I love my Katz eye...

I originally bought it for a K10d. When I upgraded to a K20d, I moved the Katz eye screen over. I noticed that the manual focus point did not quite match the auto focus point. I had calibrated the auto focus point using a simple target available from:

http://pentaxdslrs.blogspot.com/2008/06/part-1-autofocus-adjustment-for-pentax.h...

Further testing revealed that I indeed had front focus problems with
manual focusing using the Katz Eye. Rachel at Katz Eye informed me that they had noticed that with the K20d, and there are a number of shims available from Pentax to adjust for the focus screen adjustment. I picked up three sizes to play with. Now the manual focus point matches exactly with the auto focus point.

Hope this helps...

Dick

Agree with MattMatic! That dodge feature has restored many of my underexposed images - Most of them underexposed flash images that my reading of MattMatic's tome on Pentax flash can't seem to correct ... And so easy to use too! Also, development has been handed to another thread, so you can move to another folder while developing is underway...

Dick

Yes indeed. I use Idimager. It is very flexible, and I can find an image in seconds. But Idimager is a great deal more than a DAM. Editing, Web publishing... take look for yourself... www.idimager.com

Dick

Interesting... Once I learned about 'P' Hyperprogram I use nothing else. It combines all the features of AV and TV in one setting.

By default it sets aperture and shutter speed based on the menu option program line setting in Custom settings. Default is Normal as in 'best setting' based on lighting, but other default settings are possible for Hi speed, Depth of field, and lens MTF.

If I need a shorter shutter speed for action, I use the front wheel, to adjust depth of field, I use the back wheel... What could be easier? Of course, manual for manual lenses...

The G10 is a great camera. Looks like a high quality rangefinder film camera! And it has all the manual capabilities along with RAW format if you want to use it.

But for me, the issue is image quality. One of the factors affecting image quality is how far the image must be magnified to fit the size of the ultimate print. That is where I've noticed quite a difference.

Point and shoot cameras have, (or did have, see the Olympus e-P1 just coming out, or the Sigma dp2) small sensors. In your discussion you mentioned the Canon G10 and the Pentax K-m. Dpreview have added a criteria for comparing cameras based on the size of the sensors. The G10's sensor density is 34mp/sq cm, and the K-m's sensor density is only 2.8mp/sq cm. Sensor size, actually pixel density, makes quite a difference when you are cropping the centre of an image and blowing it up to 20X25cm...

Dick

Also there is small metal shim that separates the focus screen from the pentaprism/mirror. I have a k20d, and bought a Katzeye focus screen. The Katzeye was a tiny bit thicker than the original Pentax focus screen. Accurate focus is so easy to detect with the split prism, and it was disconcerting to see a tiny variation when using autofocus.

Rachael at Katz Eye advised me about the availability of different size shims from Pentax - I bought three and the middle one was perfect. The Pentax invoice called the shim a "focus adjusting washer".

Note that this does not affect the autofocus performance. But it is encouraging to see the image in the viewfinder is sharp when using autofocus...

Dick

Hi Stefan,

Oh I may have misled you - I always shoot PEF in the camera (not DNG)... Then convert to DNG with Adobe DNG converter during the download process. Idimager does that automatically. Also, I have Adobe DNG converter replace the jpg preview image in the raw file with a full size preview as well. And surprisingly, the resulting DNG is smaller than the PEF in spite of the larger imbedded preview. I guess the Adobe RAW lossless compression is more compact????

Dick.

Hi Stefan,

Yes it does! But in a separate file, commonly called a sidecar. The name of the file is the same as the PEF file, but has an xmp extension.

I use Idimager to create metadata in my images. If my image is a PEF, and I synchronize (write) my metadata back to the image file, the metadata is saved in an xmp file in the same folder as the PEF. If the image is a DNG, the metadata is written directly into reserved space in the DNG file format.

JPG files also have reserved space in their file format to store metadata. As far as I know, no RAW format other than DNG reserves space in its file design to store metadata in the image files. True for PEF, CR2 and NEF I know from personal experience...

ps. Hmmm Could you may be referring to exif information? True. PEF format does indeed store exif information - The metadata I was referring to was extended metadata - eg my name, copyright, keywords etc...

Dick

http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/cat--Pentax-DSLRs--cat_pentax.html

This will do it. I love it!

Dick

My favorite at the moment is Silkypix Studio 3.0, but it is not free.

If you are a PC user, you might like to look at

http://www.rawtherapee.com/

It is currently free and does a fine job of processing RAW images...

If nothing else it is a great learning tool on RAW development. And the final image is very good.

Dick