Just Posted: Pentax K-30 resolution and dynamic range test samples

Compared to previous years, the quantity (& partly quality) of DPR's reviews has dropped recently.

They have probably cut costs, and therefore lack the competence and/or productivity of staff.

Nikon D3200: announced April 19, 2012; reviewed July 2012
Canon EOS 650D : announced June 8, 2012; reviewed Aug 2012
Pentax K30D: announced May 21, 2012; still not reviewed at September 7, 2012

Well May isn't that bad. They never reviewed A57 that was released back in March.

> senn_b
Not correct statement. I believe DPR are not reviewing pre-production models.
So, time should be counted from when it's AVAILABLE to buy - not from when it was announced.

What the hell is wrong with you people? I know that your mommies made you feel like the center of the universe and that me, me, me is all you understand.

DPReview is a privately owned entity that charges you nothing for the privilege of reading their content. There are hundreds of cameras that come out each year and it is simply financially impossible to review all of them with any level of detail.

They make decisions to review cameras based on the criteria they deem most reasonable and provide that information for us to enjoy (or not). If you don't find your personal favorite here, tough luck.

I'm sick of all you whiners who feel entitled to have your toy reviewed for free and then moan about it if isn't, or whine about it when DP's opinion doesn't match your own.

Go back to mommy who will tell you all is well in the world and that you are the most handsome and smartest one in the room - and leave the rest of us who appreciate what DPR does the hell alone.

These arguments are annoying, and I'd rather divert the effort required into addressing them into doing something more constructive but for the record... we are a small team. But we're bigger than we've ever been before. Costs have not been cut and nor has the quality of our product.

Reviews take a long time, because we do it right. So we have to prioritise what we review, and when. We have to have a schedule and inevitably, people get pissy if their camera/brand ends up being kicked down the road a little way. Sorry - it happens.

Our best-laid plans can get changed dramatically, often virtually overnight, by new product releases. You know all those previews? Yeah.

So why aren't we reviewing more cameras? Well, it turns out that WE ARE. We've published 30 camera reviews this year (if my quick count-up is accurate) which is more than ever before in the same time period.

You're welcome. Let me know if you want your money back.

Sorry but this isn't true. A bigger sensor will give you better image quality, regardless if you are raw or jpeg shooter.

Way to miss the point. If you limit yourself to JPEG, you're going to get roughly 8 stops of dynamic range. You might get a bit more due to the curves applied by the camera's JPEG engine, but the 8 stops comes from the 8 bits per colour channel of the resulting JPEG. This is regardless of sensor size.

Point is, if you want to see the full dynamic range these new sensors are capable off then you need to shoot RAW.

If we follow your logic, do you mean this camera has a poor JPEG engine?
If it is necessary to shot RAW in order to get the JPEG image closer to its competitors ... then it really wastes a lot of time.
Why not buy a camera with better JPEG engine?

How will the camera know what sort of curves to apply? How will it know what sort of look you're attempting to achieve? The best setting on the K-30 that maximizes highlights and shadows is the last option in the dropdown, "Highlight On - Shadow High", but it's never going to give you a file that matches the RAW conversion of someone who has a clue.

Let's play a silly game. On the dynamic range tool, replace the Nikon with the Canon 5D Mk III and the Sony with the Canon Powershot S100. Enable "Highlight On- Shadow High" on the K-30 and have "HTP On" for the 650D and 5D Mk III. For the S100, enable DR400.

Notice how similar those graphs are? Notice how "well" the S100 is doing despite having a sensor that is a small fraction the size of the 5D Mk III?

If you're concerned about image quality and all those graphs, shoot RAW. If you want to know what the dynamic range of the camera is like when shooting RAW, look at DXOMark.

"but the 8 stops comes from the 8 bits per colour channel of the resulting JPEG. This is regardless of sensor size."

You can express any dynamic range at all with 8 bits per channel. You can do it with only 1 bit for that matter. Here's a way to encode 20 stops of dynamic range in only 1 bit: 0 = some arbitrary level of brightness; 1 = a level of brightness 2^20 brither than it.

If you've ever looked at an HDR image on the web, those are 8 bit JPEGs that express more than 8 stops of DR.