Pixel Peeping

Hi,

I know this has been done to death, but is it accepted that images straight off the K20D (shot in RAW) are a little soft, and they can be sharpened if necessary post processing? You can only really see if you magnify the image on the camera display - not tried downloading any onto my computer yet.

Thanks, James

All digital images shot with all cameras are naturally a little soft and all need some sort of sharpening. It's much better to go the Pentax route and do that sharpening in the computer rather than sharpen in camera like Canon do. The subtelty available from the computer is far superior.

Thank John, always a great help.

The image detail may seem disappointly soft when viewed at full size ("100%") - but it should look OK on the screen when downsized, or when printed and viewed from a reasonable distance. A RAW converter (or the camera's converter) will by default apply some sharpening. You can turn up the sharpening further if you like.

A RAW image looks even softer on the camera display because what you're looking at is actually a small highly compressed JPEG that is imbedded in the RAW file rather than a proper full conversion from the RAW data. This is done to save time.

So the RAW image will look sharper on your computer once properly converted to JPEG or TIFF (or when previewed with a good RAW converter program).

Images from practically EVERY camera shot in RAW are a little soft
It's to do with the bayer matrix in front of the CCD.
That's where RAW conversion software image quality varies - the algorithms they use to rebuild the full colour image are different, and the results can vary wildly! Certainly ACR and LR1 produced images with a lot of impulse noise (which makes them look "sharper" until you pixel peep). LR2 may be different. C1 was better, and SPDS3 better still

The "moan" in the reviews about Pentax being soft was prior to the K20D, and only with regard to in-camera JPGs. In fact, if you check out even Depressing Review's comments on the K10D vs K20D they note how much detail you can pull out in RAW.

As John says, shooting in RAW give you ultimate control, and shooting in JPG - well Pentax take the softly-softly approach (excuse the pun) to allow for better control in post-processing.

HTH!
Matt

Hi James - you mention that you're only looking at the images on the rear LCD. I believe that on the K20D the images can be viewed at well above 100% (if my memory serves me right then 11x magnification is equal to 100% on a computer screen). If you are using magnifications higher than this then the images may well look a touch soft.

Jonathan

Thanks guys, just so busy with work at the mo, only had chance to fire off a few shots and review on the camera's LCD. Need to put a few hours aside to get the software loaded up on my laptop and have a real play with the RAW images.

James

To quote Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book:

Now, which photos need to be sharpened in Photoshop? All of them!

... actually none of them! ha.

Took quite a few at a 1 year old's birthday bash. Very happy with natural colours and quality of the photos.

Don't think much of the free Pentax software, do most of you use Lightroom for RAW conversion and manipulation. Is Lightroom 1.3 OK, as I can get this a bit cheaper than version 2.0.

James

Try SilkyPix and see how you get on. The user interface is weird but the sharpening seems very good to me and easy to adjust. There's the free version or a trial for the full version.

Just try it and see what it can do for your RAW images.

Mike

You contradict yourself, James, just yesterday you had not downloaded any pictures to your computer. Are you still making your statement based on the camera's LCD display?

The Pentax software is based on Silkypix, so the result should not differ very much.

Installed the software 20 mins before posting my last message and did a bit of manipulation with the files so I could view on a computer monitor instead of the LCD. The images looked great, and no extra sharpness was required (to my eyes anyway). The Silkypix software that comes with the camera feels a bit basic, so wondered what other options there are such as lightroom, aperture etc.

James

The word "Silkypix" misleadingly is on the Pentax CD, but the program is not Silkypix. The full Silkypix program is much, much better. It has a completely different interface and many more controls. Highly recommended.

The free fully-featured trial can be downloaded here: http://shortcutinc.com/cms/index.php?id=4

I would seriously think about buying this.
The software is excellent (and so is the asking price).

No more weird than any other.

G