Poor Image Quality with My K20D

I can hear the groans just from the title.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not slating the K20D as I know a majority of owners are more than happy with theirs. I just want to be one them.

I've had my K20D for 3 months now, having previously owned an istDL2, and have taken just over 600 photos. And out of all those I'm lucky if I have a handful of images that I'm totally happy with. I don't remember deleting so many shots, although I wish I hadn't as it's given me less to compare with.

At first I put it down to a new learning curve, then I had the vertical banding issue. This has been fixed with the replacement of the motherboard, but my photos just are not sharp.

So this weekend, having looked at some of my latest efforts, I decided to compare some photos I took with my istDL2.

This shot is what made me suspect something is wrong.I was using a Sigma 55-200 1/1000s f5.6 (still not sure why:blush iso200



Now I know the sigma is not the best lens in this range, and for some reason I had it wide open at 200mm, but nothing in this photo is sharp.

Just to prove it's not the lens here's an eye crop from a photo of my youngest using the same lens, f5.6 at 200mm on my old istDL2



Finally, I got my wife to take some test shots of me using my DA16-45 on the K20D. I set the camera to f8 to allow for extra depth of field, set iso to 200 to match the istDL2.This gave me a speed of 1/500s.



I'm getting old & I hate photos of myself

Now I'm sure the more experianced will be able to come up with an explanation or 2 but I'm at my witts end. I shoot in RAW (PEF). Nearly always Av mode. I leave SR on most of the time except when using a tripod.I don't use filters except grads when required.

I really like this camera, but Im not getting the results I was hoping for. I know a better camera doesn't make a better photographer but I'm sure I'm doing things correctly. If not I should find out by the end of next week as I have returned it to Pentax sevice today for them to take a look. I haven't ruled out user error even now and if thats the case maybe I'll have to ask my sister if I can buy back my istDL2.

Have you checked the focus with a focus chart

And I can not see your last photo.

Yes sort of. One of the first thins I did when I got it back from Pentax was put a ruler on the floor and took several shots at about 45 degrees from as close as I could get and it just about spot on.A bit heath robinson but...

It showing here ok

The images have the same thing in common with many of those that doscuss sharpness, there's very little in them to really see as sharp.

Try a nice black and white building or something else brightly lit that's got some sharp lines in it, on a tripod. Only then will we have something definitive to judge.

Even if you think your test chart results are OK, have a go with AF Adjustment in the Custom menu. Compare shots taken with different values. This simple trial and error is better and easier than using a test chart, frankly.

I have to use -10 with most of my lenses on my K20D. Exactly the same thing with the first K20D I ordered - which I returned because I didn't think that was right.

I would be interested to hear if a similar adjustment helps in your case. An employee of SRS claimed they'd never heard of the problem before I reported it to them. I can't believe I'm the only one to get it, and with two cameras in a row!

I can't see you last photo, but what were you focussed on for the first photo?

Thanks for the suggestions so far. If it comes back as nothing wrong I shell give them a try.

Not sure why some can't see the last image, it appears everytime I refresh the page.Maybe your just lucky, its kind of scary seeing your own eye looking back at you.

I was focusing on the birds in the middle.

I can't see the third picture either, just a note from flikr saying "THIS IMAGE IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE".

Do try the AF Adjust thing. It's ever so easy.

I've just re-pasted the URL in. The image was also set as private so maybe that was causing the problem.Ive set it to public now.

I would be pretty concerned as well if I were getting the same results as your last picture with those settings.
There is nothing sharp in there at all.

Took the words out of my mouth so to speak, I would download a test chart and check again before going to Pentax.

Everyone is talking about the focus but are you sure that is it, what if you try manually focus and without the shake reduction?

It may well be something other than focus, but I reckon AF is the thing to check first, especially as Pothers has experience of getting sharp shots on another camera (and with the same lens).

Adjustment was needed with my two K20Ds. I can believe that many other K20Ds also need adjustment. Fortunately this adjustment is done electronically rather than needing to get handy with a screwdriver!

AF might very well be the problem, I was only thinking of taken it step by step.
If you turn the SR off and manual focus the only thing that can cause the softness then is the sensor and/or the processing of the image.
If the image is sharp you can turn on AF or SR and see what then happends.

I'm really not questioning the abilities Steve, I believe that he can judge by looking through the viewfinder if the image is in focus or not.

Got my K20D back from Pentax service last week and they have replace the main board assembly and adjusted the focus, and the image quality is no better than before I sent it of. I was absolutely gutted.

I called Pentax and got to speak to the technican who worked on my camera to see what they had found.He said that they couldn't find anything wrong with it so, having spoken to their collegues in Europe, they replace the main board assembly. Aparently they replaced the sensor to fix the vertical banding issue not the main board.

I told him that the images were still very poor and he suggested that it was the lens. So at the weekend I took about 30 test shoots with the camera on a tripod and used 3 different lens. Only one sharp image.

Yesterady I managed to get to Devon Camera where I bought it and we did some tests using a combination of my camera & lens and a K20D body & a DA17-70 SDM (they didn't have a DA16-45) from the shop.

Here's an image from each camera using my lens @ 16mm f4. Cameras were mounted on a tripod & SR turned off.







If you hadn't already guessed the first one was with my camera.

Camera is now packed and ready to go back for the third time. Hopefully third time lucky.