Full Report: http://www.falklumo.com/lumolabs/articles/k5shutter/
Short Summary: http://falklumo.blogspot.com/2010/12/lumolabs-pentax-k-5-shutter.html
So, all the formulae, graphs and plot charts are just too difficult to me, whom as an unqualified measurbator when compared to Falk! ;-D But then we can simply see and read his conclusion and comments, which I think could be easily understood!
"The shutter-induced blur in the Pentax K-5 is measurable but it should be small enough to be of no concern in day to day photography. The absolute magnitude of the effect sits halfway in between a K20D which has almost no measurable effect and a K-7 which exhibits an effect large enough to make some people notice in their work.
The matter may now have reached a satisfactory state with the K-5. But there remains work to be done for Pentax to fully understand and eliminate any unnecessary effects which compromise image sharpness.
It would be interesting to test another camera with fast shutter (like a D300s) to compare the absolute magnitude of the shutter blur effect which is never zero. Esp. at ~1/160 s. Ideally, vendors would measure it and make part of their cameras' shutter specification."
Logging you in...
Erika · 745 weeks ago
btw. Slight off topic. Pentax is the first photo gear company (that I'm aware of) which does silent firmware updates. The latest one I downloaded for my K-x is 1.01.00.10. Despite this update date does not change, while internal version number and cjeck-sums - do change.
I wonder why is that?
Are they too ashamed of their own banana marketing strategy (the one where products is sold, and then it gets fixed while with the customer) ?
It seems that the Pentax has good ideas and potential, however - they have lack of resources do do things properly and on time. Hey, their new K5 had a firmware update straight after the release. If the firmware were implemented properly with good testing, this would not have been required.
Ronny · 745 weeks ago
"It would be interesting to test another camera with fast shutter (like a D300s)"
What you now get is that people are buying other camera's of whom they didn't here the problem.
If the problem is not stated with a camera then it doesn't exists, what is completely not true.
banana marketing strategy (the one where products is sold, and then it gets fixed while with the customer)
- other firms who do this: Microsoft , Apple - strange that nobody complains about them and they have a lot more resources to get things done properly on on time, again one sided complaints.
but then this blog is nothing but one sided complaints.
Janneman · 745 weeks ago
we are talking about a 2-3 pixel blurr. why would anybody notice that at all , unless you are truly pixelpeeping to a supermeasurbating level???
I just bought a new printer, A2 sized (whohooo), how large do you think the blurr would be on a 40x60cm print??? (Oops, A2 only goes to 524 mm)
RiceHigh 110p · 745 weeks ago
jviviano · 745 weeks ago
Erika · 745 weeks ago
janneman · 745 weeks ago
No, a disposable camera won't doo but even for serious printing the 2.5 pixel blurr won't be noticed easily....
on A2 we are talking about a blurrrrr of 0,25 to 0,5 millimeters on a picture of 400 mm.... yes you can see it but do you really statnd that close to a picture... I think RH's pet complaint of AF problems is far more significant than the blurr we are talking abotu here, I dare say that even the K-7 blurr, while present is, completely insignificant in relation to all other things that can and will go wrong while shooting.
oleg_v · 744 weeks ago
RiceHigh 110p · 744 weeks ago
Michael · 745 weeks ago
I can't understand it and I'm sure no other camera, irrespective of brand or age, will have such a HUGE blur induction.
All my images are blurry.... but anyway: Aren't we all a bit blurry?
illdefined · 745 weeks ago
j viviano · 745 weeks ago
orky · 745 weeks ago
RiceHigh 110p · 745 weeks ago
orky · 745 weeks ago
I measure shutter blur from the K-5 which is significantly less that that in a K-7 at around 1/80 s (almost halved) but about the same around 1/160 s and 1/40 s.
Let's compare the finding to other cameras, i.e., the K-7, the K20D and other vendors. As said, the K-7 has significantly more total shutter blur, about an increase from about 1.45 pixels to 2.9 pixels, a difference of 1.45 px with slightly larger 5.0 µm pixels. Comparing this to 0.8 pixels for the K-5 then this is nearly twice as much visible blur increase. Which was sufficient to make people take notice and ultimately gave us reason to do the corresponding study.
The K20D has almost no measurable shutter blur, about 0.2 pixels only. But blur widths don't add linearly. Part of the K20D shutter blur is masked by the anti-alias (AA) filter. So, one way to put the result is that the K-5 is half way between the K20D and the K-7. All three cameras have a floating sensor shake reduction mechanism.
With respect to other cameras, notably those with lens-shift image stabilization, the corresponding shutter-induced blur values will depend on how immune a lens is against shutter-induced acceleration (for a stabilized lens with a „floating“ lens element) and how fast and heavy its shutter is. As said above, I expect cameras with „classic“ shutter blur (vibration-free) to have about the same amount of blur around 1/160 s. But less at 1/80 s (while the K-5 hasn't less). And in consequence, less at 1/40 s too.
orky · 745 weeks ago
janneman · 745 weeks ago
pscl57 · 745 weeks ago
Are you suffering?