Hello Everyone,
One of the main problems using the Pentax K x with astro photography is the inability to turn off the Automatic Dark Frame Substraction (DFS).If your sub is over 30 seconds the camera will utilise this function, regardless how you set the Noise Reduction options.
This is frustrating when it takes roughly 110 minutes to collect an hours worth of data. Battery life is seriously reduced and the thermo noise is constantly rising.
The firmware has attempted to remove the hot pixels and thermo-noise but the results are rather disappointing.
As a result the dark frames you take are useless and you are left with severe limitations when processing due to the gouging out the dark, flat, bias and light frames.
After looking at my pentax camera and wondering
"If there isnt an better excuse to buy and CCD now there never will be". My wife suggested to seek a possible answer via the internet.
To my surprise and disappointment there is a whole page full of websites dealing with this exact issue. The best ones being:
http://ricehigh.blogspot.com.au/2011...btraction.html
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/p...s-success.html
The modest.492 and sysparam.txt files are here (attached file) or you can obtain them from the above listed websites.
Your pentax needs to have the latest firmware installed. Firmware 1.00 will not work. To check what firmware you have simply press the menu button while turning on the camera. After 5 seconds it will return to normal operating mode.
I have just installed 1.03 and the debugging now works and I have managed to easily turn off the DFS.
The firmware update can be found at pentax.
http://www.pentax.jp/english/support/digital/k-x_s.html
Now I can image more data without the wait and have to look for another excuse to be allowed to purchase an CCD.
Please note the ONUS is on you for the above mentioned alterations.
Regards Paul.
