've taken lots of photos at home under the same lighting with the K200D & even though a "tungsten" setting is probably technically correct, it never looks right (to me).

I agree with you about ISO 6400. It looks very usable - at least as good as ISO 400 on the K200D.

DaveHolmes - Mea Culpa - but it's been the "chores" more than the weather (honest!!) that's stopped me using the K30 as much as I'd have liked. I didn't buy a WR lens with the K30 body (is another feeble excuse) - but I have a nice little raincoat for the camera/lens, so I could have gone walkies anyway.


Andrew

As you're in photo mood and Christmas mode, don't forget the current Monthly Competition!

OK.



What do you think ?

What do I think?

I think you made the colours suit your personal preference - and they look fine to me. On the other hand, you didn't make the grey (in daylight) parts of his beard grey in the image - which is what I said would make the image look ghastly (way too little blue in your version).

If you do make his beard grey, it looks like this:




Pretty ghastly, don't you think?

The K30 is entirely new to me, so I want to see what it does on its own, without PP. As an aside, I tried a Pentax AF360FGZ flash on it this evening in P-TTL. For the few shots I took, P-TTL works a LOT better than it did with the K200D where it underexposed most of the time.

The K30 is definitely growing on me.

Andrew

I personally like the warm colours of the original, gives the feel of of the christmas tree being by a a nice fire away from the cold

Yes, really ghastly, but then I knew it would look overly blue if trying to correct for the beard, which is why I didn't.

I think your originals look way too yellow. In my version, I've just tried to make it look more natural, and less yellow, yet retain some of the warmth of the original.

You would have had a similarly blue looking image had you chosen a tungsten WB setting. If you have the time, try setting the WB to daylight, and retake one or more of the images and see what they look like.

Agreed.

I think I know what it will look like - pretty much like the version you produced. I could have improved it again by using noise reduction in PP (especially the Santa shot). Maybe it would have been sharper if I'd used a tripod and locked the mirror up. I could have kept my options open and possibly improved it again by taking it as a RAW and by spending a lot of time in PP.

To do that would have been completely missing the point. I simply wanted to see whether focus peaking is a useful tool with a manual focus lens - and whether the K30's reputation of great performance at high ISO is justified. I think I've learned that the answer to both those questions is a resounding "Yes".

Andrew