>Rob Studdert wrote: > So now I'm confused. Are you discussing lens capabilities, DOF, relative > position of the focus plane, post-export sharpening, print quality or the *ist > Ds apparent sensor sharpness?
>First we have to agree the problem does exist. Then we can try to >understand >which is the main factor responsible for that. >I'm afraid we haven't still agreed there is a problem to investigate, as >Sylwek and myself seem to be the only two that noticed it, while others >deny. >Dario Bonazza OK, from what little I've shot with the *istD I'll say that it appeared to me a little less sharp than the images I get from my identically-sensored Nikon D100. OTOH, it is known that Pentax uses less in-camera electronic sharpening, so this alone may be the difference. I find that I do not have to unsharp mask my Nikon D100 and D1H shots in photoshop to get the level of sharpness that I am looking for, whereas I do with the *istD. This suggests that maybe Pentax was at least a little too conservative for most users. There are various other places that Pentax might be losing sharpness. There's the anti-aliasing filter. The Nikon D2H apparently has better apparent sharpness because the anti-aliasing filter is weaker. There's the oft-mentioned bayer interpolation. There's the possibility that the Pentax lens designs somehow don't interact well with the camera even though they work fine with film. I'm also curious, Dario and other detractors, if you've managed to test multiple *istDs? It could be that the AF is a little off, or the "film plane" (or focusing screen) is not quite where it should be, so that everything coming out of your particular camera is in fact slightly out of focus. I had a Nikon 8008 that never seemed to produce sharp pictures, MF or AF, and I actually had it checked for back-focus accuracy. It was apparently OK but I'm convinced somthing was misaligned somewhere because at large apertures I was consistently having trouble with meticulously focused stationary subjects not being sharp and the plane of focus clearly not where it was supposed to be. It LOOKED sharp in the finder, but not on film. It's also possible that the sensor or filter or something is simply a little defective so that your particular camera isn't performing up to spec. Maybe Pentax simply doesn't like sharpness? Most of the really sharp lens designs have been replaced by less sharp ones. DJE
