Yesterday at last I had a chance for a quick stroll outside with my new and shiny 16-50. Here are some first impressions, nothing special, just a lens test stroll...
So far I'm quite satisfied with this lens and the SDM is sublime (my first SDM lens as you might tell )

For the interested reader I left the EXIF data intact.
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4176.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4185fc.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4197fc.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4198fc.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4201fc.jpg[/IMG]

Prieni

I opened a new thread for the highlight recovery with D-range here.

Prieni

In another thread there was talk about the D-range option of the K20D and how that may help in highlight recovery.
As I was giving my new 16-50 a spin yesterday I thought I should give it a try. Before showing the results I have to state that I was shooting at 2.8 (i.e. wide open) as I was testing the lens. So the 100% crops are not sharp, this is because they are out of focus, not because my 16-50 copy is crap. I left EXIF intact.

Here is the test subject, correct exposure (+0.5 EV):
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4173.jpg[/IMG]
You will see in the crops that some areas are blown already.

Here's almost the same shots, now with +2.5 EV:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4175a.jpg[/IMG]

And this is the same shot developed in SilkyPix with -1.9 EV:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4175.jpg[/IMG]

Now a 100% of the lighthouse top. First the correct shot:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4173100pu.jpg[/IMG]

and the overexposed (then recovered) one:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4175100pu.jpg[/IMG]

Same for the lower portion. Correct exposure (already I needed to apply some highlight recovery in SilkyPix):
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4173100lu.jpg[/IMG]

and the bright one:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_RDP4175100pl.jpg[/IMG]

Remember, these are not sharp as I focused on the central portion of the lighthouse with 2.8 aperture.

It's not magic, there are some areas where the recovery wasn't fully possible. But I am impressed how well this shot, overexposed by two stops, could be pulled back.

The bad thing is that I didn't take any shots with D-range disabled. So there's some work left to be done.

Prieni

Once I'm back home I'll do that...

Just to back that up, I yesterday had a first stroll around with the 16-50 and remembered this threat. So I did overexpose a few shots by 2 stops. No problem recovering _nearly_ all detail. My example was perhaps not as impressive as the example from the Dutch site, but it certainly did reduce my fear of overexposure a bit.

Of course I forgot to do the obvious and switch of D-Range (I always have it on on the K20). I was more focussed to get some shots with the 16-50 wide open. Today it's raining, so no chance of repeating it...

When I had the K20 new I did try a side by side comparison with/without D-Range. Not much difference, but that was on well exposed shots.

We have to do a proper comparison. I would do an indoor setup but there are still sooo many pics from the Hawai'i trip waiting to be processed...

Prieni

I would make the lower part of the 'handrail' parallel to the bottom. That way the bit of window on the top right would get even smaller and lend itself to cloning out. I agree with Mannesty that a bit more contrast wouldn't do any harm. Cloning out the person is the way to go, though I had preferred having the person in the frame, a bit further away from the wall. This would give much better scale.

Oh, and yes, this shot works well and I do like it very much. It's really nice with all these geometric pieces but the cherry on the cake for me is the shadow on the round building.

Prieni

Thanks Liam,

that does sound interesting.

Prieni

Or you build yourself one of those:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/IMG_2639charger.jpg[/IMG]

A Swedish colleague (with a C@non, would you believe) hadn't got his luggage when boarding the ship and had to resort to this DIY project. It's not as compact (as he used a PC power supply) but it did the job...

Prieni

Good selection, some of them need some straightening, though.
Nice series!

Prieni

That's one of the best explanation of PPP's I've heard