Could even be as simple as the zoom setting you are viewing in Photoshop
(There's absolutely nothing wrong with Photoshop or Elements... just how you use or misuse it!)

If you view at 33% (or some other non-easily divisible number) you'll get an add appearance. View at 100% for the absolute truth of the image. View at 50%, 25%, or 12.5% to see an excellent approximation of the image.

But, yet, an example would be good
Matt

Quite agree. As I mentioned on my post - I do notice leaning images on the K10D but I had that on all my other cameras too, to the same extent. So I didn't vote at all because a straight yes/no answer doesn't cut it

Before making any conclusions you have to at least do some controlled test. I'm quite willing to accept that there may be a problem with some of the K10Ds, and there's a possibility that Pentax could do something about it. But until at least one of the K10Ds has been looked at and we've got an answer you can't go making sweeping statements about how widespread this problem is



Could we perhaps leave this topic alone until someone gets some concrete feedback from an engineer looking at their K10D?????

Matt

Well... the answer is yes, but it was yes when I use the *ist-D and yes when I used the *ist-DS
It's either my specs or I have a wonky head
(So I'm not voting as it skews the results to the wrong conclusion )
Matt

Rob,
Ahh! Now I understand
To be honest, you're better off using full manual anyway (unless the situation is very "ad-hoc" and you don't have time to work things out).
One of the great advantages of digital is you can just use a trial-and-error method

And while I think of it... the AF360/540 in HS mode for fill in tend to expose for the highlights. Sounds odd, but shooting a wedding becomes a piece of cake as the dress is always exposed within range You just have to shoot RAW and compensate later

(Thanks for the comment about my images!)
Matt

Rob,
Just to mention - you only get "HS" mode when the flash is tethered. You can't do wireless HS mode (just so you know!)

I meant put an ND filter on the lens! You need to ignore the flash (for a minute at least) and bring the ambient light down to a manageable amount. If you can't get lower than 1/180s with f/16, then slap an ND on the lens until you do!

(Or find a little shade )

Once you've tamed the ambient light... then concentrate on the flash

Of course, use ISO100 too!

(Whoops - sorry about the suggestion to read Strobist. DOH! Should've read your post more fully! :roll

Matt

Yes, it's on those guns. No, you cannot do it on any other flash. It's not just a "pin thing", it's a physical impossibility.

It works like this, and is all to do with the two "curtains" in the shutter unit:
In a regular flash shot:
* First shutter curtain opens
* Flash fires
* Second shutter curtain closes behind the first

In an "HS" mode flash:
* First shutter curtain opens
* Before the first has completed its travels, the second starts to close behind it
* Flash fires controlled high frequency bursts of light as the "slot" travels down the shutter.

So, if you are using external flash units the only way to pull the shutter speed down is with an ND filter to cut some of the light, or use a smaller aperture

BTW, all shutter units have a physical limit at which "normal" flash becomes impossible. 1/180 is the tops for Pentax. Other brands have faster or slower speeds.

Might be worth checking out the Strobist blog for some ideas
Matt

Well, I have a few minutes to spare on this...

TASTES
This is a slightly strange name (probably makes more sense in Japanese ) for preset settings
SP-DS3 has two types of "Tastes" that I'm calling overall and local.

Overall Tastes
The overall taste covers more than one development parameter. These type of tastes are available from the drop down list that is just above the exposure bias control (to the right of the cog icon at the very top).

The overall tastes can include several mode selections - and some of them are very handy

For example, there's "Super Neutral" which performs AWB, sets the contrast to "Standard", the colour to "Standard Color" and disables all sharpening and noise reduction. The result will be just that - neutral

You'll find other interesting "tastes" - such as "Nostalgic Toy Camera", "Instant Film", and "Portrait".
When you look in the pull down list there are two icon types used:
SQUARE represents "This affects every parameter category", and
"L" represents "This affects some parameter categories".

As a consequence, you can find that the "L" type will stack up. For example, try selecting "Nostalgic Toy Camera" (click on it from the list), and then, having done that, choose "Portrait". You'll see it retains the applied vignette.

Local Tastes
The local tastes affect just one parameter category, and as such, they appear in the drop down list for that parameter.
For example, the list of available White Balance choices are all a "Local" taste (a taste that one changes the White balance control and lives under that control too).

To access a local taste, just choose from the drop down list next to the control (e.g. "Emphatic Sharp" in the sharpness/noise reduction control.

Don't forget that Ctrl-Z will allow you to undo the whole taste application if you choose the wrong one! And Ctrl-X will reset the parameters to defaults.

Creating Tastes
You may find you are always applying the same settings to large numbers of images - and in this case you can save yourself some work and create a taste

For example, you might find a killer set of noise reduction parameters that work for you. Once you have them defined in the main interface, press the little "+" symbol to the right of the drop down list for that controller (in this case the sharpening/noise reduction control).

A dialog will appear, allowing you to name the "Taste". (In this case you should see that the "Taste Category" will be set to "Sharpness/Noise reduction" and in the "Parameter category" only the "Sharpness/Noise reduction" box is ticked.). Once you OK that dialog the local taste will be available to quickly select again

If you find that you make settings to more than one category of control, click the "+" symbol next to the drop down list at the very top (normally it will say "Default". This time the dialog box will have "Taste Category" as "All parameters". Choose which parameters this taste should memorise and name it appropriately. You can now make swathing changes to parameters just by selecting your custom taste from the drop down box!

Neat, huh?!

I think next on the list will be a walk-through of the finer controls - the Histogram, EXIF, White Balance Adjustment, Curves, Highlight Controller, Fine Color Controller, Lens Aberration Controller and Rotation/Digital Shift controllers...

(I said it wouldn't be long...)

SETTING UP
Before we get going we need to setup a couple of things - especially if you have a calibrated monitor (or worse - you have a dual monitor setup :roll.

* Start SP-DS3
* (Menu) Option / Display Setting
* TICK "Enable display color management"
* Select "Select ICC/ICM file" and use the "Refer" button to pick the profile you created for the monitor (you know, with the Huey or Spyder).

While you there you may want the controls on the other side, so select "Right side of the main window". (This is helpful if you use a tablet LCD and are right handed!)

There is also the option "Make operation comfortable by reducing the load."... whatever that means! LOL! I have mine ticked It's always a good idea to keep your PC "comfortable"!!!

OPENING A FOLDER
SP-DS3 has a menu option: File / Open Folder (Ctrl-F), but personally I prefer just using Windows Explorer and dragging the folder onto the SP-DS3 workspace.

You should get all the thumbnails appearing

TOOLBAR
The toolbar contains the following icons:
* Open file
* Open folder
* Print
Well, they're pretty obvious...

* Undo & Redo
Very useful - the usual Ctrl-Z key works for undo. This is especially helpful when you start copying and pasting parameters. The undo will revert the image back to before the paste. All obvious though!

* Thumbnail view - four little squares
* Combination mode - big rectangle and two smaller ones (shows thumbnail strip)
* Preview mode - large square
These are the "bread and butter" of the image management. If you constantly switch between the modes you can assign a custom key to the modes

* Select scenes - four tick boxes
The select is rather useful Each of the images or thumbnails can be tagged with a marker: Copy/Move, Delete, Blue, Green, Red. The select scenes dialog allows you to bulk select based on these tags.
(If you want to change the state of a tag, just right click the image or thumbnail - the tag options are right there).

* Display Warning.
This is helpful, but annoying at the same time. SP-DS3 uses a pesky flashing warning which takes a great chunk of CPU time. One of the horrible aspects of SP-DS3 At least they include a gamma warning though

* Previous & Next Scene (F11 & F12 keys)

The next four icons are not available in thumbnail view:
* "Operation Mode" - chooses the zoom level and which tool you want
* "Exposure Bias" - click on the brightest portion you want and it'll sort out the exposure compensation
* "Gray balance tool" - click on a neutral gray. (HINT: there is a very useful "Skin balance tool" buried in the white balance tool set... more later)
* Trimming - obvious really! (Note that it doesn't touch the RAW file!)

* Rotate CCW & CW (Ctrl-E and Ctrl-R)
* "Reserve Batch Development" - in English: tick the image
(In SP-DS3 you can choose to develop (a) the current image, (b) the images that are selected, (c) the images that have the "development" marker)

HISTOGRAM
If the histogram isn't showing, either click on the histogram tool (bottom left of the tools palette), or use the menu "View / Histogram (Ctrl-H)". You're going to need it... and I usually have it parked at the bottom of the tools palette (but depending on your screen resolution there might not be room).
Don't forget you can resize the histogram if it's too small or large

GENERAL WORKFLOW
The general idea is: work from top to bottom on the tool palette.
That is, in this order:

• * Set the "Exp Bias" - this tweaks the general exposure value within the range of -3.0 to +3.0Ev. Do take note that pushing up the exposure will bring out more noise (ie if you shot at ISO800 and apply +1.0Ev you effectively have an ISO1600 scene) Small changes are best
  
  * Fine tune the white balance (click the little picture of a sun): Here you have access to the gray balance tool and the skin balance tool! Yahay! Click the skin tool then click the eyedropper on a clear patch of skin (preferably an area that's not been tanned or has makeup) and SP-DS3 will adjust the white balance and the Exposure. You might need a few tries to get what you want, and you'll probably need to re-adjust the exposure too.
  * From within the white balance, you can adjust the colour temperature manually. "Color Deflection" will adjust the main colour skew, while "Dark adjustment" does the same for the shadows alone - very helpful!
  * If you want a preset (or an auto WB), just use the drop down list to the right of the sun icon.
  
  * Next, move onto the Contrast section. For portraits I tend to push the "Contrast Center" to the left. If the scene is overall a bit dark, but you want to try and preserve some highlights, then try pushing "Gamma" slightly to the right and then pushing "Contrast" to the right as well. The "Black Level" pushes the left of the histogram further left - closing any gap you might have.
  
  * Then comes the "Color" control. You can have a party in here Start by choosing a "Color mode". "Memory Color 1" is a good all-rounder - it tries to portray the colour as you imagined it. "Portrait Color 2" is one of my favourites for portraiture - it renders skin tones wonderfully without affecting clothing colours too much. If you're from the old school you won't have too much trouble working out the "Film color" set: V1, V2, P, A, K. (Though V2 is usually waaaay over for my tastes!). Adjust the saturation to taste. From the drop down list to the right of the paint-tube (but not underneath oddly) is the option for "Monochrome 1" and "Monochrome 2". AFAIK, Mono 1 is a straight gray conversion, while Mono 2 respects the relative perceptual intensities of the colours (so yellow is converted lighter than red, and blue darkest of all).
  
  At this stage you may need to revisit some of the earlier settings. Changing the white balance and/or the colour response can drastically affect the histogram. It's a kind of loop you go through until you're happy!
  
  * Nearly the final stage... sharpening and noise reduction! By and large I get great results from the K10D by using either "Natural Fine" or "Emphatic sharp" presets. If it's a noisy scene I might try "Natural Fine" and then click on the NR icon (the brush) and push up the "Noise Reduction" to around 10 to 20 and then the "Noise Canceller / Noise Level" as well to a similar region. Fine tuning this set can be daunting - but there's an excellent section in the manual, section 10.1.8 "Creating Extremely Clear Image". Spend some time getting to grips with this - it'll help you create sharp images without noise or artifacts in clear regions of sky etc.
  

Now you can generate a TIFF or JPG... click on the two cogs with the "+" sign.

With Silkypix you are better off marking the images you want (F8 key) so the thumbnails have a yellow tick. When you've worked through the whole batch of images you can then process all the "ticked" images ("Batch development for reserved scenes" as they say ) While it's processing you can go and make a cuppa!


to be continued...

Okay dokay... due to popular demand here comes my "rough guide" to Silkypix Developer Studio. It'll have to be in installments because there's just so much of it, and I don't have a great deal of spare time right now

PLEASE don't go off thread on this topic. I'd like to try and keep it as a fairly clean guide to Silkypix. If you have questions, please start a new thread so we can keep things nicely organised

WHY SILKYPIX?
Some of the cynics will say that I just promote whatever the flavour of the month happens to be, or what I'm paid to promote
(I'm paid nothing, zippo, nada, for this - so there )

Actually, it's all down to the image quality. I have used, and own, the following RAW tools: Adobe Camera RAW (in CS2), Pixmantec Premium, Adobe Lightroom, Capture One, and Silkypix. I have also tried Bibble and others to test whether my decision is still the right one (you can test it yourself, or take it or leave it).

The user interface is ok in Silkypix. I prefer features in other RAW converters, but I still come back to the IQ every time. Capture One is the next best thing if you're wondering

SP-DS allows an unbelievable level of colour control, noise reduction, sharpening, plus lens adjustments (like chromatic aberration, distortions, and vignetting) and almost everything else you could imagine in a RAW convertor. Speed-wise it's pretty good. It may feel slower than C1 (especially the Pro version), but taking the overall time to work through a batch of shots I reckon it's about even with C1 - it's just different.

(I very, very nearly paid for the Pro version of C1 but SP-DS3 English Beta got to me before I paid out )

Yes, it takes a little getting used to. But, IMHO, once you've got the hang of it it's going to take some serious changes to the others to match it (in terms of IQ that is!)

What you end up with are images that are unbelievably sharp, crisp and with as much colour as you could want, and (with a little care) no strange artifacts or odd "pixel halos" that are apparent on pretty well all the other converters (and that's at all ISO ratings!).

GETTING SILKYPIX
First off, it's worth saying that the Pentax Lab software that's supplied with the K10D uses the Silkypix engine. There are also two versions of Silkypix available - the FREE and the PAID for versions.
I'm only dealing with the paid version (which, frankly, is not all that much money and you get a 30 day trial anyway).

You can download SP-DS from: www.silkypix.com
(Which is owned by ISL: www.isl.co.jp )



That's the first installment... hopefully the quick user interface walk through won't be that long in coming!!!

Probably both Tim