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New K5 over exposure

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Jay Suchland said:
K5 continually over exposes 1 to 1.5 stops. Using exposure compensation to offset. Any one else aving this issue? Any other solution other than sending the camera back to Pentax?
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Sample image and metering mode?

If you point it at a black, gray, or white sheet of poster board it should come out neutral gray.

Eric
--
I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object
be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it
beautiful. - John Constable (quote)

See my Blog at: http://www.erphotoreview.com/ (bi-weekly)
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Thanks for responding, Eric. Traveling sans computer just now so have no way to send unprocessed images. I have tried all three exposure modes with more or less same results- blownout highlights. Have gotten good results by setting camera to -1 to -1.5 stops using exposure compensation feature. I also experimented using bracketing skewing compensation to under exposure. Best results were always in the same area of 1 to 1.5 stops under exposed. Really like the ease of setting and adjusting multi exposure and bracketing. Very pleased with images. Just don't like that I have to use exposure compensation to get correctly exposed images.
--
JOS
http://www.pbase.com/power3
 
Jay Suchland said:
Thanks for responding, Eric. Traveling sans computer just now so have no way to send unprocessed images. I have tried all three exposure modes with more or less same results- blownout highlights. Have gotten good results by setting camera to -1 to -1.5 stops using exposure compensation feature. I also experimented using bracketing skewing compensation to under exposure. Best results were always in the same area of 1 to 1.5 stops under exposed. Really like the ease of setting and adjusting multi exposure and bracketing. Very pleased with images. Just don't like that I have to use exposure compensation to get correctly exposed images.
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This is a bit unclear. Theres no relation between blown out highlights and correct exposure. The meter is not set not to blow out the highlights but to render the subject 18% grey (or brown or whatever color). Blow out highlights might simply mean that the contrast range is too large. I compensate most of my images but theres nothing wrong with the meter.
 
Jay Suchland said:
Thanks for responding, Eric. Traveling sans computer just now so have no way to send unprocessed images.
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OK, but you can still do some more by yourself to explore the problem, as Eric hinted (see below).
Jay Suchland said:
I have tried all three exposure modes with more or less same results- blownout highlights. Have gotten good results by setting camera to -1 to -1.5 stops using exposure compensation feature.
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What sort of scene and light? What image settings? What lens?
Jay Suchland said:
I also experimented using bracketing skewing compensation to under exposure. Best results were always in the same area of 1 to 1.5 stops under exposed.
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That's what you'd expect - bracketting only works from the exposure the meter decides on, which is what you're getting from your non-bracket shots.

What you can do now:

1. Do as Eric suggested - try a plain surface to shoot. It doesn't need to be absolutely uniform like a sheet of white paper (although that would be good if you have one big enough) - a plain wall will do. The image should look pretty drab; if it looks bright then the camera probably is overexposing, so we go on to ...

2. Check all your settings. Choose Neutral and set everything (Contrast, Brightness etc) to null values. Don't use Auto-ISO , set ISO to 80 (if you haven't already set the menu to expand ISO range do so now). Use a shooting mode where you are in control - Av for preference, with the widest aperture your lens will accept. Take off the lens and make sure the little levers on the back move freely without more than a touch, then mount it again. Shoot that wall again.

If the wall still looks bright there probably is something wrong and you'll have to wait until you can show us some pictures before we can say much more. If it now looks drab there was something in your settings that threw things off.

--
---

Gerry


First camera 1953, first Pentax 1985, first DSLR 2006
http://www.pbase.com/gerrywinterbourne
 
Blown highlights are common with digital photography, especially in the sky. I never expect auto-exposure to be exactly right as there are too many variables involved.

My work-around is to point the camera at the sky, let it over-expose by 1 & 1/3 stops, depress the shutter button half-way and then compose the shot the way I want.

I realize this doesn't sound very "automatic", but I prefer to use the camera as a light meter rather than take my chances with the built-in system. More keepers this way.

Good luck!
--
Cheers from Vancouver, Canada

Pentax K-01: http://stanleyparkphotos.tumblr.com/ & http://vancouvermoreorless.tumblr.com/

Pentax K-7: http://guatemalabybus.tumblr.com/ & http://mexicoandbelize.tumblr.com/
 
The K5 is my third Pemtax dslr. I have had the K5 for just over two months. Took it on a trip to Mexico just days after it arrived. The image count on new camera was just over 2800. Don't know exact count as I did not take note until after I got to Mexico. I took 2000+ pics in Mexico mostly using FA 31 and DA70. Then the FA 31 failed and I switched to the tried and true DA 16-45. Also took some snowy egret pics with A 70-210 f 4.0. Have since taken another 500 or so pics mostly with the 16-45 and DA 70. (had the FA 31 repaired but really like the DA 70 for pics of grand daughter)

So as I said in my posts above, the camera generally over exposes 1 to 1.5 stops with all tried lenses. I shoot only in RAW so suggestions on other menu adjustments do not apply. When shooting without exposure compensation, the histogram is weighted to the right or bright side and at times spikes indicating blown highlights. When opening the images in Adobe Bridge and using the Adobe Camera Raw setting for the K5, the auto setting applies something just less than 1.5 stops correction. I have found that by applying 1 stop of negative exposure in the camera I get a more balanced exposure. I prefer to have an image slightly under exposed as it is easier recover detail from dark areas than it is from over exposed areas.
JOS
http://www.pbase.com/power3
 
Interesting. My k5 tends to underexpose by 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop, which is great for saving highlights and is consistent with the other two Pentaxes I owned. (k10 and k20). The only time it "overexposes" is when I spot meter in bright daylight ( I guess what I wanted to meter on is correctly exposed, but the bright parts of the photo are often horribly blown out). could this be what you are experiencing? I hope you get the issue resolved. I love my k5, & have a second one on the way.
 
Camera light meters sometimes require some calibration. Follow the f16 rule and set ISO to 100 and set exposure at 1/125 second with lens set at f16. Focus on a nice deep green leaf and if your meter is doing its job, the meter should show it reading at midtone. If not adjust either f stop or exposure until meter reads midtone. I always set my midtone using leaf color and it does not matter how far off the meter is because you are establishing the correct exposure for midtone values as a baseline value........................Jim.
 
Jay Suchland said:
The K5 is my third Pemtax dslr. I have had the K5 for just over two months. Took it on a trip to Mexico just days after it arrived. The image count on new camera was just over 2800. Don't know exact count as I did not take note until after I got to Mexico. I took 2000+ pics in Mexico mostly using FA 31 and DA70. Then the FA 31 failed and I switched to the tried and true DA 16-45. Also took some snowy egret pics with A 70-210 f 4.0. Have since taken another 500 or so pics mostly with the 16-45 and DA 70. (had the FA 31 repaired but really like the DA 70 for pics of grand daughter)

So as I said in my posts above, the camera generally over exposes 1 to 1.5 stops with all tried lenses. I shoot only in RAW so suggestions on other menu adjustments do not apply. When shooting without exposure compensation, the histogram is weighted to the right or bright side and at times spikes indicating blown highlights. When opening the images in Adobe Bridge and using the Adobe Camera Raw setting for the K5, the auto setting applies something just less than 1.5 stops correction. I have found that by applying 1 stop of negative exposure in the camera I get a more balanced exposure. I prefer to have an image slightly under exposed as it is easier recover detail from dark areas than it is from over exposed areas.
JOS
http://www.pbase.com/power3
Click to expand...
Try to take some pictures using liveview, and then compare the exposure. If LV pictures are better exposed, the fault may be with the exposure sensor, If LV pictures are also similarly over-exposed (now the image sensor is taking the reading), the trouble may with be the miss-alignment of the lens aperture actuator in the camera.
 
Except that even the most perfectly calibrated and "accurate" metering system can't predict and adjust for every situation you are going to throw at it. Some examples: a shadow across a face; one side of the frame darkish, the other side bright; dim muddy foreground under a hot sky; midtones against snow; filtered sunlight through trees.

Having to compensate your exposure doesn't mean your meter is faulty. The meter can't decide on its own what the photographer is aiming for. If there's a hot corner of bright sky in one corner while 80% of the scene is in shadow, then, yes, that area is going to be blown-out. The fact that you're compensating is a step in the right direction. Don't get hung up on this.

Learning how to read a scene is far more important. Sometimes it's just a composition issue. Your camera's meter is merely a tool. It's not the boss.
--
Cheers from Vancouver, Canada

Pentax K-01: http://stanleyparkphotos.tumblr.com/ & http://vancouvermoreorless.tumblr.com/

Pentax K-7: http://guatemalabybus.tumblr.com/ & http://mexicoandbelize.tumblr.com/
 
Then send it back, get another one.
Jay Suchland said:
I've been using cameras even before they had built-in light meters and quite a few with light meters. My copy of the K5 tends to error on the side of over exposure- full stop.
--
JOS
http://www.pbase.com/power3
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--
At any given moment, there is a sort of all pervading orthodoxy, a general tacit
agreement not to discuss large and uncomfortable facts… Anyone who
challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising
effectiveness. - George Orwell

“It's not a matter of whether the war is not real, or if it is, Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. … The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over [the purported enemy], but to keep the very structure of society intact.” George Orwell, 1984
 
Jay Suchland said:
The K5 is my third Pemtax dslr. I have had the K5 for just over two months. Took it on a trip to Mexico just days after it arrived. The image count on new camera was just over 2800.
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A new K-5 should have only a few actuations registering (mine had 16 before the first shot I saved; I probably clicked a few times before that just to see that things were working). Earlier models than K-5 showed anything up to 100-200 because of test actuations but Pentax seems to have changed its system. If yours had 2800 it wasn't new ...

You can check the number of actuations using an EXIF reader like PhotoME http://www.photome.de/

Go back to the first exposure you took and it will tell you what it was (search under Shutter Count) If it really was 2800 you weren't sold a new camera so you should have an argument for replacement on that basis.

If you knew it wasn't new, did you return all the camera settings to factory defaults when you first used the camera, as a previous owner may have made adjustments that you aren't aware of?

--
---

Gerry


First camera 1953, first Pentax 1985, first DSLR 2006
http://www.pbase.com/gerrywinterbourne
 
Jay Suchland said:
The K5 is my third Pemtax dslr.
Click to expand...
Noobie finger trouble crossed off the list of possible faults.
Jay Suchland said:
I took 2000+ pics in Mexico mostly using FA 31 and DA70. Then the FA 31 failed and I switched to the tried and true DA 16-45. Also took some snowy egret pics with A 70-210 f 4.0. Have since taken another 500 or so pics mostly with the 16-45 and DA 70.
Click to expand...
Sticking lens apperture crossed off the list
Jay Suchland said:
When shooting without exposure compensation, the histogram is weighted to the right or bright side
Click to expand...
Not really a problem if images are a bit light or a bit dark provided the shadows or lighlights don't have a spike
Jay Suchland said:
and at times spikes indicating blown highlights.
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OK that's a problem -

I'd send it in for service. It may be the meter , or it may be the operation of the stop down mechanism. (Easy to test - does the problem occur at widest apperture) . Either way its a service issue.
 
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