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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Endless K-x Samples! ;-D

The K-x has been on sales in both Japan and Hong Kong for about one week now. There have been a lot of the original sample photos uploaded by those new K-x users.

So, let's view the Japanese PhotobleNet gallery again, there have been a lot of K-x photos uploaded recently:-

http://pentax.photoble.net/?L=en

The good thing for viewing samples at the PhotobleNet is that most of the shooting information and picture data are posted, which are indeed quite valuable.

I have read 10 pages and selected some of the images for brief discussion here:-

Picture
Page Link
My Comments

http://pentax.photoble.net/?exif=091021005
This LightRoom converted picture is nice, although I would prefer more contrast and sharpness. The colours are okay but not something that worth a Wow.

http://pentax.photoble.net/?exif=091021009
One of the first in-camera HDR samples that you would find on the Net. Not bad for the pic. As for ISO 1600 with medium Noise Reduction, the noise is well controlled whilst loss of image details is not too severe.

http://pentax.photoble.net/?exif=091021006
A 20 second exposure at ISO 1600 (Medium NR setting). Quite impressive! Well, I think the K-x is really a night camera and it is well suited for Astrophotography.

http://pentax.photoble.net/?exif=091021007
The Sirius Star was shot at ISO 800 *without* NR. Really impressive, again!
http://pentax.photoble.net/?exif=091021010
The picture generally lacks contrast, good colours and sharpness. The poster writes that he PSed the shot for the car name plate but I don't think this would cause too much impact in the IQ of the picture. Disappointed result anyway.
http://pentax.photoble.net/?exif=091019002
Ditto. I am not impressed with the contrast, colours and sharpness of this pic. The DoF is shallow but the lack of sharpness is just too obvious - see the animal's right eye.
http://pentax.photoble.net/?exif=091019001
This one seems better but the blue colour of the sky don't look very pleasing.
http://pentax.photoble.net/?exif=091019003
This one is better but still not up to my expectation in term of Image Quality. The Bokeh of the kit lens is not too good neither in this shooting condition, also.

Well, in short, I think the K-x is an excellent indoor and night camera. But on the days, so far I am not impressed with the daylight photos. I am afraid that K-m is still the King of IQ in Pentaxland if you take pictures on bright days, with richer and more eye-pleasing colours, better contrast as well as better sharpness and image details. In fact, most of the day sample photos of the K-x I have seen so far resemble quite some of the unfavourable IQ characteristics of the Nikon D90, which I don't like.

p.s. The only favourable day-time K-x samples I have seen so far would be this one, which I think the IQ is very good:-

http://ricehigh.blogspot.com/2009/10/korean-k-x-special-page.html