K-7 Feature Questions

[JohnCPentax]

That is done with a half press of the shutter button (as has been the standard with all Pentax's).
--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

See below.

Thanks John, great idea for a thread:

A) How far can the sensor shift to correct for framing? 1mm, 2mm, or
? This seems like it could be used like the shift on a shift lens to
correct for pespective distortion, albiet only a small amount.

+ - 2mm horizontally and vertically, and + - 1 degree rotationally. It may not sound like much, but is more than enough to perfect a composition, especially with macro work.

B) Is there any limit on the length of a movie? I think the Nikon
D90 had a limit of 5 minutes or something.

Maximum is 4GB or 30 minutes, depending on the setting. I think 4GB at 720 resolution is about 23 minutes. That is how long you can take in one shot.

C) Is there a difference in focus speed with SDM lenses, or any
changes in the SDM system?

The word is that the improved algorithms do improve focus speed and accuracy, but we have not recieved quantitative numbers.

Thanks for doing this, and I look forward to receiving mine. Any
idea when they wilil ship in the USA?

July!

I really want to say it looks like Pentax stepped up their game and
delivered a more complete camera that is a serious contender this
time, and priced it to sell well. Nice work!

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

See my Blog at: http://viking79.blogspot.com/
See my Flickr Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28177041@N03/
See my PPG Shots: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/erictastad

--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

The improvement is in the rotational compensation, which no one else has. There number of stops gained is roughly the same.
--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

1. Is it possible to have something like the "Fn" button? Advanced
Custom Function available: 37, but how to access to them quickly?

I don't believe so.

2. How to access quickly to bracketing and HDR?

Bracketing is accessed through the drive mode button (one button press to access, the four way controller to the right.) HDR can be accessed through the quick menu (pressing the INFO button on the back of the camera).

3. If I store some custom settings and then go back to them, how fast
is it? Is it possible to do with with one button? At least, with one
hand?

Depends on the setting.

Thanks a lot!

--
I'll wait a little more to have the best DSLR ever! (c)

--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

This is a wonderful thread, thank you for Pentax's involvement in all
this! Try getting that from other brands!

This is a question we were discussing in another thread that started
today:

1) What material is the BG4 grip made out of, the site doesn't say.
I would love it to be the same magnesium alloy as the K7, but since
it doesn't tout it, I'm assuming it's polycarbonate like the BG2 and
BG3?

It is polycarbonate, but weather sealed.

2) Does the BG4 hold a remote and SD card like the BG2 does or was
that space taken up by the AA battery support?

The tray for the Lithium Ion battery has room for an SD card. The entire grip is too short to accomodate the remote. The AA battery tray (that will come with the grip) only takes the batter.

3) If it holds an SD card, is it just idle storage like on the BG2,
or can it actually write to it? (I'd guess no on that...not much of a
negative, really.)

Simply storage.

4) Not grip related per-se, but per some rumors, it's worth asking:
With that "shiftable sensor" idea for recomposing based on a sensor
shift instead of camera movement. Can that be used as a limited
functionality Tilt/Shift module (for creating intentional DOF
limitations?)

See above posts.

5) One more: the bracket button appears to have gone missing. A
assume this is now in the shooting mode menu? It's a feature I tend
to use often.

Also answered in a previous post.

--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

I have not seen it in writing, Is the AF correction function still in
place like on the K20D.

Absolutely.

Also, in video mode, you can set aparture. But what about Iso and
shutter speed. Are Pentax going to give control of either, and does
the camera control exposure more so with ISO or speed if we can not.

The "shutter speed" is automatic. You can lock the exposure with the AE-Lock button, but that is about it for brightness controls.

I have also seen a poll that suggests that the bracketting button was
used more than the RAW button, do you think that taking that into
account Pentax engineers may be able to provide us with the option of
switching between them........ or perhaps making it a dedicated HDR
button.

Probably not. Bracketing is really not that hard to access and the RAW button is still unique to Pentax.

--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

--
John C.

 

[MikeAusA200]

Is there any chance that the Luminance Histogram in the final release can be made accurate so I don't have to keep using the RGB Histogram to check if ANY of the channels are slammed to the right.

The sample on the DPR preview shows the Red channel with lots of content to the right but the Luminance Histogram shows that it's underexposed - no content to the far right.

I have no idea how they calcukate the Luminance Histogram currently, but the solution is simple - simply add the R,G and B values to obtain the Luminance Histogram.

Also there should be the option to show all four Histograms together - Luminance, R,G and B - you see plenty of examples.

--
Mike . Sydney, Australia
http://www.pbase.com/mikeaus/galleries
http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b356/MikeAus/?

 

[JohnCPentax]

Do you still need to place a remote flash on the body to change the
channel of the on board flash?

Yes.

Does the battery grip still store a remote and SD card?

SD card but no remote (see above post)

Are existing wired and IR remotes compatible?

Yes.

Has anything changed with P-TTL to cause third party flashs to need
to be upgraded?

We do not work with third party flash companies (as is common with all manufacturers), so I can't answer that.

Can the on body AF assist be disabled? When a flash is on the camera,
which AF assist is used, body or flash? When the pop up flash is
raised, does it revert to AF assist, or is only the new AF assist
light used?

Not sure on that one. Everything I know is from playing with the camera. I never read manuals and that is likely answered there.

The lens correction is mentioned of being available for RAW files via
external software. Do the RAW files carry the needed information or
is there only a lens database in the external software. If it is a
database, will third party software providers be able to tap into it?

If you use the Pentax software, which is 100% better than our old software. I am not sure about third party software (though I use Lightroom and it has this function).

The on board flash seems to be higher, is there a revised list of
compatible lenses? Something like the table on page 177-178 in the
English Pentax K10 manual.

Probably, but I haven't looked at the manual.

Will the there be Pentax Remote Assistant for the K-7? Is live view
exported to this application? Can Pentax Remote Assistant be used for
capturing video for unlimited file size?

The current plan is not to have remote assistant software.

File size is determined in camera, and the length is due to EU import issues (in the EU, anything that records longer than 30 minutes is considered a camcorder and there are huge import duties.

Is there a time limit on live view or video to protect the sensor?

See above.

Can you explain what the WB button does? Is it just dirrect access to
the WB menu, or can it be set to provide direct access to manaul WB,
or switch between two WB presets, something like AWB to tungsten -
tungsten to AWB, Shade to daylight - daylight to shade? If it can be
set to provide direct access to manual WB, will it disable AF as
well? This would be the way the Samsung's direct WB setting works in
the GX-20.

It is simply direct access to the white balance menu.

Do long exposures, over ten seconds, still require the DFS process?
Is it now possible to switch this off?

Yes, it can be switched off now.

Is the copyright and photographer information attached to the video
files? Would it be possible to attach a video frame with this
information, if it isn't possible to include it in the header of the
video files?

Don't know.

Is the one touch bracketing still available? Is it true that one
touch isn't available for the HDR feature

Not sure on this one.

Thank you
Russell

--
'It is impossible to reason a person out of positions they have not
been reasoned into'

--Walter Cunningham

--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

(I'm considering the WR Kit lens as a big FEATURE here).

1. Pentax USA is selling the K-7 body only. Will we have to wait a
couple of months longer to get the K-7 with the Kit lens? (I'm
assuming that it will be cheaper to buy it this way?

It should be available at roughly the same time.

2. Does the 3 shot HDR do any auto alignment of the 3 images?

No, you must use a tripod.

Do you know how fast the burst rate is on the 3 HDR shots? less than
1/2 second?

Depends on the shutter speed. If it is fast enough it is firing them at 5.2 fps.

It is possible to hand-hold an HDR 3 -shot exposure? Or to do it with
the camera merely braced on a bean bag?

I have seen a couple attemps and they aren't bad at reasonable shutter speeds.

Thanks,

--
Brian

http://rivertext.smugmug.com/

--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

Another question, are the burst rates affected by using the
CA/distortion correction tool? That is, can you still shoot 5 fps
until the buffer is full and then have to wait a while while the
images are processed.

Related, how much additional time does it take to record a file using
CA/Distortion correction? (Is it noticeable, and if it is, how much
longer, fractions of a second, several seconds, etc).

Yes, it will affect the number of images and speed since it take 3-4 seconds for the camera to process the shot with this feature.

Thanks!

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

See my Blog at: http://viking79.blogspot.com/
See my Flickr Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28177041@N03/
See my PPG Shots: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/erictastad

--
John C.

 

[nosnoop]

Does Live View mode revert back to non-Live View after one shot? Do you have to press LV button every time after each shot?

I was hoping that it will remain in LV mode; in which case the shutter would be even quieter without the mirror slapping.

 

[Gordo]

Since there is not a dedicated SR switch, SR is accessed through the menus. How deep in the menus is it, i.e. how many button presses are required to enable/disable SR?

Thanks!!
--
Alan
gallery: http://blandcanyon.zenfolio.com
blog: http://www.blandcanyon.com

 

[JohnCPentax]

• The K10D is great for long exposures: little noise, NR can be

turned off.

• The K20D seems to have much more noise in long exposures, also NR

can't be turned off.

So what about the K-7 ?

Answered above, but yes, it can be turned off.

Also, can the mirror be locked up independently of the self-timer?
All the other pentax cameras have a MLU mode but can only be used
with 2 sec. delay.

We have added a MLU option to the drive modes seperate from the 2 second delay (with or without remote).

Regards,

--
Javier.

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/javiermoreno

--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

Hi John, thanks for doing this, should help clear up a lot of basic
queries - shame we don't have stickies on this forum

I have a K10...

Q1) from dpreview preview:- "Composition adjustment (Uses the SR
system to reposition the sensor to fine-tune composition)"

sounds very odd to me at first - how is this used practically - macro
fine focusing, or lateral adjustments ?

Great for macro work, but also nice for any other tripod work (ie. landscapes.)

Q2) bracketing - how is this accessed ? I have to say that when you
have Sv mode and can also assign ISO to either wheel then the
addition of ISO button is a retrograde step if it means removal of
bracketing button. Can you reprogram the ISO button to be a
bracketing button ?

Through the drive mode button. And, no, the buttons can't be reprogrammed.

thanks
--
Pentax SLR talk FAQ (courtesy Cideway et al)
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--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

Yes.
--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

Very quickly through the dedicated drive mode button.
--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

It doesn't "do" anything. Must be some electronics hiding under it.
--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

That is the + in the SAFOX VIII+ name. The secondary sensor determines the light source and makes micro adjustments to the focus based on the different wave lenghts of light for that source.
--
John C.

 

[JohnCPentax]

--
John C.