Peter,
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutother/lettery
George is right
Matt

Absolutely. Each firmware release is entirely self-contained and complete.
Matt

It's a Fujitsu media processor with an M-4 core. Found the datasheet on it too - makes interesting reading http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/EDG/binary/pdf/find/24-1e/3.pdf

And as you say, there's not much Samsung around... wonder now what the link was??
Matt

I've been having a look around on the 'net:
http://hobby9.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/dcamera/1171376737/l50

It's amazing what's out there Just wish I could read Japanese This might be a bunch of hackers reverse engineering the K10D and K100D... or it might be some Pentax engineers. I don't know!

From what I can see there's some debug stuff removed from 1.10, as well as numerous little tweaks.

Also a K100D disassembly: http://minase.on.arena.ne.jp/PENTAX/K100D/K100D/

And a K10D disassembly:
http://minase.on.arena.ne.jp/PENTAX/K10D/LED/

But it looks interesting
Matt

Ben,
Pentax have done this in the past with the *ist-D... flash exposure was drastically improved on that camera and it was never listed in the bug fix.

Could very well be the same with this firmware release.

(Wish they'd actually say what they've changed in the way of tweaks and attempts at improving, rather than mentioning only the things they know they have fixed completely.)

Matt

Peter,
That seemed to give fairly good results in PS7. However, Photoshop CS/CS2's "Bicubic Smoother" gives better results
(And as I mentioned you need to sharpen it up a tad. I don't see the need for GenuineFractals or the FixerLabs stuff with CS2 )
Matt

One tip for Ben's method that will eliminate the duplicate layer...
(AFAIK this was discovered by me after thinking about things having read Katrin Eismann's books. I let her know too, so it may appear in her revised edition)

After the unsharp mask operations:
* Add a "Hue/Saturation" adjustment layer
* If you want to affect just the blacks, set Saturation to -100 (or anywhere in between for that matter)
* Change the blend mode to "Soft Light" (as instructed)

Advantages:
1. Almost no memory - the image isn't duplicated. Helpful when dealing with huge images, so you can save as a PSD
2. You have adjustment over the saturation (black/colour control)
3. If you apply any healing brush or any other adjustments to the original layer, then the adjustment layer still functions

This trick works with all Photoshop tips where you simply duplicate a layer and change the blend mode.

Other examples:
* Add a curve adjustment layer
* Pull the middle down
* Change blend mode to Soft Light


You can experiment with the adjustment layer you use. For instance, you could use a Channel Mixer set to Monochrome and then you've got almost infinite control

The basic thing is that Photoshop is "sucking up" the underlying image data, applying the adjustment, and then blending the result.

Cool, isn't it?

Matt

Hint: with CS/CS2, after resizing with Bicubic Smoother, use "Smart Sharpen" and you'll get the clarity back
It'll take a little bit of experimenting, and I'd suggest duplicating the background and sharpening the duplicate layer so you can compare the difference.
(But it'll need a heap of RAM!)
Matt

Pete,
Genuine Fractals is but one way to upsize

Photoshop CS/CS2 both do a pretty excellent job of upsizing (especially when using the Smart Sharpen with it).

Fixerlabs also do a product for resizing.


They all do tricks to "fool" your brain into seeing more resolution. You can't make real detail out of nothing, but you can do an excellent job of hiding it so it's not immediately obvious

Matt

Peter - apparently they do
The dpreview press release made mention of it specifically. Good one Pentax
Matt