K-S2, its one second display, and the 18-135

I got the K-S2 yesterday and took it on a hike using the 18-135 lens. It was a confused outing. I intended to play with the Tav setting, but was disconcerted by the 1 second display which would display the photo I just took as being extremely dark. Was it the setting? I switched back to manual but the same thing happened. I scrolled through the menu but saw no way to brighten the 1 sec display. I found a way to brighten the LCD but apparently that didn't apply to the 1 sec display.

Would my photos come out or would they be dark? As it happened they did come out so the 1 sec display was wrong: https://lawrencehelm.smugmug.com/RiverPhotography/Jan-2017/

Or maybe I was wrong.  I checked the one sec display on the K-S1.  It was a bit darker than what I'm used to with the K3 but not nearly as dark as on the K-S2.

Is there an adjustment I'm unaware of or do I have a defective camera?  Has anyone else had this problem?

As to the photos themselves, this day I noticed a lot of softness in both upper corners at 18mm, and especially in the upper right hand corner.  I was hiking in an area where there was a lot of dried brush from our drought so some of the shots showed the brush from left to right; so I could see that it wasn't a depth of field issue.  I didn't save all of them and some I cropped a bit but some I left.  There were some others that I thought faulty at first but when I checked my settings I could see that P or auto gave me something with little depth of field (something I wouldn't have sought in Manual) so all beyond my focal point was a bit blurred.

Since I was impressed with the 18-135 on my outings with the K3 and K-S1 recently but wasn't yesterday although the day was overly affected by the dark 1 second display, I wonder if I didn't set the 18-135 permanently on the shelf and use the 16-85 as my zoom of choice after a day like yesterday -- although I don't remember horsing around with settings quite as much as I did yesterday.

I would really like to know what to do about the 1 second display, if anyone knows.

Lawrence

Historicity wrote:

I got the K-S2 yesterday and took it on a hike using the 18-135 lens. It was a confused outing. I intended to play with the Tav setting, but was disconcerted by the 1 second display which would display the photo I just took as being extremely dark. Was it the setting? I switched back to manual but the same thing happened. I scrolled through the menu but saw no way to brighten the 1 sec display. I found a way to brighten the LCD but apparently that didn't apply to the 1 sec display.

Would my photos come out or would they be dark? As it happened they did come out so the 1 sec display was wrong: https://lawrencehelm.smugmug.com/RiverPhotography/Jan-2017/

Or maybe I was wrong. I checked the one sec display on the K-S1. It was a bit darker than what I'm used to with the K3 but not nearly as dark as on the K-S2.

Is there an adjustment I'm unaware of or do I have a defective camera? Has anyone else had this problem?

As to the photos themselves, this day I noticed a lot of softness in both upper corners at 18mm, and especially in the upper right hand corner. I was hiking in an area where there was a lot of dried brush from our drought so some of the shots showed the brush from left to right; so I could see that it wasn't a depth of field issue. I didn't save all of them and some I cropped a bit but some I left. There were some others that I thought faulty at first but when I checked my settings I could see that P or auto gave me something with little depth of field (something I wouldn't have sought in Manual) so all beyond my focal point was a bit blurred.

Since I was impressed with the 18-135 on my outings with the K3 and K-S1 recently but wasn't yesterday although the day was overly affected by the dark 1 second display, I wonder if I didn't set the 18-135 permanently on the shelf and use the 16-85 as my zoom of choice after a day like yesterday -- although I don't remember horsing around with settings quite as much as I did yesterday.

I would really like to know what to do about the 1 second display, if anyone knows.

Lawrence

I never noticed darkness in my images on the screen of my K-S2, but you can turn off one second display in the menus.

Chuck

Keep it simple, change ro RAW - DNG. so no strange JPEG setting is causing a problem.   Then with TAv take a picute.  Got another lens, just incase it is the problem.  Change the display to 5 secs so you can see what has happened.

fbcorvus wrote:

Keep it simple, change ro RAW - DNG. so no strange JPEG setting is causing a problem. Then with TAv take a picute. Got another lens, just incase it is the problem. Change the display to 5 secs so you can see what has happened.

Peter and fbcorfus.  I always use Raw-DNG, never JPeg.  However, Lightoom compresses the raw to any size I want after it is done.  Smugmug will take large files, but it has taken a long time to upload them so I went to smaller and smaller files.  I still have my raw files if I want larger outputs.  But this doesn't have anything to do with the darkened one second display.  I will however change the display time in hopes the lighting improves.  I don't think restoring everything to default will help because I've changed very little.  I'm virtually in default now.

I don't really want to send the camera back if this is the only problem.  I could shut the display off entirely as someone suggested above and use the photo review button if I want to see something.  That display is fine.

Thanks,

Lawrence

flektogon wrote:

klimbkat wrote:

Historicity wrote:

I don't think restoring everything to default will help because I've changed very little. I'm virtually in default now.

I don't really want to send the camera back if this is the only problem. I could shut the display off entirely as someone suggested above and use the photo review button if I want to see something. That display is fine.

Thanks,

Lawrence

Although you may not have made many changes to the setting you inherited, who knows whether they were correct or not. The fact that they "should" have been correct is irrelevant - you need to problem solve and the best approach is to reset everything to a baseline, and then you can eliminate the possibility that a setting you haven't found was set too dark. Why not, its a new camera right?

Good Luck

Well, the LCD should show the images with the identical brightness (and contrast, colours, etc.) immediately, after taking them, and when reviewed. If there is a difference in appearance, then the camera is faulty and I would send it back right the way.

I did another test just now, but with a different lens, the Pentax FA50mm 1.4 and the 1 sec display worked perfectly.   My new theory is that because I was horsing around with settings, I moved into a realm the 1 sec display struggled with although I'm not sure what that was.  It was after all a darkish day, and even though the photos came out I did have to lighten the exposure of many (most?) of them in Lightroom.  There may indeed be something a little bit wrong with this feature, but I suspect (after the testing I just now did on a much brighter day) that if yesterday were a bright day that I wouldn't have noticed a thing.

I now mistrust the conclusion I drew that caused me to post this note because I was screwing around with the settings on a dark day.  My next time out will be, hopefully on a brighter day and perhaps with the 16-85mm lens and I'll be sticking to the mode I'm most familiar with.

Lawrence

I should add that I would really hate to let this camera go.  I got the white model and  I don't know how well the white coating will hold up over time, but right now it is stunning.  If the 1 sec display really is defective and I send it back, I may get a black model next; which I thought I preferred but not any more.

I suspected the K-S1 would be rated at 50,000 clicks, but I would wager the K-S2 is rated for 100,000.  The shutter sounds more robust and the camera build looks much superior.   But does anyone know?

Lawrence

Looks kind of glarey where you were shooting. Were you wearing polarised sunglasses? Polarised lenses can have the effect of darkening some LCD screens

Also, just general light intensity can make LCDs appear to be darker when outside. How's the screen when indoors?

Cheers,
Will

walgarch wrote:

Looks kind of glarey where you were shooting. Were you wearing polarised sunglasses? Polarised lenses can have the effect of darkening some LCD screens

Also, just general light intensity can make LCDs appear to be darker when outside. How's the screen when indoors?

Cheers,
Will

Will,

No, I was wearing clear glasses.  The day was fairly dark and had I been using my normal mode, Manual, I would have left the ISO at 800 and set the aperture at 5.6, stepping it down if the day lightened but it didn't.  But since I was messing around with different modes because of a K-S1 discussion I expected some bad results.  The photos were a bit dark and I lightened them a bit in PP with Lightroom.  I don't see the glare you mention, but the lighting does look a bit strange.  On the other hand, the light at the river looked a bit strange in reality.

I did a test with an FA50mm lens today when the sky was bright and the 1 second display was okay.  So I'll have to spend more time with it, using my normal (manual) mode to make sure it is okay, and if it is then I may not know for sure what went wrong yesterday.

Thanks,

Lawrence

Just my own shooting style, but I never use the "instant review" feature on any camera, since I will need the display to be either for settings or the live view. On the K-S2 ,unless it's some mission-critial photos, I will leave the display face-in/closed until I come to a stopping point and only then check the pics, since you can miss shots reviewing something that's still in progress in front of you.

The 18-135 lens doesn't have good reviews; my kit came with the 18-50 and 50-200 lenses, of which only the 50-200 is a keeper (but the 18-50 is white and matches the body, which makes for a good product display..)

It might also be worth trying the green button while in manual mode to get the exposure settings the camera thinks it needs to properly expose and compare it to the values you were using. If they're the same or similar then there's defintely something up with the camera

walgarch wrote:

It might also be worth trying the green button while in manual mode to get the exposure settings the camera thinks it needs to properly expose and compare it to the values you were using. If they're the same or similar then there's defintely something up with the camera

Will,

I normally do that when starting out in the manual mode.  Usually I start with the aperture wider than the green button recommends.  But I was experimenting with different modes as a result of a discussion in regard to the K-S1.  I probably should have held off starting a thread until I had been out with it a few more times.  But seeing the darkness and then finding that all the photos cleaned up nicely in Lightroom, I became convinced there was something wrong.  Only another test at home on a bright day with a different lens caused me to have doubts.  That time with an FA50 1.5 the 1 sec display appeared normal.

Lawrence

Interesting.... I have noticed that some lenses needed me to use to more or less exposure compensation when I shot with them. It's possible that's what happening here if the FA50mm is working well for you

More testing and experimenting needed no doubt

flektogon wrote:

flektogon wrote:

Lawrence,

I checked again your pictures, and based on what I saw in their (i) info, I believe that what the camera (or you) selected in a bright but cloudy day (what I assume it was), something like f:9, 1/800, ISO 800 should yield properly exposed pictures. And they should appear as you posted them requiring any NO additional exposure correction. And they should appear, either when immediately previewed, or later reviewed (by pressing the review button), perfect on the LCD as well.

Now, you claim that the immediate preview showed dark pictures, but the review was O.K. And what about the pictures posted? Did you brighten them?

if you are not sure whether your new camera is O.K., just aim this new K-S2 and any of your older camera (which you are sure that it works properly, like K-3 or K-S1) to the same object and make comparison of their exposure parameters. For such a test I would really recommend to use any automatic exposure mode (P, Tv, Av, etc.) and maybe JPEGs out of camera. If the K-S2 sets roughly the same exposure parameters (or slightly different parameters but leading to the same exposure), then everything is in order. Compare how they look in the review/immediate preview by the cameras and then download the pictures to your computer. Again, they should look (almost) identical.

Just typo (see above).

Peter,

I did lighten some (many?) of them by changing the exposure slightly in Lightroom.

There was never a problem with Live View or what you get by pressing the arrow button.

It was raining today so we didn't go any place but tomorrow it is supposed to be cloudy with some sun. If we go tomorrow, I'll pick a wide open area, use the 16-85 mm lens and stick with the Manual Setting.  I know you recommended some other settings and I may move to some of them if I'm still dark in the Manual Setting, but I'm hopeful.

I watched about half of the Tony Northrup review of the K-S2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_BC8iGvB8Q  I did follow one of his recommendations by activating the histogram in Live View.  Interestingly he said the the pros don't use the manual setting much.  They like some of the other settings, the AV and Tav were mentioned.  He wasn't as sanguine about the P setting as you are.  But I think I do the same thing as Tav in my Manual mode by setting the ISO to auto.

Lawrence