ok sell me on your system

[edolyne]

Jann did you end up still getting the 40D from them or are you still looking at options. I have my eye on a K7 and noticing that some of the Pentax glass sells for quite a bit cheaper than some of the Canon glass.

 

[Groucho]

I bought my Nikon Coolscan 4000 used from Adorama for a ridiculously good price... probably because it was broken when I received it. I had it repaired by Nikon since it was still so cheap, but I have to wonder if Adorama knew that it was broken since it was so cheap... the condition was listed at E+ (I know, I still have the sticker on it! and it's physically great, but it did a blinking light sequence that said that it was was broken, if you know what to look for. (I didn't but quickly learned!)

edolyne, there are many lenses that are relatively cheap, but there's a few that are quite pricey too... overall though I think you can put together a system for quite a bit cheaper.

 

[edolyne]

I bought my Nikon Coolscan 4000 used from Adorama for a ridiculously good price... probably because it was broken when I received it. I had it repaired by Nikon since it was still so cheap, but I have to wonder if Adorama knew that it was broken since it was so cheap... the condition was listed at E+ (I know, I still have the sticker on it! and it's physically great, but it did a blinking light sequence that said that it was was broken, if you know what to look for. (I didn't but quickly learned!)

edolyne, there are many lenses that are relatively cheap, but there's a few that are quite pricey too... overall though I think you can put together a system for quite a bit cheaper.

I think Pentax is positioning itself to start competing with Canon and Nikon, all they need now is a pro level body, in the form of something other than the 645D coming out next year and sensors with a little bit better noise control. The advancements that they have put into the K7 is nothing short of amazing for a company who is smaller than most others. Call me crazy but the mode dial lock is what excites me the most, can't tell you how many times I have found that my mode dial turned without realizing it, this eliminates that and also shows that Pentax is listening to it's customers. Maybe some other companies should consider doing this as well. As I had said before if this camera was announced 6 months ago I would not have a Canon in my bag.

 

[Groucho]

I think they've been competing quite well with C/N for a while in terms of quality and features... they don't have a $2k+ body but realistically, for 95% of the users out there, those are just "halo" products. I think C/N do so well in sales because you can anywhere to buy their stuff - heck, you can stop into Office Max and pick up a ream of copier paper, a box of pencils, and a Canon DSLR. They also historically are poor at advertising their products. Regardless, I think they've been solid choices for quite a while now, and at bargain prices. They're often been ahead of the curve, too - Nikon's mighy D300 is the only thing that kept from the K20D from being even more of a standout than it was and IMHO they are really very comparable in the majority of features, with the K20D having a lead in certain areas like its great Hyperprogram mode, sealing, low-to-medium ISO IQ (and comparable on high ISO), size/weight, and of course image stabilization. Their entry-level lenses are often quite a bit nicer than the competitions, too.

With the K-7, they appear to be ahead of pretty much all the competition. From what I understand, the upcoming Nikon D300 is pretty much a D300 with a 720/24fps movie mode like the D90, which is a fairly non-standard frame rate (we're talking digital, not film here ) and the D400 is a ways away and by the rumors, sounds like a pretty modest update. I suspect the same will be true with the 60D, and Sony seems to be concentrating on the entry-level stuff now with few rumors about an A700 successor.

What I think is special about the K-7 is that it's going in a different direction... smaller and quieter and sturdier. Hoya had said that Pentax would be positioning themselves as a very rugged line of DSLRs, I would expect that we'll see many more weather-sealed lenses as time goes by - hopefully all new ones will be! (There's currently at least nine sealed lenses now that I can think of off the top of my head.)

The big question is if they'll go to a full-frame DSLR... there's nothing on the roadmap but who knows? They have hinted at it once in a while but it's such a small market that there's not that much money to be made there. They also have a nice line of high-end APS-only lenses that would need to be cropped on a full-frame sensor. That being said, rumors are that some lenses are being delayed to make sure they work well on a full-frame sensor... but that's just a rumor for now. Who knows?

 

[jann1033]

Jann did you end up still getting the 40D from them or are you still looking at options. I have my eye on a K7 and noticing that some of the Pentax glass sells for quite a bit cheaper than some of the Canon glass.

yeah i bought it already. i like it a lot, the focus, speed and iso are great, i was having a hard time figuring out why it looked like everything was blown out on the lcd but the histogram was ok till i remember i brightened the screen so that is an easy fix just need to get going on some decent f2.8 lenses. husband is going to look at my 70-200 and see if he can straighten the metal flange that is bent just enough to keep it from going on the camera then i can see if it's working otherwise or not...i only dropped it from my lap but it hit a rock instead of the grass so maybe it just hit the wrong way.

 

[Groucho]

There's a really good, in-depth preview over at Imaging Resource that contains some information I hadn't known.

edolyne, I owe you an apology - you're right, there is automatic horizon correction, up to 1'! Very, very, very cool. The preview shows you how much 1' looks like in the real world - it's more than you'd think. Similarly, the ability to move the sensor makes more of a difference than you'd think - effectively turning every lens into a shift lens (not as much movement as a real one, but you get the idea.)

Some quotes from the preview:

That said, the Pentax K7's video recording introduces some capabilities we've not seen in prior SLR models from competing manufacturers, and firmly establishes Pentax's credentials as a leading-edge purveyor of video-capable SLRs.
...
While you can control the lens aperture on some competing SLRs by faking-out the exposure system, the Pentax K7 is the first video-capable SLR that we're aware of that lets you set the lens aperture explicitly. You can't adjust it during recording, but whatever value you set before you begin your clip is the one the camera will use. This is a great feature, one that's been sorely lacking in other video-capable SLRs. Groucho note: I think Canon just added this on their 5D Mk2 via a firmware update.
...
The Pentax K-7 is unique among the video-capable SLRs we've tested to date, in that its body-based image stabilization can be used when recording movies. Not only does this make any lens you're recording with into an IS model, but we found that the image stabilization worked exceptionally well when recording videos. We've recorded videos with other SLRs using IS lenses, but the level of stabilization we found in the Pentax K7 seemed to significantly exceed anything we'd seen previously.
...
We don't have a quantitative measurement of AF performance in our test suite, and as of this writing have been able to make only limited and fairly unscientific comparisons between the prototype K-7 and K20D, but our strong subjective impression has been that the Pentax K-7 achieves focus much more quickly in difficult situations of low light and/or low subject contrast than does the K20D. This contributed greatly to the sense of responsiveness we felt when using the Pentax K-7. Groucho note: YAY!
...
While you could certainly expect somewhat reduced battery life in such temperatures, the Pentax K-7 is rated for operation down to 14 degrees F (-10 degrees C). That's quite a bit colder than most of the competition is rated to withstand: The Canon 50D, Olympus E30, Nikon D90 and Sony A700 are all rated only to 32 degrees F. Even pro-level bodies like the Canon EOS-1D Mark III and Nikon D3 are only rated for use down to 32F.
...
Since the shutter button is generally located on one side of the body, it's very likely that hitting it abruptly will produce some momentary rotation of the body about the axis of the lens. This is the just sort of movement that the K-7's new SR system can now compensate for. (As far as we know, it's the only IS system out there that does this.) Pentax claims that the K-7's sensor can rotate by as much +/- 2 degrees to compensate for rotational vibration.
...
Bracketing options are staggering, with White Balance, Saturation, Hue, High/Low key, Contrast, and Sharpness bracketing options in addition to simple Exposure bracketing. In the Custom menu, you can set the One-Push Bracketing option, which will make the Pentax K7 shoot all three bracketed images at once, rather than requiring you to squeeze off each shot. This increases the likelihood that you'll remember to shoot all three, and that they'll all look about the same.
...
As I've mentioned in past reviews, the K20D and its predecessors were designed with the goal of emulating film's behavior so that photographers moving from film would get the results they would expect from a roll of daylight-balanced film. The Pentax K7's auto white balance system changes all that, recognizing what an auto white balance system is supposed to do: adjust for the light source as it changes.

Another sign that Pentax has made a thoughtful change to the auto white balance system based strongly on its tungsten lighting performance is found in Custom function 12: "AWB in Tungsten Light." Here you can set whether the Pentax K7 applies the default "Subtle correction" or "Strong correction" to tungsten lighting. Guess which I've chosen.
...
Perhaps most surprising is the Pentax K7's demeanor: It's not just gentlemanly, it's downright smooth. Past Pentax SLR shutter designs made some unique noises, some good, others a little much. There were lots of odd winding sounds that lasted a little too long and made the cameras sound almost broken. Not the Pentax K7. It's quieter than any digital SLR I've used. The sound has no winding or even clicking sounds.
...
The viewfinder blackout time on the Pentax K7 is among the fastest in its class. I can't time it, and I haven't heard what it's rated, but it returns the view so much faster than a K20D, or any camera that I own, that I can't help but fall a little deeper for the K7.
...
Pentax has it right when they call the K-7 a camera with pro features at a semi-pro price. I'm tempted to warn pure amateurs away from the Pentax K7, as I did with the Nikon D300, so that they don't get lost in its wonderful tangle of fine-tuning options. But the good news is that if you lock the Pentax K7 into Green zone mode it turns off most of the options that can befuddle and just starts using Pentax's years of experience to take well-balanced photographs.

Oh, one other thing I forgot on my list of things that I'm excited about with the K-7 vs the K20D - vastly improved Live View. The K20D was released in the early days of LV and it had just enough to say that it had it, but was pretty featureless. I'm looking forward to the enhanced screen, live histograms, and proper full-resolution zooms for fine-tuning manual focus when on a tripod (and maybe even occasionally when hand-holding - it could help a lot for shooting with extremely fast manual focus lenses.)

I've been going through my lens collection, trying to decide which lenses I can jettison without breaking my heart too much... I am getting more and more excited about this camera! With the previous cameras, there were always one or two features (minor or not) that we had to make excuses for - frame rate, autofocus speed, LV features being the obvious examples. I can't find anything here that is lagging behind the competition whatsoever.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

there is automatic horizon correction, up to 1'!

Awesome feature.