K5 questions

Hi everyone, I bought a K5 yesterday and have a couple of questions that I could not find an answer to in the forum -the answers are probably on the forum but I cant find them.

1. How do I confirm what firmware my K5 has?
2. Having had a K10(10MP) for a long time I was used to getting approx 1500 JPEGS on a 8GB card. Obviously the number is greatly reduduced on the K5(16MP) due to file sizes. Most of the photos I have previously printed out have been A3 and the IQ has been great.

Considering I only print A3 is there any real benefit to setting the K5 to 16mp, ****JPEG or should I set it to 10mp ****JPEG. (General photography)

What would be best for photos you know in advance that you are going to have to heavily crop even when using a 300* or 100-300 with a matching 1.4 TC (Sports photography)

Finally if you are wondering why I am posting on a sunny afternoon instead of being outdoors using my new K5 - I had a freak accident last night and broke my right foot and toes. I'm now confined to the house!!!

Congrats again on your K5 !

1. Hold down the MENU button whilst you switch on your camera.
2. Shoot in RAW for better IQ and you can crop more than you can with jpgs. If you don't want RAW then shoot 16mp jpgs !

Sorry to hear about your foot - at least it gives you plenty of time to read the K5 manual from front to back and back to front at least twice (I'm not joking) ! If you download the pdf you can also mark those areas of most interest / importance.

Hi CPM1. Sorry to hear about the foot.
No. 1. Press and keep pressed the menu button whilst switching the camera on. Best done without a card in the camera. The latest is VER 1.13
CHEERS Vic.

Thank you both. I have version 1.01. I'll now upload the latest version.

Ta.

Make sure the battery is fully charged for firmware update
Hope the foot heals fast !
Pete

Regarding your query no. 2, take a few shots at both sizes and compare your A3 prints. I'd expect the larger file size to be better. While taking raw images will eat up your memory cards even faster, from them you can create a jpeg at any size with the best possible picture fidelity - or even 16 bit images (eg TIFFS) which would print even better than 16megapixel jpegs.

At the end of the day, it really depends on what is best for what you want to achieve. Sometimes just a 2MP pixel images is sufficient (a screenshot for ebay for instance.)

John

I shoot in RAW+ 16MP DNG and a 2MP ** JPEG and the camera suggests about 500 shots on a 16Gb card. The 2MP JPEGs are handy as quick 'web friendly' files without having to spend time cutting them down later.

Thank you all for your advice. I've downloaded the firmware update and I'll try the other suggestions in the near future,

Ta.

Regarding your query no. 2, take a few shots at both sizes and compare your A3 prints. I'd expect the larger file size to be better.

Another K5 question, I have had my K5 for a few days now, does anybody else get annoyed with the locking button on the mode dial.

Dave.

Yes, and with the SD card door that I can't get my fingers into properly to get the card out without using tweezers.


Bernard

No! So much better than finding the mode has changed and you haven't noticed it.

Yes; and coming from a K10D, it took me a long time to get used to the position of the green button; and every time I want to use bracketing, I'm still looking for the dedicated bracketing button.

Well the day I got the camera I thought it was jammed! Realised eventually and now think it is a good feature. I have had cameras change mode in the gadget bag and not realise.

John

I agree totally. Many times in the past I had a camera change mode without noticing, never again.