1020gms

link

Another welcome!

What type of photography do you specialise in? Anything to share with us here in the Gallery?

Just as an aside, despite the fact my K20D will take SDHC cards I still use small ones - max 4gb - not wishing to put all my eggs in one basket so to speak. I can only lose a small number of shots if I have a bad card.

If your question stems from the feeling that you'd like fewer cards/more storage, etc, consider the added risk first.

There are instructions for upgrading the firmware on the Pentax site. Make sure you follow them to the letter or else you'll 'brick' your camera. That said, don't worry, it's straight forward.

You'll be downloading the software to an SD card. Make sure the SD card has been formatted before you do the downlaod. This guarantees there'll be nothing else on the card so the firmware will be in the 'root'.

Make sure you have fresh batteries in the camera before you start as the upgrade must not be interrupted. It takes a few minutes and may appear to be doing nothing. DON'T PANIC. Just let it run.

If you haven't updated the firmware since new, the camera will only recognise SD cards which have a maximum capacity of 2gb.

If you have updated the software the camera will recognise SDHC cards which have a maximum capacity of 32gb.

The firmware upgrade is available on-line from Pentax.

Email sent

Looks like good old high ISO noise to me.

PM sent

I'll do my best

The AF system in a camera is linked to, but separate from, the optical system. The two work together, and in most cases the AF system will 'decide' on correct focus at a point matched by the optical system.

But, both camera bodies and lenses are built to +/- tolerances, and in some instances those tolerances can combine in such a way as to make the AF system and the optical system mis-match slightly, such that when the AF system indicates 'in focus' the optical system might actually be focussing slightly ahead or behind the subject.

Pentax like other manufacturers caters for this by providing in-camera AF adjustment accessed via the camera menu.

You'll find info about this at page 121 of the manual.

The adjustment facility is in Custom menu 36. AF Adjustment.

In essence, what you'll need to do is set up your camera/lens on a tripod, take test photographs of a 'target' and then use AF Adjustment to adjust focus if neccessary. You'll find plenty of threads in this and other Forums on what method to use - Google's your friend

The thing here is 'don't panic'. It may well be technique that's the problem, so if you first take test shots using a tripod that will eliminate you from the equation one way or the other, not forgetting to (a) switch SR off, and (b) using the 2 sec timer to trigger the camera/eliminate any vibrations due to the action of the camera's mirror.

If your test shots show that it's you that's the problem, then you'll need to practice the best stance, camera holding position, think about using a tripod, etc.

If the test shots show it's the camera/lens, than drop me a PM and I will send you links to sites, articles etc about AF Adjustment, but search this Forum first as it's not the first time this issue has come up and there's plenty of good advice to be found here.

This might be true, but it could just as easily be the fact that your camera/lens needs in-camera AF adjustment.