Pentax K5 Review Up at DPreview.com

I'm with you, I have two K10D's. It will be a substantial upgrade. Even though I love my K10's, I can't wait until the funds become available, May-June!
 
I made the jump from K100d to K-x a year ago and was amazed at the difference! I cannot even imagine going from K100d to K-5.
 

There a few mistakes in the review... the big one being the words "one of" in this sentence, which shouldn't be there.

"...this makes it one of the best APS-C DSLRs currently on the market."

:thumbsup2 :rotfl2:

Actually, there are a few problems. One, they didn't test with the newest firmware, which significantly ups the number of raw photos that the buffer can handle. ...Actually, they apparently just updated that part of the review. This moved an item from the "con" to the "pro" list in the conclusion, but of course didn't affect the actual score.
They mention some of the advanced features of auto ISO but didn't mention how you can adjust your program line to give further control over chosen shutter speeds.
No mention of the difference in your AWB choices (which can be tweaked in terms of how it reacts to tungsten light.)
As far as I can tell, there's no mention of weathersealing except buried in one graph. This is a huge feature IMHO; this is no mere "one or two seals here and there" but is as tight as you can find in any DSLR.
Similarly, good luck finding any mention of shake reduction/image stabilization. Pentax/Sony/Olympus users take it for granted but it remains a powerful feature that is still missing on the C/N bodies.
Their dynamic range test only measures jpgs? DPR, at what point will you realize that pretty much anyone considering a $1000+ DSLR will be shooting in raw and couldn't care less about the DR in "vibrant" mode?!? No mention of the DR at ISO 80 beating every other DSLR money can buy. There is some mention of its capabilities on the "photographic tests" page but nothing on the "dynamic range" page.
In movie mode, shake reduction is off out of the box, not on. This is so the internal mike doesn't pick up the sounds of the SR mechanism. I find it to be a very slight issue and not at all when using an external mike, so I turn it on, of course, and find that it works extremely well.
They listed a specific comparison to another camera in the "cons" (less flexible AF than the D7000) - this seems pretty unusual, especially since the cameras are in different classes. Did the D7000 review also include all the interface things that the K-5 does better in their "con" list? They said themselves that the K-5's AF was extremely fast and capable, with none of the negatives listed in the D7000 review. Both systems has 9 cross-type sensors. On paper, the D7000 may track objects better in 3D, but of course they didn't actually test anything like that, and the K-5 has proven capable at tracking. There's also no mention of the K-5's secondary light source sensor used to assist precise focusing in different lighting types.
It does not clearly compete against the D7000 and 60D. The only reason the D7000 comes up in comparisons is because they've got the same sensor. Give it its due!
The focusing is a little bit off in a couple of the studio shots.
There's at least one "cut and paste" from the K-7 review where they forgot to change it from "K-7" to "K-5" - sloppy, sloppy!
No mention of the ability to completely turn off DFS for very long exposures vs the K-7 (which does them no matter what on >30s exposures.)
No mention of the larger mode dial, which helps correct the cut-n-pasted gripe about the locking button.
No mention of the updated RawFx button, which replaces the one-touch bracketing that the K-7 lacked and the K20D had.
Only a brief passing mention of the 5 user modes. I just started playing with these and they are extremely useful! I've got modes set for "normal", "fireworks", "low-light" (read: on-ride photos), "tripod" (ISO 80 and small aperture), and haven't decided yet what to put on the last one. :) It's fast and easy to switch between them; certainly faster than manually adjusting the settings each time.

One last cardinal sin - they spelled "loses" as "looses", which is an enormous pet peeve of mine. For shame!

OK, I'm griping here. DPR has been certainly fairer to Pentax since the old days when Phil did the reviews, and it did get a Gold review... and their biggest complaint was the lack of a dedicated video button, which is about as nit-picky as you can get. So, I am relieved that DPR did a highly glowing review, which still somewhat disappointed that they rely so much on jpgs, make a few factual errors, and forget about some of the really great things like weathersealing and shake reduction that distinguish it from the competition.

In two weeks, mine'll be in WDW... I'll try to uphold its honor. Without any HDR processing. ;)
 
Groucho, thanks for posting your review!:thumbsup2:rotfl2: Its going to be a long winter and spring until I can get my hands on the K5. The "Boss" has given permission for the purchase, but I have to wait for the money to become available.:confused3 She has no sense of humor in such issues. :rolleyes1
 
I forgot to mention one other great feature that I can't believe the competition hasn't picked up on - the ability to shoot in DNG so you don't have to wait for Adobe to update Photoshop or Lightroom. :thumbsup2

Oh - one more thing that I really like - and I don't know if the competition does this or not, but it's new in the Pentax world to the K-5. You can tell it to, when you go in the menu, to go to the last page you were at. That means that if you are on the part of the menu that includes formatting the camera, it can go straight there next time. I find this a great time-saver, especially since I've recently started embedding info about the lens when shooting with older lenses that don't report what they are to the camera. For example, I had my Vivitar 55mm macro mounted for a few days, and in the copyright field, I stuck "Viv" in there. That combined with the 55mm recorded (as told to the camera in order to provide the correct share reduction) lets me know what the lens is, and I can tag it after the fact in Lightroom. It's fast to hop it and out of the copyright page now.
 
I just pulled the trigger and ordered the K5. It should be here on Monday. I was waiting to do income tax but I need it for New Years day for low light shots. I used billmelater so least I have no payment or interest for 6 months. I will be a happy/sad day when it gets here. My K10D will go to my wife but I will miss it. It was my 1st DSLR or SLR. I learned a lot over the 3 years I had it. I will use it a lot in the next couple of days. I am 1500 shot from 50000.
 
I just pulled the trigger and ordered the K5. It should be here on Monday. I was waiting to do income tax but I need it for New Years day for low light shots. I used billmelater so least I have no payment or interest for 6 months. I will be a happy/sad day when it gets here. My K10D will go to my wife but I will miss it. It was my 1st DSLR or SLR. I learned a lot over the 3 years I had it. I will use it a lot in the next couple of days. I am 1500 shot from 50000.

Congratulations, I'm jealous! I do know what you mean about the K10D. It was my first DSLR. Up to that point, I was still using our Pentax LX film SLR and PnS digitals. The DW and I each have one. WHEN, I get the K5, I will use my K10 for a second/backup camera, I think, or I could sell it. I could use the DW's as a backup. I'm undecided.

Anyway, when you get yours please give us your impressions and post some images. I really like hearing reviews from real life situations.
 
I just pulled the trigger and ordered the K5. It should be here on Monday. I was waiting to do income tax but I need it for New Years day for low light shots. I used billmelater so least I have no payment or interest for 6 months. I will be a happy/sad day when it gets here. My K10D will go to my wife but I will miss it. It was my 1st DSLR or SLR. I learned a lot over the 3 years I had it. I will use it a lot in the next couple of days. I am 1500 shot from 50000.
Congratulations! I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say that you'll probably like it. :teeth:

I never used a K10D, but I went from a K20D (pretty much the same body as the K10D) to K-7 and now K-5 so I have an idea of the ergonomics... the K-7/K-5 is quite a bit smaller; if you have big hands, you may end up wanting a battery grip. You can get the real one for about $200 or a clone for about $50 - I've got the clone and it's nice but I may have to spring for the real one someday just for the weathersealing. Currently I take it off when I'm going to be going in inclement weather. Other than that, a few of the switches are smaller so you'll have to get used to that but overall, it's a terrific body design, the buttons are pretty much all in the right place (doing things like changing ISO settings are extremely fast and easy), and it feels extremely rugged.

And that's just the outside - the performance of the inside of the camera is pretty astonishing! :thumbsup2
 
I'am going nuts! The Sunday snow storm delayed my K5 another day! I hope it's here tomorrow,I need it for Saturday!
 
WOW!!! The K-5 is a big difference from the K10D. Here is what I think from the beginning. The 1st hour was spent getting used to the menu setup. I did also get the battery grip with the camera. It feels more comfortable than the K10 in my hands. After the 1st shot you can’t believe how quiet is and the auto focus is much faster. I have not tried the LV yet. One thing I don’t like is where the EV button is located. So far everything is a big upgrade. I know I am jumping around but I hate to type! So far I have taken 900 shots and I am in love with the K5!

If anyone knows anything about Philadelphia on New Years day is the mummer’s parade. I have been doing this for 25 years. This year my club asked me to do the photos. I knew I needed camera for low light shots. So I bought the K5 sooner than I wanted. I carried the K5 with 24-70 f/2.8 & the K10 with 70-200 f/2.8 for the day. I found going from on to the other hard. The K10 is so far behind the K5

I found myself using ISO from 1600 to 6400 most of the time. At 6400 I start to see noise but with a little photoshop noise is gone. I took some at 12800 ISO and there is noise but it cleans up pretty good. I think at 12800 is about equal to the K10 at 1600.

If anyone has any question please ask?
Link to photos. All shot RAW and I will be adding more!

http://www.dantefrattophotography.com/p933723515
 
You guys are filling me with envy! I just can't pull the financial trigger yet. Its killing me to wait. One of my K10's will probably pass either to my DD or DGD. They both have P & S and take very good images. For 9 yoa, the DGD has a very good eye for composition and perspective. Many times, better than I! I just don't know if she is ready to move up yet. Maybe (?) when the time is right, I will buy the Kr for the DW and pass both K10's on!
 
All the K5 love makes me want to sell my 8 month old K7 and buy a K5 instead... but I can't do that AND get new golf clubs, so since the camera is newer than my old clubs... :)
 
WOW!!! The K-5 is a big difference from the K10D. Here is what I think from the beginning. The 1st hour was spent getting used to the menu setup. I did also get the battery grip with the camera. It feels more comfortable than the K10 in my hands. After the 1st shot you can’t believe how quiet is and the auto focus is much faster. I have not tried the LV yet. One thing I don’t like is where the EV button is located. So far everything is a big upgrade. I know I am jumping around but I hate to type! So far I have taken 900 shots and I am in love with the K5!
You will probably get used to the EV button before long. I am very happy with the button placement, having gone from the K20D (same as K10D, button-wise) to K-7 (same as K-5 button-wise) and after a fairly short learning curve, I prefer the K-7/K-5 design. I do still miss the dedicated bracketing button of the K20D, though - the RawFx button helps but you still have to use the arrows to turn off bracketing; on the K20D, you could turn it on and off by holding the bracketing button and spinning the dial to how many bracket shots you wanted (usually 3 or 5), 0 would turn it off.

All the K5 love makes me want to sell my 8 month old K7 and buy a K5 instead... but I can't do that AND get new golf clubs, so since the camera is newer than my old clubs... :)
Ahhh, another reason that I'm happy that I'm not into golf. :lmao:

The K-5's been here with me at WDW for about a week now and IMHO is doing great; it's been pulling off shots that would not be possible with the earlier sensors. I've been doing a lot of shooting at ISO 80 with slight underexposure, trusting the dynamic range to be able to give me the shot I want in post-processing. I tried one or two quickly in LR and it's amazing how a little Fill Light brings in tons of detail with no noise.

IMHO, it's about as close to a perfect DSLR as you can get right now, with no real drawbacks. My biggest gripe is that it takes a couple seconds for movie mode to start up... and the missing bracketing button as mentioned before, but the DR is so good that bracketing is not as important as in the "old days". :)
 
One other great feature (that was introduced on the K-7, IIRC) is the Dust Alert feature. It automates the process of checking for dust on the sensor. I had a couple pictures that look like they may have a little dust spot in one place, and the Dust Alert feature means that you can check for dust quickly and easily, no need to manually take a small aperture photo, copy it to the PC, and process it to check for dust. It even frames it inside the lens mount so you can see exactly where the dust is. This means you can check it while you're running around at Disney.

This is one of those features (like DNG support) that you wonder why everyone doesn't have it.
 


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