What mode do you shoot in most often?

[DVC Jen]

oops i didn't mean to make it sound the way it sounded but thank you very much.

You didn't come across as snooty at all.

I am just envious of your ability.

 

[Groucho]

So your not referring to Scene Modes. Looks like your referring to Image Optimization (Nikon's Term) or Picture Style (Canon's Term) not sure about Pentax. Couldn't find something similar in a quick look on dpreview.com.

I'm not sure that Pentax has a name for such a thing or even has them at all. My DL certainly doesn't - you can choose image tone (natural or vivid), and there are sliders for saturation, sharpness, and contrast. I doubt any of the other Pentaxes have a preset setting, either, for adjusting the bunch of them at once.

I would think that those don't get used much once you're used to the camera, just like scene modes aren't used much. That's why you'll probably be less likely to find them on higher-end cameras like 0bli0's and more likely to find them on "user friendly" ones like the D40.

To more or less answer the original question, I switched to "natural" when I got out of "auto" mode but I did recently switch back to "vivid", I can always change it during the raw processing, but I've found that the vivid does often make a picture "pop" more, even if it's not as completely realistic. So sue me! The saturation and contract are right in the middle and sharpness is turned up a bit but not to the max.

 

[Groucho]

edited as sorry once again i forgot there was a page 2 so some has been answered already....
so in other words if i understand bob right, if you set landscape in camera and then do landscape again in the pp, it would kind of double the effect but you could also do landscape in camera and portrait in pp and erase the landscape effect , leaving only the portrait effect?

I missed page 2 during my first read too.

The way the works with the system I use, and I assume that yours is pretty much the same, is that whatever settings you make in the camera (in terms of white balance, sharpness, color tones, etc) are used as defaults by the raw processor.

(I just erased my next paragraph as I was confusing myself writing it! I'll try again...)

So if you go into your raw processor, you'll see that that RAW is defaulting to being processed however you told it to be in the camera. You are, though, free to change any of those settings. So you can't really do "double processing" as the camera is not actually processing the raw file at all, it's just providing the raw data and a little list of information including how it thinks it should be processed.

As for raw vs jpg, the other advantage that wasn't mentioned in this thread is that the raw is 12-bit vs an 8-bit jpg, which should give you a little more leeway if your picture is over and underexposed and you want to adjust it. You may also find that the software you use to convert the raw to JPG can produce a better-quality JPG than the in-camera software, and you can choose a more exact quality level.

 

[jann1033]

ok then it would be similar to the wb settings, ie i have in my raw converter "as shot" and then daylight etc.so i can change it from "as shot" or leave it "as shot" (substituting landscape or what ever which would include sharpening etc. rather than wb) guessing the "standard" would be basic camera default