Hope New DSLR's image will be sharper

[Wally OZ]

Poor Google, assasinated, no massacred yes.

I hope pentax ignores googlies dribble and leaves sharpness alone, perhaps they could compromise and add a SHARPNESS FOR DUMMIES seting that will please all dummies.

But please leave the current *ist D sharpness as is [don't fix it, it aint broke] for the rest of us.

Proprietary batteries, Oh NO, just don't even think about it PLEASE

But I'm glad I have the *ist D; I'm sure it has more "professional"
functions. And as for the sharpness, I gave pics of my 2-year old
neice that are so sharp they make out details of her face that I
couldn't see with my naked eyes if I were nose-to-nose with her.

 

[Qwntm]

Google? More like TROLL!

Micheal Richeman (is that how you spell it?) didn't like the battery situation in the ist D... (what do you expect from a retired camera salesperson with delusions of pro photography?)

Working pro's know batteries are your number one killer, especially with digital, and more options are alway better. Pentax gives you about six or seven. And people are complaining!? If Nikon or Canon came out with a pro model with six or seven battery options, everyone would say: "Damn, look at how "pro" that is! Those guys are sharp!"

And speaking of sharpness, anyone who thinks the ist D is "soft," has read too many reviews and has not tried to make an image for themselves with one...

TROLLS GO AWAY...

(And the Pentax board is usually such a nice place to hang out! )

Ed

 

[racehorse in the desert]

And speaking of sharpness, anyone who thinks the ist D is "soft,"
has read too many reviews and has not tried to make an image for
themselves with one...

(And the Pentax board is usually such a nice place to hang out! )

Ed

Yes, the Pentax board is a great place. I have learned much from all of you. I am very happy with my *istD and am really enjoying learning to use it. Almost every day I think of more unique ways to use it for fun and for profit.

The so-called sharpness problem is a non-issue. It has been well covered here. We have all seen what oversharpening does, yukkk! To my eye *istD files printed directly to a good photo printer (I have the Epson R800) actually look sharper up to a certain size than film images of the same size.

Here is what the Sigma 15mm fisheye does on the *istD. Good wide angle, some distortion as expected. I have fun with it though. I also have the 16-45 for ordinary wide angle.

John Power
Racehorse in the desert.

 

[jeffkrol]

Google? More like TROLL!

Micheal Richeman (is that how you spell it?) didn't like the
battery situation in the ist D... (what do you expect from a
retired camera salesperson with delusions of pro photography?)

Working pro's know batteries are your number one killer, especially
with digital, and more options are alway better. Pentax gives you
about six or seven. And people are complaining!? If Nikon or Canon
came out with a pro model with six or seven battery options,
everyone would say: "Damn, look at how "pro" that is! Those guys
are sharp!"

And speaking of sharpness, anyone who thinks the ist D is "soft,"
has read too many reviews and has not tried to make an image for
themselves with one...

TROLLS GO AWAY...

(And the Pentax board is usually such a nice place to hang out! )

Ed

 

[Anastigmat]

I would have to say I like the NiMH cells in cameras that take just

2 AAs, but prefer the proprietary versus 4 AAs. Just too much time
spent looking at the + - while reloading and putting in the charger
just right. Just my .02.

I would agree if the batteries need to be changed often. The AA batteries in the *istD would simply last too long to make changing batteries an inconvenience. The cost of such inconvenience is more than offset by the benefits of rechargeable AA and readily available alkaline batteries.

 

[Frank from AZ]

Micheal Richeman (is that how you spell it?) didn't like the
battery situation in the ist D... (what do you expect from a
retired camera salesperson with delusions of pro photography?)

Check out Reichman's Fuji S2 reveiw, where he sings the praises of AA batteries and lauds Fuji for using them!!!!! Pure Pentax biased on his part to do a review a little later and present AA's as a Pentax negative.

--
Frank from Phoenix
Canon 1D Mk2 and Pentax D*ist DSLR

 

[Wally OZ]

Micheal Richeman (is that how you spell it?) didn't like the
battery situation in the ist D... (what do you expect from a
retired camera salesperson with delusions of pro photography?)

Check out Reichman's Fuji S2 reveiw, where he sings the praises of
AA batteries and lauds Fuji for using them!!!!! Pure Pentax biased
on his part to do a review a little later and present AA's as a
Pentax negative.

--
Frank from Phoenix
Canon 1D Mk2 and Pentax D*ist DSLR

Very interesting observation, hmmmm.....

 

[Joey Valencia]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0406/04060601pentax900dslr.asp
Let's hope the new DSLR's image will be sharper than the very soft
*ist D image, and use a Li-ion battery and come with a good, 4x kit
D lens.

if pentax does that... i would really be glad i bought me the *istD. sharpness is a non-issue - buy a good lens. batteries are fine... 2300mA AA's in the body and another set on the grip lasts me a session or more, although i always make it a point to top-off before every major shoot. for more juice, there is still the choice of the RCR-V3's (recharcgeable CR-V3's).

 

[Wally OZ]

Micheal Richeman (is that how you spell it?) didn't like the
battery situation in the ist D... (what do you expect from a
retired camera salesperson with delusions of pro photography?)

Check out Reichman's Fuji S2 reveiw, where he sings the praises of
AA batteries and lauds Fuji for using them!!!!! Pure Pentax biased
on his part to do a review a little later and present AA's as a
Pentax negative.

--
Frank from Phoenix

Frank, I just revisited Reichman's 2 reviews and I am amazed that the same guy could have written both reviews, did he have a different hat on that day or what? one needs a lot of salt [perhaps even more than I can carry] reading his reviews.

In The Fuji review he even comments that the soon to be released *ist D will also be using these super duper great AA's then in the following *ist D review he has stroke about the AA's, strange to say the least.

The *ist D only has one set of batteries but it still isn't good enough, right!

Bear in mind he even has a problem with the camera's name, poor didums.

I wonder what went wrong wouldn't pentax let him keep the istD?

 

[Frank from AZ]

Only one variable changed, Fuji vs Pentax. He has trashed the Pentax name before so I believe when he sees Pentax, he reflexively thinks negatively. Why? Who knows and who cares. Fact is, he's biased against Pentax as the Fuji S2 vs the *ist D review demonstrates. Having said that, if you read between the lines he is overall positive about the Ist D, his bias just prevented him from outright admitting it.
--
Frank from Phoenix
Canon 1D Mk2 and Pentax D*ist DSLR

 

[digital_ray_of_light]

I think the ideal path all manufacturers should take is to offer the consumers the ability to use BOTH proprietory or AA batteries. If it can't be done straight up, they could do it by using battery trays or even battery grips.

and use a Li-ion battery

I hope not! To me it is one of the main selling points of the
*istD. Ideal for long trekkings.
The pictures I've seen that are taken with the 16-45 lens look more
than sharp enough to me. But indeed a lens with the same
quality/compactness and a 18-70+mm range would be more than welcome.

--
Menno
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvanb/albums

 

[paul1307]

and use a Li-ion battery

I hope not! To me it is one of the main selling points of the
*istD. Ideal for long trekkings.
The pictures I've seen that are taken with the 16-45 lens look more
than sharp enough to me. But indeed a lens with the same
quality/compactness and a 18-70+mm range would be more than welcome.

--
Menno
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvanb/albums

YES - the possibility to use AA-cells is one major positive factor (at least for me, but I know there are others as well).
Perhaps with an additional battery grip -like with my MZ-5.

As for sharpness:

Yes, the Pentax is not as "sharp" as C...., N...., (and perhaps S...., and O......) - right out of the box. And yes - I hope the next may be better in this regard. Not all of us want to do the post-processing on the PC but want the better quality of dslr compared to the digital VF-cameras. So there should be the in-camera-option at least....

Paul

 

[Dave Lewis]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0406/04060601pentax900dslr.asp
Let's hope the new DSLR's image will be sharper than the very soft
*ist D image, and use a Li-ion battery and come with a good, 4x kit
D lens.

The images from the *istD are the best. If you want in-camera
sharpening, buy a point and shoot.

Personally, I wouldn't touch a 4x zoom lens with a ten foot pole.
I avoid all zoom lenses anyway because they represent a compromise
in quality to achieve flexibility. The greater the zoom range, the
bigger the compromise. The best zoom lenses consistently prove to
be the ones with a zoom ratio of less than 3x.

Well, I have several lenses for my *istD. I've accumulated a couple cheap zooms on ebay - a Sigma 28-80 and a Pentax F 35-70. I also purchased the Sigma combo 18-50 and 55-200 zooms. Along with those I have the F 50mm f1.7 prime and the brand new FA 35mm f2.0. Those last two primes are regarded as the sharpest lenses Pentax ever made. I've done the comparisons at equal focal lengths pretty close to wide open and can tell you that image quality is so close that you and I and the guy down the street would be hard put to pick out good better and best if you scrambled them all up.

I think prime obsession is a close parallel to raw file obsession. I'm happy if you want to have all those expensive primes and a big bag to carry them in along with lots of time to change them and clean the sensor frequently to get the dust off you get in there every time you change a lens. For me, decent zooms are the way to go. I honestly wish I hadn't sprung over $300 for that 35mm prime. I've used it very little since I got the Sigma combo lenses.
--
Dave Lewis

 

[Dave Lewis]

Hmm, well, you need to go out and buy and use some other DSLR's before you decide that the *istD sharpness is the ultimate compromise. Yep, I have. I started out with the Canon D30 and progressed through the 10D and the Rebel D and currently have a couple of them and the *istD. The Pentax images are a little softer than the Canon's. They might even be a little softer than the Nikon's and the Fuji's though I haven't owned and used them. I can tell you this, when it comes to absolute sharpness - getting that tack sharp final image, you introduce artifacts with Pentax images before you do with Canon images. That is not to say that the Pentax images are inferior or the camera is inferior. It is just to recognize that observations about sharpness might not be the product of absolute amateurs like you suggest. I can tell you this with a certainty, my Canon images start out a little sharper and end up pretty equal to the Pentax images. I think there is no reason, that the Pentax ones can't start out a little sharper. I think it is a legitimate request.

I'm curious about how many DSLR's you've owned and compared the *istD to.
--
Dave Lewis

 

[Dave Lewis]

*ist D image, and use a Li-ion battery and come with a good, 4x kit
D lens.

Who would want a camera with only an expensive, proprietary
battery. The one thing I detested about my Fuji 6900 was the
lithium ion battery.....expensive, had to be recharged every day.
When Fuji switched over to the NiMH cells in the S602 and S7000, it
was wonderful. My AA's rechargeables last for me for days or a
week in my S7000 as opposed to the hours or sometimes minutes the
proprietary batteries lasted. To burden the *ist D with a
proprietary battery would be a hug error in my opinion.

I think you really need to use some cameras that use Li-ion batteries. I currently have six cameras that do. My three Canon DSLR's all use the BP511 battery that is nearly as powerful as the four AA's in my *istD and keeps its charge for months while the AA's start to lose theirs as soon as you take them from the charger. It doesn't need to be "conditioned" to retain the fullest charge like the AA's do and can be charged over and over again almost indefinitely. Some of mine are over three years old. They can be purchased third party for $10. I have an Olympus Stylus 400, a Canon S400, and a Minolta G500 all using lythium batteries and all getting almost endless use from one charge. The tiny lythium battery in those cameras is what allows them to be such small cameras. Put four AA's in them and you have a camera that is twice as big. Lythium batteries it what has made laptops small enough to carry around. They are the best thing to come along in batteries for a long time.
--
Dave Lewis

 

[Dave Lewis]

Google?

Now there is an imaginative name. Not.

Strange that this fellow has such a limited imagination, yet writes
such drivel.

That is the most anal reply I've heard in a long time. Buy and use a bunch of cameras and you will soon realize that the three things that could make the *istD more competitive are a smaller more powerful lithium battery, a good long zoom kit lens, and a little stronger in camera sharpening. Whether you think those things are important for you or not is really drivel. When it comes to producing a camera that can compete, it better equal or surpass the competition. Those are the three main areas where the *istD is falling behind.

Sure the 16-45 zoom is a great companion, well make it such. Don't include a cheap plastic little monster like the 18-50 lens that everybody regards as the softest lens in the industry and expect to compete with a $950 Rebel D. Don't come with a $900 camera that produces softer images than the competition when you are trying to sell it to consumers who are coming from consumer cameras with heavily pushed sharpening parameters. The battery is a debatable compromise, since most folks will probably prefer AA's simply because they are familiar when lithium batteries are vastly superior in power to size ratio and keep their idle charge much longer.

When you come along and accuse folks of uttering drivel, you best not back it up with obvious drivel of your own.
--
Dave Lewis

 

[Wally OZ]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0406/04060601pentax900dslr.asp
Let's hope the new DSLR's image will be sharper than the very soft
*ist D image, and use a Li-ion battery and come with a good, 4x kit
D lens.

The images from the *istD are the best. If you want in-camera
sharpening, buy a point and shoot.

Personally, I wouldn't touch a 4x zoom lens with a ten foot pole.
I avoid all zoom lenses anyway because they represent a compromise
in quality to achieve flexibility. The greater the zoom range, the
bigger the compromise. The best zoom lenses consistently prove to
be the ones with a zoom ratio of less than 3x.

Well, I have several lenses for my *istD. I've accumulated a couple
cheap zooms on ebay - a Sigma 28-80 and a Pentax F 35-70. I also
purchased the Sigma combo 18-50 and 55-200 zooms. Along with those
I have the F 50mm f1.7 prime and the brand new FA 35mm f2.0. Those
last two primes are regarded as the sharpest lenses Pentax ever
made. I've done the comparisons at equal focal lengths pretty close
to wide open and can tell you that image quality is so close that
you and I and the guy down the street would be hard put to pick out
good better and best if you scrambled them all up.

I think prime obsession is a close parallel to raw file obsession.
I'm happy if you want to have all those expensive primes and a big
bag to carry them in along with lots of time to change them and
clean the sensor frequently to get the dust off you get in there
every time you change a lens. For me, decent zooms are the way to
go. I honestly wish I hadn't sprung over $300 for that 35mm prime.
I've used it very little since I got the Sigma combo lenses.
--
Dave Lewis

Hi Dave, Thanks, I was considering buying a BETTER lens than the sigma combo, you have saved me wasting money and time, thanks.

 

[Dave Lewis]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0406/04060601pentax900dslr.asp
Let's hope the new DSLR's image will be sharper than the very soft
*ist D image, and use a Li-ion battery and come with a good, 4x kit
D lens.

Who knows why Canon decided to stay with that dated and very expensive battery in the MKII. Who knows why they chose to use Lythium batteries in almost every other camera they produce. State of the art in batteries now is the Lythium battery. It doesn't require conditioning, it doesn't get extremely hot during charging and discharging. It retains its idle charge far far longer than NiMH batteries do. Supporting the use of a particular component just because an outrageously expensive product uses it is an old falacy. You should recognize that.

--
Dave Lewis

 

[ngap]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0406/04060601pentax900dslr.asp
Let's hope the new DSLR's image will be sharper than the very soft
*ist D image, and use a Li-ion battery and come with a good, 4x kit
D lens.

Who knows why Canon decided to stay with that dated and very
expensive battery in the MKII. Who knows why they chose to use
Lythium batteries in almost every other camera they produce. State
of the art in batteries now is the Lythium battery. It doesn't
require conditioning, it doesn't get extremely hot during charging
and discharging. It retains its idle charge far far longer than
NiMH batteries do. Supporting the use of a particular component
just because an outrageously expensive product uses it is an old
falacy. You should recognize that.

--
Dave Lewis

But the *ist d can use lithium rechargable. I think the bigger point is not to produce a new propriety lithium. Rather use a standard lithium that is available.

 

[ngap]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0406/04060601pentax900dslr.asp
Let's hope the new DSLR's image will be sharper than the very soft
*ist D image, and use a Li-ion battery and come with a good, 4x kit
D lens.

if pentax does that... i would really be glad i bought me the
*istD. sharpness is a non-issue - buy a good lens. batteries are
fine... 2300mA AA's in the body and another set on the grip lasts
me a session or more, although i always make it a point to top-off
before every major shoot. for more juice, there is still the choice
of the RCR-V3's (recharcgeable CR-V3's).

Its a none issue to many but if they are to gain market it would make sense to make the standard output sharper and then off more options to soften it the menu options. Similarly for colour definitions. Its the market the new camera is focussing on.