Pentax K100D... is sucking ass right now.

six-five-two · Aug 19, 2007

Yesterday night I went to take some really good photos of the skyline. Autofocus on my camera (with the kit lens) wasn't focusing right, according to the viewfinder. So I used manual focus on most of my shots and it looked really sharp. I went home, put it on my computer and looked at the pictures. Almost all of them are unfocused. Just telling anyone that owns a Pentax K100D that the LCD is VERY DECIEVING. The pictures looked very sharp when I viewed it on the LCD. Is there any tips any of you guys can give me so that I can manual focus better?

ScottS · Aug 19, 2007

when it comes to manual focusing, i have found to never trust the screen of the camera... and that go's for all cameras. The screen is just not detailed enough to show you if it was in focus. As far as your AF goes, what do you mean according to your viewfinder?

Johnboy2978 · Aug 19, 2007

manaul focus and trying to shoot a skyline would be pretty much just focusing to infinity would it not? I would think also a pretty minimum aperture of like f/22 to keep the depth of field wide also.

DSLR noob · Aug 20, 2007

Also check the diopter, if you manually focus with an out of focus viewfinder you aren't doing a whole lot of anything.

Garbz · Aug 20, 2007

Modern view finders are just too small and dark to manually focus anything IMO. You can try and get the autofocus to focus on something with real contrast. It's normally just a case of pointing the camera at the right thing when half depressing the shutter.

Just straight focusing to infinity may also help, but note that some lenses no longer have these markers, and other lenses focus beyond infinity which doesn't help much.

dangergoinoff · Aug 20, 2007

So maybe that means that the autofocus in fact was correct?

alrey · Aug 20, 2007

I've only taken a couple manual focus shots on my K100D (in deep darkness so the autofocus was totally lost) and naturally they didn't come out very impressive. I don't think it's the cameras fault; you can't expect a 2" LCD to adequately represent a 6 MP image.

Don Simon · Aug 21, 2007

Manual focus is hard on a small-sensor dSLR with a focusing screen designed for autofocus. If you can't do it with the K100d, you won't be able to do it with anything else remotely near the same price range.

As for the LCD, from someone else who owns the K100d, honestly it's not trying to deceive you at all. It's just a very small image and so it's going to look more sharp and in focus than it may actually be. If this is a problem then it's a problem you'll find with any camera's LCD.

I'd go back and try using autofocus again. If it seems to be 'hunting' and not locking on, then you can set the AF to work on individual focus points (in the menu) and then select the appropriate focus point for a prominent object or area of good contrast (using the four-way controller on the back).

Really the camera isn't sucking ass... it's just behaving as a digital SLR. It can take a while getting used to a new system. Personally I would recommend doing the following for your shots of the skyline...

1) Put the camera on a decent tripod if you weren't already. At night with any camera you need the support.
2) Set the ISO to 200.
3) Put the camera onto Aperture Priority and set the aperture to F/8. Depending on the lens, shooting at a low F-number (which means larger aperture) may also result in a relatively soft image.
4) Set the autofocus to selectable points in the menu, select where you want to focus using those buttons on the back...
5) Normal shooting procedure... press the button halfway for focus then fully for the shot.

If you do all of those things there should be very little chance of the images looking soft or out of focus. Hope that helps.

DSLR noob · Aug 21, 2007

ZaphodB said:
Manual focus is hard on a small-sensor dSLR with a focusing screen designed for autofocus. If you can't do it with the K100d, you won't be able to do it with anything else remotely near the same price range.

If you have a really good, smooth dampened focus ring, a good eye can match an AF system, and you have the benefit of knowing WHAT to focus on every time.

Don Simon · Aug 22, 2007

I dunno... the smoothness of the focus ring is IMO the least of the problems. The tiny dark viewfinders and lack of any kind of split-screen, microprism or other conventional manual focus aid are more of an issue in my experience... I guess you have a really good eye

Smith2688 · Aug 22, 2007

ZaphodB said:
I dunno... the smoothness of the focus ring is IMO the least of the problems. The tiny dark viewfinders and lack of any kind of split-screen, microprism or other conventional manual focus aid are more of an issue in my experience... I guess you have a really good eye

I agree...wearing glasses makes things especially tricky. You can never quite see the whole image without moving around a bit.

carusoswi · Aug 23, 2007

Don't know what your kit lens is, but, if it is a zoom, then, try picking some object you believe to be at the optimum focus distance, zoom in as tight on that object as your lens allows, focus, either keep the focus locked by maintaining half-down pressure on your shutter-release button, or turn off your AF, zoom back out, recompose, then take the shot.

I do this with and without the aid of AF to make certain I am at optimum focus if the shooting situation allows time.

Caruso

six-five-two · Aug 26, 2007

ZaphodB said:
Manual focus is hard on a small-sensor dSLR with a focusing screen designed for autofocus. If you can't do it with the K100d, you won't be able to do it with anything else remotely near the same price range.

As for the LCD, from someone else who owns the K100d, honestly it's not trying to deceive you at all. It's just a very small image and so it's going to look more sharp and in focus than it may actually be. If this is a problem then it's a problem you'll find with any camera's LCD.

I'd go back and try using autofocus again. If it seems to be 'hunting' and not locking on, then you can set the AF to work on individual focus points (in the menu) and then select the appropriate focus point for a prominent object or area of good contrast (using the four-way controller on the back).

Really the camera isn't sucking ass... it's just behaving as a digital SLR. It can take a while getting used to a new system. Personally I would recommend doing the following for your shots of the skyline...

1) Put the camera on a decent tripod if you weren't already. At night with any camera you need the support.
2) Set the ISO to 200.
3) Put the camera onto Aperture Priority and set the aperture to F/8. Depending on the lens, shooting at a low F-number (which means larger aperture) may also result in a relatively soft image.
4) Set the autofocus to selectable points in the menu, select where you want to focus using those buttons on the back...
5) Normal shooting procedure... press the button halfway for focus then fully for the shot.

If you do all of those things there should be very little chance of the images looking soft or out of focus. Hope that helps.

Wait, what do I focus on using the buttons on my camera in that setting?

Caruso, Err... It's just the regular 18-55mm one.

Don Simon · Aug 27, 2007

Wherever you want the focus to be

HatMan · Sep 1, 2007

Hi,

I also had a K100D in my bag until a few weeks ago...

I think DSLR Noob hit the nail on the head. Adjust the diopter. If you are going to try to use manual focus, you need to auto-focus on something you can clearly tell is it's in focus and adjust the small slide just above and behind the eye cup. You may need to pop the cup off to be able to better access it, but once it's set, you should be able to forget about it.

Also, you will probably need to to look at the autofocus settings in the menu. Pentax gives you three choices, Point AF and Auto AF. With Auto AF, I find the camera looks for details (horizontal OR vertical) and locks onto those. You will see a small red dot flash on the view screen that indicates what has been selected. In Point AF, the camera focuses on the exact center of the screen. In this mode, you should really point the camera at what you want to be the subject , push the shutter button down halfway and when you see the flash and hear the beep (this has locked the focus where you want it), recompose and then press the shutter the rest of the way.

I took thousands of shots with my K100D and the ones that were not correctly focused were because I didn't understand what it was doing...

BTW, the newer K10D has a selector switch on the back for the AF mode so you don't have to look in the menus.

Regards,