*istDL with a problem

My wife and I went out this morning, our last chance to catch the Floriade display. I took my DS and she has her DL, both with freshly-charged batteries. With the first few shots, we could see her camera was over-exposing. She normally shoots in aperture-priority mode, iso 400. Here's the symptoms:

• over-exposure unless lens is stopped down to f16 or smaller
• RAW files won't open in PS CS2; in Pentax photo lab they open, but the range of colours is distorted. Jpegs look ok apart from the overexposure.
• applying minus 2 EV helps a bit, as does using auto-iso.
• it feels like the camera won't use a shutter speed faster than 1/125th, although the exif data reads normal.

Clearly i've got some sort of camera problem here. Has anyone heard of this happening before?

--
Chris

GMT +10.

Have you tried switching lenses on the DL? It might stuck aperture blades on the lens that was used on the DL.

Yep - tried switching lenses. The lens from the DL works fine on the DS, and other lenses give the same problem results on the DL.
--
Chris

GMT +10.

If anything I consistently had underexposures with the DL, with either firmware. Then I discovered it defaults to ISO200 after invoking EC.

It would underexpose in automatic mode, Av, Tv, whatever.

Strange your cam shoots light, where mine shot dark (I've since sold it).

Pepperjack said:

• over-exposure unless lens is stopped down to f16 or smaller

Click to expand...

What was the lens?

Pepperjack said:

• RAW files won't open in PS CS2; in Pentax photo lab they open,

but the range of colours is distorted. Jpegs look ok apart from
the overexposure.

Click to expand...

PS CS2 does not support RAW files from the DL. DL and DS has not the same RAW format.

They are called the same - PEF - but they are not the same. The software must support the DL. The latest version of Adobe Camera Raw, which you can use with Photoshop CS, do support the DL.

As for colours looking distorted. Are the DL using Adobe RGB or sRGB colour space?

If you are using Windows, you get problems with different colour space because Windows does not support other colour spaces than sRGB built in. Only some software support different colour spaces (if you run Mac, this isn't a problem). Switch the DL to sRGB colour space.

Pepperjack said:

• it feels like the camera won't use a shutter speed faster than

1/125th, although the exif data reads normal.

Click to expand...

What do you mean? Do you mean the camera is using a lower shutter speed than the EXIF data reports?

A wide aperture gives you fast shutter speeds, a narrow aperture gives you slow shutter speeds.

Take care
R

Pepperjack said:

• applying minus 2 EV helps a bit, as does using auto-iso.

Click to expand...

Exposure compensation turns off Auto ISO. You can't use exposure compensation and Auto ISO on the same time. It's the same with the DS.

Take care
R

Roland Mabo said:

What was the lens?

Roland Mabo said:

• it feels like the camera won't use a shutter speed faster than

1/125th, although the exif data reads normal.

Click to expand...

What do you mean? Do you mean the camera is using a lower shutter
speed than the EXIF data reports?

A wide aperture gives you fast shutter speeds, a narrow aperture
gives you slow shutter speeds.

Take care
R

Click to expand...

Hi Roland - thanks

Lens is Sigma DC 18-125. I've tried her lens on my DS and it works fine. I've tried my DA40 on the DL today and had the same overexposure problem.

Her camera/lens combination is several months old, with several thousand exposures behind it with no problems.

I've fixed the RAW problem by downloading latest updates for PS CS2 and ACR - thanks! She normally shoots JPG - I tried RAW to see if I could beat the overexposure.

Now for the over-exposure. I've just been looking at a sample shot.



This is converted from RAW but with no adjustments. It was taken at f/8 in bright sunshine, so the sunny-16 rule would have (for 200 asa) about f/16 and 1/250, or f/8 and 1/1000. The exif data shows iso 200, f/8, 1/3000 and -2 EV. I'm thinking the shot is clearly overexposed compared to what I would expect from those exposure settings. So yes - as you put it, I think the camera is actually using a slower shutter speed than is actually reported in the exif data.
--
Chris

GMT +10.

If the camera + lens has worked fine previously, then something is wrong with the camera and you should send it for Pentax for a checkup.

Take care
R

I was not aware of that. I was looking to add CS or CS2 to PS7, if only for the shadows/highlight feature alone. I guess if I do, it will be CS so I can get RAW support as well.

How does CS+ACR compare to RSE in your opinion?

Roland Mabo said:

Pepperjack wrote:
PS CS2 does not support RAW files from the DL. DL and DS has not
the same RAW format.
They are called the same - PEF - but they are not the same. The
software must support the DL. The latest version of Adobe Camera
Raw, which you can use with Photoshop CS, do support the DL.

Click to expand...

I have a DL, and CS2 - all I had to do was download an update from Adobe, no extra cost. Works fine.
Julie