Not sharp

I am glad beginer has sorted out his problems.

As a novice I need some help finding my way around the K20 or any DSLR. I have the supplied k20 manual but could anybody recomend a good book or truition dvd that would help me learn how to use the camera.

I am very thankfull of all the advice all of you have given to me in this forum

Beginner just sent me through a pic, nice and sharp, and he's happy - seems the adjustment did the trick...

Dan

Beginner
It would nice to know what the adjustments were that made all the differnce so I could try it.

It was a focus adjustment, but I don't think that's necessarily your problem, you need to try the focus chart mentioned earlier in this thread, but also make sure you take that filter off.

Dan

I have done comparisons with/without a front filter and even the plain glass ones can soften an image. Make sure you have a high quality filter if you are going to use one.

When I first got my K10, in december 2006, I downloaded the manual about a month earlier, and spent about 2 weeks studying it from top to bottom. It actually helped a lot, and as soon as I got the camera I flipped the dial to M and never ever used it in anything more "auto" than Av.

I think that newbuyers should expect a certain degree of complications in the use of a semi-pro DSLR. Obviously one needs to get used to thing, learn how to use manual modes, and camera settings, learn the basics of photography. I think its almost pointless though, for the experienced members of the forum, to try and give advice to beginners who can't be bothered studying the manual, and reading about the complicated camera they are using.

as George said, the only difference between a DSLR and a point & shoot, is the fact that with a DSLR the photographer has the choice. It must be an INFORMED choice though, otherwise what's the point of buying a dslr in the first place?

Cheers,

Nathan

I'm sorry but I take exeption to your remark about beginners not bothering to read the manual!...I have only been using a dslr for a short time but I have used Pentax slr's for alot of years!...My point was that my camera on default settings was producing shots of very poor quality with all my lenses,both Pentax and third party. I managed to get mine rectified by a qualified camera operative.....I still believe that when you pay £728 for a camera you shouldn't have to sit down and "tune" your lenses I would think the majority of users weather pro's or amatures would be able to correct back focussing,which was my problem, to a satisfactory degree...............Kenp

The thing is, lots of beginners don't. You may do, in which case the comment doesn't apply to you.

Lots of non-beginners don't, too.

It's a very common feature of lots of forums - people rock up, ask a question in a very general, non-specific way, clearly not having taken much in the way of steps to help themselves.

I don't think you need take that comment personally.

Is there a back focus adjustment on the K10D? I can't find any reference in the manual to one.

There's nothing in the manual, but it can be done.

Have a look at this thread:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7849

Thanks for that ChrisA

Strikes me that some people may be looking too closely at their pictures. When one selects 100% on a high resolution image you are in fact zooming in to a relatively small part of the picture. At that level of zoom it would take an array of 6 monitors to see the whole picture taken on a 6MP camera with your monitor set to a horizontal resolution of 1024 pixels - a lot more for a 14MP image. It's a bit like taking a magnifying glass to a large print.

Are people expecting too much I wonder?

I don't know whether they're expecting too much, but they're certainly looking at images in a totally different way to how they did with film.

But if an image is sharp, you will see that sharpness at a pixel level. Believe me, the photos that started this discussion off were not sharp.

Dan

Reading manuals - well I'm doing it right now for my k10. I like reading it and learning and I like playing with the camera.

The main thing about digital is that you can instantly view your images. You can't do this with the slides.

I also had some problems with focusing - so I've downloaded the focusing chart and I'll give it a try. I was using MF before with my MZ5n most of the time except for fast actions so I tend to use MF even with the k10 before I verify that the k10's AF is focusing on what I want to be focused.

Asking general questions in web forums: it's much easier than looking up the answers in the manual. I like the effort of finding the answer by myself if possible.

Sounds to me like your camera has duff focus and needs adjusting.

Lack of sharpening on raw, camera movement, subject movement do not lead to an image being in focus at one point and not another.