K5. How do you rate yourself???

Ah, so it's not the F* 300 for K-mount. I have no idea what the 645 300 is like, but often medium-format lenses are less sharp than 35mm/APS-C lenses.

G

Only the best, George. Just need a real opportunity to give the 300.F4.5 a good work out.

It is not my experience that the medium format are less sharp. Beyond the Pentax 300mm medium format I have tested the 150mm Mamiya plus the 500mm Mamiya through an adapter. In my opinion, for what it is worth, I find the medium format gives more vibrant colours when photographing regal lillies.

When the opportunity comes in the spring, and the birds are back feeding with their young, I will test the two 300mm against each other.

You mentioned using an adjustment with your K20 to counteract the flat images. Can you be more specific on how this works, please.

regards Thoramay.

When I process an image (using Silkypix because it is very easy to use and produces great results - I almost never use anything else), I simply follow the Silkypix trail.

Item 1 is exposure, and you set the slider to the point where the histogram goes up to, but not beyond, the righthand edge.

Item 2 is colour correction. In most cases, especially if shooting in natural light on AWB, nothing needs doing. But if adjustment is required, there are several options available.

Item 3 is contrast. Simple enough.

Item 4 is interesting. Silkypix offers a variety of colour themes, which, for instance, may attempt to emulate the look of Velvia or another film type. Here is where you get mono conversion, too. I generally select either Standard or Memory Colour 1. The latter adds punch.

Item 5 is Sharpness/Noise reduction. A large number of options are available here, but as I seldom use high ISO I never bother with noise reduction, and simply set the sharpness to Natural, or occasionally to Fine. If neither is right, I can adjust sliders to fine-tune until I am happy. I abhor over-sharpened pics.

Doing all this takes seconds, and the settings can be copied instantly to all other pictures in the batch. However, I usually go through and adjust exposure individually for each picture.

That's the end of the trail. But it's not the end of the job. I find that almost all pictures (and especially those from the K20) benefit from an adjustment to the Tone Curve.

The Tone Curve is shown as a small graph with a straight line running diagonally from bottom left to top right. You can select colours individually, or all together - White. I always just go for white.

I almost invariably go four fifths (approximately) of the way up the graph, and push it up. Then, I go down to the bottom fifth, and bring it down again. This is the most important adjustment of all (assuming exposure wasn't too far out), and really brings the picture to life. Stefan, no doubt, can explain the theoretical basis for this.

I have seen pictures that people have spent hours photoshopping, and I don't think they are significantly better than mine, done this way in a few seconds. Indeed, often the reverse, because there is a temptation to go too far and achieve a result that looks unnatural.

There's lots more to Silkypix of course, but that's the essential bit. I'd be interested to hear what other SP users do.

G

Thanks for that, George. I ought to try this silkypix programme. I'm using PS5 at present.
Have now ordered the K5. Stopped my dithering and joined the band of poor but contented.

regards Thoramay.

Excellent, have fun with it!

I am a serious amatuer, I suppose. I am Chairman of a Photographic Club, so I do strive to win competitions. Image quality is an important ingredient of photography, but so is composition and subject. You do not need a top notch camera for the last two.

I have owned the K10D, K20D and now have the K-7. Each upgrade did lead to better image quality, but each was a slight dissapointment too. The K20D had brain damaged live view, poor metering and slow FPS rate, also the autofocus was prone to hunting.

The K-7 is much improved, but the high image noise is not as good above 800 ISO as I had hoped for. I do have a liking for nightime street photography, so the K-5 would help there. Also the improved autofocus would be useful for photographing moving subjects such as aircraft and birds in flight. I am happy with the improved metering and live view on the K-7. I think it is a shame though that Pentax cut the left side of the body off, as I think the K20D handles better. It also forced me to but another battery grip adding to the cost.

The K-5 has improved vidoe over the K-7 and although I thought this a gimmick, I have found the feature useful.

Regarding upgrading, this is a difficult choice. Buy now and take advantage of the cashback offer, or wait for the Amatuer Photographer full test report expected Mid January. I am sure, as happened before, the K-5 will drop in price by the spring. Pentax may even reintroduce the cashback, as they did with the K-7. I wonder if a full frame contender for the Canon 5D Mk2 is on the drawing board at Pentax. Now that could really be the one to wait for.