While Nikon included a "retouching" menu in its D60, Pentax goes further and offers you to apply a dozen of digital effects, more or less successful – just like what Olympus provides on its E-620, SLR which got a TIPA prize this year.
For those of you who are interested in this Pentax K2000, an appealing first-price camera, here are the examples of some effects we have applied, directly on the camera, on a picture. The advantaged in working on the camera in post-production is that you can create as many versions of the same picture as the number of effects on the camera; even better: with some filters the parameters can be defined: everything is well-done, it’s fun, it’s easy and its works really well. Here are these effects.
Here is the original pic on which will be based our filter testing with this K2000.
You can download each picture in full resolution by clicking on it. They are about 3 to 5 MB.
"HDR" filter
The promise on the body to obtain an HDR-type (High Dynamic Range) picture is appealing.... but the filter only lowers high lights and enlightens shades. The effect isn’t really natural, as usual in HDR, but the contrast is preserved anyway. Rather than thinking that you’re taking a pic in HDR, it’s best to take this function for what it really is: a digital effect.
Effect: "color extraction" – here the blue is maintained
The color extraction filter will be familiar to those who have a Canon compact as this function is offered in the "my colors" menu. Here, you choose a color which will be preserved by the process while all the other colors will be unsaturated to eventually obtain a black & white picture with colored dashes. This effect is ideal to make an element of a picture stand out.
"Soft" effect
As we love soft focus, this effect is by far our favorite one. It is ideal for a portrait and gives a romantic aspect to various compositions. You can define the blur intensity. A portrait of your sweetheart, a pic of a baby, a misty landscape, there are numerous ways to use this "soft" effect of the Pentax K2000.
"Illustration" filter
Maximum ‘poster’ aspect and threshold effect for this filter which, without subtlety, simulates pencil strokes on your picture. Surely, another pic could give a more convincing result, and a black & white photo would certainly be a better basis.
The Pentax K2000 is an SLR aimed at beginner photo amateurs, or at least at those buying their first DSLR. For most of them, being able to apply nice effects on their pictures, from time to time, without having to learn how to use Photoshop or an equivalent, will definitely be an asset. Doing such things is one of the major possibilities offered by digital photo, and the K2000 lets everyone enjoy these possibilities without being a Photoshop master. The pictures that are retouched on the camera can even be printed directly on a terminal. The simplicity of these digital filters lets anyone who reads the menu for 5 seconds take advantage of this function. Their funny aspect is appealing. As for the result, of course it mostly depends on the original picture.
