Pentax K-3 II Pixel Shift Resolution mode

For two images shot moments apart using the same camera and sensitivity, the difference here is very impressive. Pixel Shift Resolution brings out the fine thread patterns in the fabric swatches that are almost completely lost in the standard single-shot image.

Again, there's a significant difference here. Where the single-shot image blurs together the finest markings of the proportional scale, they're clear and distinct in the Pixel Shift Resolution image.

And once more, there's an eye-opening difference here in the pepper grinder. The peppercorns show much more fine detail that really makes them pop, giving them a more three-dimensional look.

If anything, the difference is even more noticeable in these fabric crops. Where the single-shot image loses almost all thread detail in the fabric, it's faithfully rendered thanks to Pixel Shift Resolution.

Taking a look at the Samuel Smith label, Pixel Shift Resolution gives a much better rendering of the smallest fonts. Look in particular at the badges over the hop flowers, which are difficult to read in the standard image, but quite clear with Pixel Shift Resolution enabled.

Here, the greater detail extracted by Pixel Shift Resolution is particularly noticeable in the fiddler's beard, and the stripes in his pants that are almost completely lost in the single-shot version of the same image.

You'll want to fetch your duster if you're shooting in Pixel Shift Resolution mode. Not only did it do a much better job than the single-shot image with the extremely fine detail in the mosaic pattern, it also picked up the fact that our still life target needs a quick dusting again! Sure, a few specks of dust are visible in the standard shot as well, but not nearly as many as in the Pixel Shift Resolution version.

Right off the bat, we'll say that we're comparing both cameras specifically in terms of detail here. Obviously their color rendering is quite different, but that's for comparison elsewhere in our review. Both the K-3 II and E-M5 II turn in a pretty impressive performance. Despite the difference in output resolution for the two cameras, we think this one's too close to call -- from this particular crop, at least!

Again mighty close, but we're going to call this one in favor of the Olympus, albeit only because the Pentax K-3 II's image looks just a little oversharpened. Both cameras are batting well above their weight here, and have managed to gather every last speck of detail from the proportional scale.

Here, the Pentax K-3 II looks to have a noticeable edge over the Olympus E-M5 II. The peppercorns in the grinder are a good bit sharper and more detailed-looking in the K-3 II's shot, although a touch of sharpening on the E-M5 II image would likely bring the two closer to parity.

In the yellow and orange fabric swatches, we're back to the situation we started in. The difference between these two cameras in terms of fine detail gathering in their high-res modes is so subtle that it's almost impossible to make a call for either.

Here, the E-M5 II's shot looks just slightly crisper overall, yet in the tiny badges over the hop flowers, the K-3 II looks to show more detail at first glance. To our eye, that's an artifact of the Pentax's slightly stronger default sharpening, but it's a very close thing.

Moving to the Fiddler's Elbow label, this time it's the Pentax that looks to have a slight advantage over its rival, with just a touch more fine detail visible in the bear and pants leg. Again, though, this is pixel-peeping to a degree that's not likely to make a noticeable difference in the real world.

Finally, in the mosaic label the Pentax K-3 II looks to have a very slight edge once more, but that's in part down to more aggressive sharpening. Really, there is very, very little indeed to separate these two cameras in terms of detail gathering, once their respective multi-shot, high-res modes are enabled.

Things are looking good for the Pentax K-3 II straight away. In terms of detail in these fabric crops, its Pixel Shift Resolution mode looks to have managed to catch up to the D810 despite a near-50% deficit in pixel count. And for an added bonus, while the D810 shows a pronounced moiré pattern in the troublesome red swatch, there's no such issue in the K-3 II's shot. (That's no knock on the D810, incidentally. We've seen similar moiré in still life shots from a number of other high-res cameras.)

Again, a rather similar performance from these two very different cameras. Of course, it's worth bearing in mind that the Nikon D810 can manage this performance in a single shot -- and so, handheld with moving subjects. For the Pentax K-3 II's Pixel Shift Resolution mode, you'll only get the benefit of this kind of resolution when shooting completely static scenes from a tripod.

Here, the Pentax K-3 II looks to have a little bit of an edge over the D810, just as it did with the E-M5 II. (Could this be the ultimate camera for photographing peppercorns? Perhaps!) ;) Joking aside, we see a little more detail in the K-3 II's shot, although a touch of unsharp mask would bring the D810's image to life.

In the yellow and orange fabric crops, we have another interesting result. The Pentax K-3 II looks to best the Nikon D810 just slightly, better rendering the fabric patterns in both swatches. It's not a night-and-day difference, but it's certainly enough to be noticeable.

And again, the K-3 II's Pixel Shift Resolution functon looks to match or even just slightly better the detail possible in a single Nikon D810 image. As in the first crop above, the Nikon D810 again faces troublesome moiré from the halftone pattern in the label, which the Pentax manages to avoid.

And once more, it's near-impossible to call one of these cameras' result noticeably better than the other in terms of their detail-gathering capability. This is one seriously impressive demonstration of just what Pixel Shift Resolution can do for you with the right subject!

Finally, we come to the mosaic label, and here there's no clear winner once more. Overall, the performance between these two cameras is very, very similar so long as you're shooting a static subject and using the Pentax's Pixel Shift Resolution mode. That doesn't hold true as soon as you're shooting moving subjects, of course, but this could be big news for Pentaxians who do a lot of still life work!

No surprise here: Even against the might of Pixel Shift Resolution, the Pentax K-3 II can't match its mighty sibling. The 645Z extracts more detail from our fabric swatches, although perhaps not by quite the margin we were expecting. If you're not going to use the full resolution of the 645Z, though, it seems that downsampling to K-3 II resolution isn't going to result in noticeably better detail than that which Pixel Shift Resolution can already manage.

Again, the Pentax K-3 II does better against the 645Z than you could fairly expect, but it can't quite match the outright resolution of its professional sibling. (And it doesn't matter whether you upsample the K-3 II or downsample the 645Z: Either way, the enthusiast DSLR shows more haloes from sharpening than will the pro camera.)

It's pretty clear, once again, that the medium-format camera is extracting more detail from the scene than can its APS-C sensor-shod sibling.

It's in the yellow and orange fabric swatches that the Pentax K-3 II's Pixel Shift Resolution function comes closest to matching its high-end sibling's single-shot performance. It's really quite an impressive result for this much more compact enthusiast DSLR, holding onto just a touch more detail in the yellow swatch, and giving just a little back in the orange leaf swatch.

Looking at the Samuel Smith label, the Pentax 645Z extracts more detail, but it's accompanied by a moiré pattern in the flat green area at the top of the label, as the higher-res camera is confused by the halftone pattern. With that exception, though, this is another clear victory for the medium-format camera, once again with the Pixel Shift Resolution-enhanced K-3 II still turning in a very respectable effort.

It's pretty clear from this comparison in particular that the 645Z still has a significant lead. The K-3 II does extract a lot of detail out of the Fiddler's Elbow label, but Ricoh's professional offering manages to find still more. Once again, though, if you're not using the full resolution of the 645Z and would need to downsample to K-3 II resolution, there's nothing to be gained over having shot with the much more affordable model in the first place, at least in terms of detail gathering.

And finally, we come to the mosaic label. Once again, another strong effort from the Pentax K-3 II, but it simply can't manage to erase a 50% resolution deficit, Pixel Shift Resolution or no. It's pretty clear that if you're a Pentaxian looking for the absolute maximum image detail, the 645Z is still the camera for you. It's more than a little impressive just how well the plucky K-3 II managed in this comparison, though. Consumer and enthusiast photographers shooting on the K-mount now have an option available to them -- for still life subjects, at least -- that offers absolutely first-class detail gathering. And there's more to it than that, as we'll see in a moment!

As you can see, Pixel Shift Resolution makes a significant impact on image quality across the ISO sensitivity range. Of course, it's much more likely to be used at or near base sensitivity, where it can increase per-pixel sharpness significantly. After all, given that it only works with static subjects and a tripod, there's not a particularly compelling reason we can think of to use the function at high sensitivity.

If your subject is static, you could achieve results that were as good or better even in very low light simply by shooting a long exposure at low sensitivity. And if high sensitivity was really needed for a static shot for some reason, you could achieve a similar effect by shooting a burst of high ISO images, then stacking them (either in-camera using the multiple exposure function, or in post-processing on your PC) to average out the noise levels.

With that said, we're big believers in understanding the capabilities of your camera, and now you know that if you need to shoot a Pixel Shift Resolution image at high sensitivity, you can do so. Particularly at the higher sensitivities, doing so can make a pretty significant impact on image quality!