K30 settings

To clarify I was speaking generally in the RAW v JPEG debate

Donald, the following web page might help you to understand the effects of shadow and highlight settings on the k-30, and whether to apply them:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentax-k-30/13

Cheers.
Philip

I said I was going to try and move on from the raw vs jpeg debate and I really want to, but can I just clarify something.
When I said earlier that I hate heavily processed shots in some Flickr groups I was referring mainly to garishly overdone HDR images.

I have seen shots which are fabulous examples of composition,timing and light wrecked by over the top HDR processing which does absolutely nothing for me. I even left my home island Flickr group because for me it was becoming littered with stuff that would contend for the Turner prize.

Many thanks to John and MrB/Philip for the advice and link.

That's not what you said, though, Donald. Mind you, that is what I suspected you might have meant and, in that case, I'm with you there!!

I usually leave highlight correction on to save blowing out skies mainly. As for sharpening, I reckon the best in-camera K-30 sharpening is Fine Sharpening +2. I don't use the normal sharpening as it looks crude. You can't use both anyway, it's one or the other. Clue - go to sharpening slider and turn the rear wheel one click.

If you are shooting RAW and do your PP on a computer with any software other than what came with the camera, then there is no point whatsoever in setting Shadow / Highlight corrections on. Do we know if any other RAW converters (eg Lightroom) can read the related metadata and apply it in any meaningful way?

With the K7 / K5 then Pentax Digital Camera Utility will read the camera settings and apply them in the software when opening the file, with a very similar result to if you had set them on the camera and shot a JPEG. Obviously with PDCU you have some extra fine tuning available, which in my view is an advantage. With any other software you will have the default parameters applied, whether or not the camera settings were active or not.

If you shoot JPEGs, then absolutely, use the in-camera controls as much as you can - the results can be great. Be aware however that the Highlight Correction will limit your lowest ISO to 200 (shadow has no effect I believe), and you may experienece some lag in displaying the images on the LCD, or increased time to display the final shot of a burst, as the camera takes time to carry out the processing for the LCD image - another good reason not to set these functions on camera if shooting RAW and processing on a computer.

Just been over to the US forum where there has been some discussion about the Silkypix version that is sold with the K30. There has been some confusion over this, and from what others have been saying, the K30 comes with an earlier version of Silkypix that doesn't have any of the Camera applied parameters at all! But I understand that a new version of PDCU has been released along with the K5II. Don't understand what is going on with the K30 software ???

Would I be right to assume that the K30 still shoots .PEF / DNGs ? I have heard that the menu system is quite different, and PDCU mimics many of the in camera processing menus, so maybe they just have not redesigned any software to mimic the K30 processing menus??

No - the only RAW format is DNG.

Andrew

Is that not strange, not using their own format? But that's what is in the spec.

Personally I don't have any issue with the only RAW option being DNG - I gave up shooting .pef early on with my K7 in the interests of efficiency (no need to convert for archiving). DNG would seem to be the best candidate for 'master file' status, and I have unable to find any quality or metadata parameter loss associated with shooting DNG (I believe all the same metadata is recorded in both DNG & PEF).

Maybe Pentax have thought the same and are abandoning .PEF? What about the K5II - does it still record to both RAW options?

According to the Spec's, PEF and DNG on both K5II and K5IIs

Still confusing! I can understand a connection between abandoning .PEF and no longer providing 'camera specific' RAW software - but ASAIK the DNG format does allow the recording of the full range of camera parameter data, and that can be interpreted by PDCU - so thats not a logical reason to stop providing the software.

The only thing I can surmise is that the camera menus and processing controls on the K30 are so significantly different to those on the K7 / K5 ranges to make the files incompatable with PDCU - and they havn't developed a specific replacement for the K30

I shoot DNG on my Kx and I'm just about to upgrade to a K30. Shooting RAW/DNG has saved many a photo as the Kx has always had a tendency to blow the highlights if you are not careful.

As a mater of interest lightroom updates bring in new cameras but when Adobe bring in a new version they stop upgrading the older one. This forces you to buy the latest version when you get a new camera if it is not covered by an update. This also applies to ACR for photoshop. Does shooting DNG get around this problem or is DNG camera specific?

The software and hardware used by the K-30 is newer than that used in the K-5, and Pentax have seen fit to use the older K-5 hardware and software in the K-5II/IIs, with slight tweeks to the software.
This might be due to the shape of the camera chassis, and did not wont to alter it just for an upgrade.
I am sure they will use the latest hardware/software they can in the K-5`s replacement, which hopefully will please the "AF SPEED" freeks.
Cheers
Dave

Updates to 'generic' RAW editors (such as ACR) contain 'camera profiles' for each new model added (eg K5II). These are effectively default opening parameters that should provide a pre-determined base starting point for your adjustments. I think in ACR you can see the effect of this by cycling between the defaults (camera profile / program default).

DNGs will contain the same camera profile for each software as the propriatory RAW would, but be aware these defaults are limited to the specific editing controls employed by each particular software - so really the updates are software specific. I'm not sure who is responsible for actually creating the camera profiles - the camera maker or software maker ?

However AFAIK you don't have to buy a new version of LR to update these profiles - they are provided in ACR, which is freely updated through the Adobe website.

DNG appears to bring great benefits for us Pentax people whose cameras shoot in the file format natively - it can store parameter adjustment data within the file itself, very handy for archival purposes as you don't need to worry about XMP 'sidecar' files becoming disassociated if you move things around or change computers for example.

Check the settings though in any parametric editor (such as Lightroom) that maintains a database, and ensure that all the metadata for your DNGs is indeed written to the file and not stored only in the program database, or else you face similar association issues when you migrate to a dfferent computer or create a copy of your archive.