Pentax K-x help thread


watchthewaves

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Jan 10, 2005
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Now that the price drop thread has reeled in plenty of new K-x owners, I thought that it's now appropriate for a help thread for noobs like me.

First question I have:

Optical preview -- manual says that I can set the green button to optical preview to check the depth of field. Am using the kit 18-55 at its widest aperture. When I half press the shutter button to focus, I can already see the depth of field -- objects in front and behind my subject are out of focus. Pressing and holding down the green button for optical preview did not seem to change anything in the viewfinder. So what is the use of the optical preview? What am I missing or doing wrong here?
 

its not stop down to the actual aperture settings yet for the DOF preview during half press...

just to add, u will see a diff if u use a larger aperture lens like f2 or f1.4 and u set ur aperture settings to f5.6 and above...
 

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Your aperture is always set to the largest possible aperture until you actually release the shutter. So there's no point in using optical preview if you are using wide open aperture. It's more for when you stop down your aperture.
 

Thanks guys. I've just set my green button for digital preview. Will see whether that's useful or not.
 

TS, borrow your thread to post a question

Just got my Kx last week. After taking a picture, it seems that the camera takes a few sec to write to the SD card. The photo display on the screen after a while. Is it normal? If I get a faster SD card, will it display faster? Tks
 

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That's what this thread is for :)

Did you turn lens correction on? Or everything on default?
 

Thks^^
lense correction is not on..
Most of the things on default cos I didn't do much settings.
 

Are you capturing in JPEG or RAW?
 

jpeg only.
Picture quailty and resolution are set to max.
 

Noted. Tks
later i check again ^^
 

Hi all

when I switch to live view the kx is taking a long time to focus, is this normal?

Thanks for helping!
 

Hi all

when I switch to live view the kx is taking a long time to focus, is this normal?

Thanks for helping!

I read in review about this.. it's normal.
 

Yes this is normal. Contrast detection AF will always be slower than phase detection AF
 

Change your settings for the camera to use phase detection AF in Live View. The LCD screen will go blank for a short while as the mirror flips up for the camera to auto focus, but its much faster than contrast detect AF
 

Thanks very much for all the reply:thumbsup::thumbsup:!!! will try to change the setting tonight. Cheers!
 

TS, borrow your thread to post a question

Just got my Kx last week. After taking a picture, it seems that the camera takes a few sec to write to the SD card. The photo display on the screen after a while. Is it normal? If I get a faster SD card, will it display faster? Tks

try this thread

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=628654
 

I know that many will say to experiment and adjust these settings so that it delivers a picture that you personally prefer. But I'd like to know, for those who have played around with these settings, what is the setting that, in your view, gives the most accurate reproduction of the scene, objectively?

Natural with saturation and sharpness bumped up a notch or two?
Bright with some items cut?

Would appreciate hearing from the gurus like Frank who have the K-x. Would give me a starting point to start experimenting with tweaking the settings.
 

Speed of the SD card will have some effect. But just jpg should not be too slow... unless u are using a super slow SD card...

check again the lens correction etc are not on even though u left the settings untouch....

Ok.. i made a check on the settings... Lens correction was ticked +.+ .. untick and now display faster :)
Thanks everyone for helping ^^
 

i use natural + a high degree of fine sharpening2. but there are just too many variables in photography and no single setting fit all pictures, so sometimes jpeg + raw mode is good..

i tweaked custom image till i was sick of it, i cannot find a universal setting, and now shoot exclusively in raw instead; more control, and more satisfaction, like driving manual car :bsmilie:

if you make a mistake/camera makes mistake in metering or under challenging lighting conditions, custom-image can hurt your output..

also, no camera can judge for you white/gray/black points automatically, which is a critical aspect to obtain correct tone and color in a pic imo. custom image cannot fix a mis-placed histogram. i also wouldn't want it to mess with my saturation/contrast/key etc until i first get right the basic white/grey/black levels..