Pentax K10 problem

[DavisHollow]

Anyone have a Pentax K10 DSLR? I should have bought a Canon or Nikon but I have a drawer full of Pentax lenses. Like I bought a Pentax in 1982 and ever since I've been unhappily married to the brand because of the investment in lenses, and I just keep getting deeper.

So any outdoor picture with lots of detail (trees) has what I would call double vision. Yet half of them are seemingly fine. It could be a bad lens I guess. I'm saving in RAW format so its not a JPEG issue. Will posts pics later today if I can find some time.

Thanks.

[timbertoes]

included any exif info with the pics.

[DavisHollow]

Here's a pic. First one is full image scaled down to fit in this message. 2nd one is small crop, no scaling. Note the green bleeding into the tree trunk, and the white from the limestone bleeding into the surrounding areas. General overall poor quality of the image.

Lens: smc Pentax-FA 28-200 F3.8-5.6
Focal Length: 28mm
Speed: 1/125
Aperture: F6.7
Capture mode: Program(HyP)
Metering mode: Multi-segment
White balance: auto
Sensitivity: 100
Pixels: 3872x2592
QUality: Good
Exposure Comp: 0.5
Autofocus mode: Single AF

[DavisHollow]

Well, switching to my very very old Pentax-M SMC 1:1.4 50mm lens (all manual), I get much better results. I guess its the lens. I'll post side-by-side photos. Need to get rid of the 28-200 lens, I was never happy with it. Spent way too much for it. Junk.

[timbertoes]

ya, may be expecting too much. I would not worry too much about detail at magnified crops. plus you are seeing the effect of backlighting on the trees, and the overall exposure is too high in general.

[DavisHollow]

The crop was not magnified, that was actual scale. Pretty ugly if you ask me. I know my expectations are probably too high, but I dropped in my very old 50mm lens and got much better results, will post cropped (non-scaled) pictures later today, side by side comparison of the two lenses. Thanks.

[DavisHollow]

Ok, side by side comparisons. First two are 28-200 lens, at 28mm. Second two are old 50mm manual lens. Cropped images are native size, no scaling. Obviously the latter has more depth due to larger aperture, but I'm thinking the 28-200 lens is just garbage.

Anyone have suggestion for a good K-mount AF lens that won't cost a fortune?

[timbertoes]

I can assure you, you will drive yourself nuts trying to look at detail in a view created by using a 28mm at the distance shown...it's a "landscape" photo...
besides at 1/125 and assuming, without a tripod, and with some wind. there is going to be a minor amount of detail lost. minor yes, some though.

[timbertoes]

besides a K10 is a good camera. its sensor is rated the same or better
than my D300.

have you tried shooting in raw mode and then converting to jpg in your raw editor ?

and usually, high zoom ratio esp 8 to 10 x lenses are major compromises in optical quality..or so its said and often seen.
regardless of price, thats why I wont own one.