K1 II and Best cameras for landscape photography in 2021 article

robgendreau wrote:

miles green wrote:

LightBug wrote:

DuncanM1 wrote:

I downloaded the test images for the K1 II and the Nikon Z7II and the Pentax in pixel shift mode is just completely superior and yet the Nikon gets the nod as best camera? What gives? I can understand that for action shots the Nikon might be better, but for landscape resolution is king and the Pentax is far, far superior.

Which test images did you evaluate? Were they from DPR's studio comparison tool?

Pixel shift has its uses in close range still life, macros, landscapes and architecture. I am not convinced it will provide more resolution for subjects that are far away, due to atmosphere/air turbulence in between camera and subject that will smear details.

you're unlikely to run into air turbulence problems until you reach long focals lengths, of 200mm ish about, in my opinion.

Not necessarily.

I've run into problems with much wider lenses on some days. It manifests as those horrid green squigglies all along say a distant horizon line. And it doesn't happen if there's more turbulence, because there's no sharp line, and doesn't happen if the air is clear and still, as in lots of my desert shots. But it can happen, and for me it's more annoying than for things I can more easily fix in post like water and foliage, which often I don't care about being sharp.

Sure, if there are large differences in air temperature, is can be seen sooner. I have found that on hot summer days, i will get a sharper shot if i walk the water, rather than shoot over 5 meters of hot sand that is just in front of the water. That said, this is a real phenomenon, not some aberration created by the equipment, so it should be in the picture. I've got lots of sunset images with squigglies! 

My point is that air turbulence is an argument against the usefulness of pixel-shift as much as it is against high res sensors and long lenses.  In other words, not a very good one.

I didn't mention it earlier, but even Tony Northrup, no fan of Pentax in general, said the K-1 was maybe the best landscape camera out there. I still agree. And one of the other ones I like, the 5Dsr, didn't even make the list (it does show up in other listicles, just not here).

I remember that episode.