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Monday, November 27, 2006

Effectiveness of Pentax Dust Removal System (in K10D)

The Japanese review site DC Impress have recently tested the production K10D:-

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/review/2006/11/22/5111.html

When I inspected the series of the boat photos for the ISO sensitivity test, it was found that there is an obvious dust speck above the top left corner of the hotel building, in the blue sky. I was actually rather surprised when I first found that, especially the shots were taken at only moderate small aperture of f/11.

And then, below is a new K10D user commented that his new K10D already had dust specks seen in his taken images even though he had turned on the Dust Removal (DR) function, whereas another user in the same thread responded and pointed out that his old Olympus E-1 DSLR have never had any dust problem even he regularly changed lenses:-

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&thread=20981883

In view of the above facts, the effectiveness of the Dust Removal (DR) function of the Pentax K10D is actually in question, although on paper it seems to be quite ideal.

Do note that all the production K10D units are quite newly shipped from the factory and thus they should not have been contaminated. Even though just in case some of them are, the DR system should be able to remove them *before* the photos are taken. It is not even to mention about the users will be required to clean their sensors *after* they discovered that there are dust specks in the images taken.

4 comments:

  1. Unfortunately for you and for the world in general, these cameras are NOT produced in a clean room. Dust has been present in most production models since day 1. That you could gripe about. As to the sensor cleaning, Pentax also sells a swab for the stubborn dirt. What does that tell you?

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  2. Nope. For quite some processes at a camera and lens factory, the rooms must be clean enough and there are cleaning processes along the production line too. Otherwise, the assembled products will have dust or even dirt inside, e.g., between glass elements which are confined inside a lens - how could you clean it "afterwards", by yourself, in such case?

    As for sensor cleaning kit, there have been a long time an useful and effective product called SensorSwap, which I have owned and used for several years since I got my *ist D. The key point is when Pentax claim that the K10D has double dust prevention and removal measures, it should not be so vulnerable to dust and dust specks should not be so easy to be appeared on the images taken.

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  3. You have more faith in this production process than I do. And were talking bodies, not lenses. And dust was NEVER found in a lens? Some of the dust in camera bodies come from internal flaking as the camera breaks in so even if in a clean room assembly, a few mirror slaps and felt,oil ect could dislodge. you are dreaming to believe this never happens.

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  4. http://it.nikkei.co.jp/pc/column/dcreview.aspx?n=MMITdp000027112006&cp=3
    According to this review, the DR is off by default, and DR is executed every time the power is turne on. So if the user exchanged lens without turning off and on, DR won't work.
    This reviewer took the picture the first day without changing the default to on and found dust in the picture after the first day of test, (top 2 sameple), turn it on, and then continue on testing on second day, the dust are gone. (although these pictures are not shot for test for dust)
    DR is just an Value Added Option IMHO.

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