New Pentax Q RAW and JPEG Full Samples @ PhotographyBLOG

There is where endless measurbation begins, despite that the samples are real-world pictures! Anyway, if you really like, just do it at your own cost and risk! ;-D

http://www.photographyblog.com/previews/pentax_q_photos

Do note that the downsized thumbnails may have been compressed too much such that the DR could be even worse than the originals, which should still contain more highlight and shadow details.

My quick observations: The low ISO pictures are not too bad in IQ but RAW ones could be better, particularly for more vivid colours and being more contrasty as seen from the thumbnails (only). The DR could still be somehow limited, though. But for a DC with a sensor in/of that size, it should be considered that things have been managed very well indeed.

N.B. The DNG files of the Q are not open-able by the Pentax Digital Camera Utility version 4.1 as installed at one of my PCs. So, there exists some kind of incompatibility problem even the RAW file format is in DNG. I am sure the bundled new DCU software with the Q can open it but this incompatible issue is there, and may cause problems with other 3rd party software! :-(

I think for similar scenes and shooting topics, my last year sample gallery of my 550D full review can be compared to:-

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v313/RiceHigh/550D/Full_Samples/?start=all
(At Montreal, Canada, Copyright (c) RiceHigh, 2010)

Look particularly about the DR, colours, noise and details retained. Of course, the 550D is usually better.

In addition, the exposure accuracy seems to be not good enough and some of the pictures are overexposed with part of the images washed out seriously. This might be related to the limited DR of the pictures nevertheless as the "correct" exposure can never be decided by the exposure system with such low DR of the sensor itself.

Besides, a sample video clip (H.264 in MOV Container) is posted. Judge by yourself about the video quality, e.g., resolution, motion smoothness, sound quality, colour rendition, DR (in particular) and etc. As a friendly reminder, if you're to download the clip, do save it down first as not every media player can decode this new movie codec of the Q. So, it is always safer to save it first and then re-open to play.

N.B. I have successfully played back the clip with the Media Player Classic Home Cinema Edition (aka MPC-HC) but not so with the GOM Player. The CPU consumption of this clip is really high (far more than the "same" 720p MP4 clips that made by my NEX-3, e.g.) and so please be prepared to use more updated and powerful machines for the playback. Otherwise, smooth playback is just impossible!