Right, initial thoughts:
- It is quite small, but not dramatically different from the K5. I may get one of those extra-hand-grip thingies (Technical term I know!) (not a battery grip)
- General camera operations are fast. Feels a lot snapper than my K10D did. Turns on instantaneously
- Feels Solid in the hand, well built. Similar to the K10D in this regard
- Blimey, can it rattle off shots fast! Again, in comparison to my K10D, this feels distinctly rapid (in Cont. Hi). Estimate that after 8-10 frames it slows to Cont. Low. But still continues taking more than 1 frame a sec. Not very scientific, I can try to be more so if needed
- 18-135mm seems nicely weighted on this body
- Screen is nice, good colour depth, nice colours, OK to view outside (not checked in glaring sunlight as of yet)
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Autofocus. So I've been testing with both the 18-135mm which is SDM, and the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8, which is screw drive:
With the former, the thing is so quiet. I've not had an SDM lens before, therefore for me this is unusual. If anything I slightly miss the auditory feedback. Autofocus seems fine in low light, I've just tested under a 20w halogen desk light, and I observe:
- The focus seems to lock in much more sensibly than the K10D. It doesn't do the whole "travel the whole range of the camera and back" thing that the K10D liked to do with its kit lens
- The "stepping" to lock focus seems sensible - i.e. the lens/camera combo seems to get close, then gradually increments until focus lock. So far, non-moving targets seem to be getting a lock all the time, some taking a little longer than others, but all still plenty fast enough for a non-fast moving target (Which you wouldn't be shooting in low light really!)
- I can only induce any auto focus problems if I do something really stupid, like point it at something in low light, with a completely uniform area, on spot focus mode.
- I tend to default to shooting with the center AF Point. With it locked to 11 points, the autofocus seems to perform the same, if not a little better on areas with no contrast.
- CFAF also seems to work OK, and finds a lock 95% of the time on awkward areas (I'm talking in the dark, low contrast areas here. Admittedly with some use of the AF Assist Light. Generally though, when given a slightly less arcane test, I would be comfortable with this.
- Face detection in this mode also worked efficiently earlier, quickly locking onto the face. The resulting photo seemed a little soft, but I could not properly comment as I was not familiar enough with the camera at this stage
With the Tamron 17-50mm:
- Screw drive lens - now thats a proper sound
- Focus generally fine as well. If anything slightly quicker than the Pentax SDM motor'd lens. But not by much.
- Less searching than on the K10D by a long way, to my eyes. Although this was on an 18-55mm kit lens on the K10D, FYI.
Other things:
- I'm slightly missing the top LCD, but not much. The info display on the main LCD is clear and easy to read
- For my larger hands, the front e-dial currently feels slightly out of position - i.e. my finger does not fall to it 100% naturally. This might be because it falls naturally to the shutter release instead
- Electronic level is a cool function (not had one before) and works well.
These are just initial observations. Generally, the camera definitely feels like 6 years progress vs the K10D.