What have Pentax been up to?

My curiosity was sparked after reading this recent K7 -v- 50D review (Friday 26th Feb) on ephotozine. In particular I was interested in the comments about an improvement in high ISO noise performance that Matt Grayson had identified with the latest v1.03 firmware. Pentax make no mention of it in there accompanying notes so having just run a few quick tests I wonder if they are missing a trick?

Have a look and see what you think.
These were all shot in RAW PEF and converted using Capture One 5 Pro on standard settings (with a slight exposure compensation on a couple). They were then resized in Helicon Filter Pro with very minimal noise reduction applied.

Satsumas ISO 2000

[IMG]http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3732/satsumasiso2000.jpg[/IMG]

Satsumas ISO 3200

[IMG]http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2196/satsumasiso3200.jpg[/IMG]

Satsumas ISO 5000

[IMG]http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/512/satsumasiso5000.jpg[/IMG]

Bananas ISO 1600

[IMG]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8927/bananasiso1600.jpg[/IMG]

Bananas ISO 1600

[IMG]http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/848/bananasmoreiso1600.jpg[/IMG]

Wine ISO 3200

[IMG]http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3521/wineiso3200.jpg[/IMG]

Wine ISO 5000

[IMG]http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3250/wineiso5000.jpg[/IMG]

Interesting .. how about some jpegs straight out of the camera at high iso.

and no fungus or nails I'm disappointed

James

what is the noise like in low light

That's very interesting. Would be useful to see 100% crops from before and after the update.

Yes, I'll only beleive it when I see "before" and "after" shots at 100% with all else equal and with no NR applied.

It's so easy to imagine things that have been improved unofficially in a firmware update.

OK these are straight camera Jpegs (with standard in camera high ISO noise reduction) and only a size reduction for posting.
I'm convinced there is an improvement. I don't think the camera was actually bad before but I would say it is now really very good. ISO 1600 is super clean IMHO.

Satsumas ISO 2000

[IMG]http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/7365/cjsatsumaiso2000.jpg[/IMG]

Satsumas ISO 3200

[IMG]http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/23/cjsatsumaiso3200.jpg[/IMG]

Satsumas ISO 5000

[IMG]http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/4677/cjsatsumaiso5000.jpg[/IMG]

Bananas ISO 1600

[IMG]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/1492/cjbananaiso1600.jpg[/IMG]

Bananas ISO 1600

[IMG]http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/4740/cjbanana2iso1600.jpg[/IMG]

Wine ISO 3200

[IMG]http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/4420/cjwineiso3200.jpg[/IMG]

Wine ISO 5000

[IMG]http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7555/cjwineiso5000.jpg[/IMG]

Huw, there's a couple of astonishing shots here.

The out of focus area behind the bananas at 1600 should, by the laws of physics, be splattered with little dots and as for the dark wine bottles at 3200... well, grain is visible but perfectly acceptable. Think of what old high ASA Scotch colour film used to look like in the twilight of the predigital era!

Cameras like these force one to re-think what is possible.

Regards,
Andrew

These were all taken in relatively low light

Yes true, I am giving my gut feeling and all I can report is that I'm very pleased with the output I see, especially when shooting PEF and PP'd.

Fair enough

I think you should flash your firmware back to the previous version and takee those pictures again

Thought you might say that

I'll let somebody who hasn't upgraded to v1.03 do the honours for the moment. I might do sometime if I'm feeling a real lose end

Thanks Andrew, yes I'm very pleased with the output at ISO 1600 and above. Previously I set my my maximum ISO to 3200 but now I'm not so sure

Huw,

Thank you for your impressive samples. It just goes to show that the K-7 can have excellent high ISO noise results using good post processing techniques and compare very favourably with the competition.

Thanks for your generous comments Lance
Whether there is an improvement or not (still think there may be) I guess it does show that the K-7 is perfectly capable at higher ISO. To be fair I always thought that was the case anyway