First & last for me Luverly!

Absolutely fantastic it is too (and very, very compact) Took some kids snap portraits at the weekend and at the long end the result is just achingly beautiful (used HS fill in flash with the AF540). Surprisingly versatile at flower photography - with its very shallow DoF. And a real boon in the RAIN! (I got more wet than the camera :lol
(Check out the last few of my gallery shots for flowers with the 50-135 )
Matt

Two legends The DA*50-135 is utterly stonking
Everything I take with this lens just pops out of the shot! It's 3D rendering is sublime, and the sharpness is phenomenal. My most used lens now... even the 50/1.4 is hardly getting a look in

Enjoy it when you get it!!!
Matt

Totally OT... but followed to the blog of the K20D videos, and found this PiKAPiKA THE MOVIE = insane
(I did take a few seconds of 21fps JPG on the K20D with my son on the trampoline... but haven't had time to movie-fy it)

Back OT... the video on the K7 looks very impressive from those preproduction versions!

Much of the differences in brightness, and especially the blackpoint come down to how the software uses the hardware device and creates a calibration file.

The basic "matrix/shaper" profile can be particularly disappointing - as you described.
I've had MUCH more success when creating cLUT (Colour Look Up Table) style files. Argyll will do them both (but the cLUT is a fair bit more work)

The difference was astonishing
(But then, as I found out, not all "colour managed" apps can handle cLUT profiles. Some can only handle matrix/shaper profiles )
Matt

I rather prefer the blunt end

Definitely calibrate. After having grief with a particularly bad LCD, I now use www.argyllcms.com with the Spyder 2 Pro hardware.

Works an absolute dream and produces the best profiles I've ever used
(But does take an absolute age to do!)
I now have multiple LCD monitors that actually agree! (brightness variances excepted)

It's worth noting that the Argyll CMS software will work with even cheaper hardware - like the Huey and Spyder (regular). So you can have pro-quality calibration on a budget (but it is command line driven... although not too difficult to do!).

Matt

LOL! Then they'll be pretty slow at full power

Sorry, but there is
Even a fully manual flash will charge the capacitor fully. When you set 1/4 power the flash will achieve that by letting power into the xenon tube for a shorter period of time.

Think of it like a bath full of water (the capacitor), and the plug hole (the flash tube). If you open the plug hole for a long time then the whole bath will empty. Open the plug for a shorter time and less power is discharged.


Matt

Just remember that the way the flash gets lower power is by "cutting off" the light output earlier.

So it may be a balancing act of lower ambient light + lower flashgun power + higher ISO + aperture control.

You need to balance all four (essentially ignore shutter speed) to find the "sweet spot" that will give you low flash duration with enough light and sufficient sensitivity to get the image you want.

Matt