My Day with the K..D

[JanG]

Originally Posted by Tom Lusk

It seems to me the fact that no-one in the know even hints at high AF speed and accuracy means this will again not be a strong point of the new Pentaxes. The same goes for a high FPS rate, unfortunately. Let's hope I'm wrong.

There have been several posts mentioning something "special" about the AF, fps, and screen. So I think maybe the people in the know can't hint because it would bring them in conflict with their NDA.
Just guessing (and hoping that Pentax has found a way prevent rants over a "slow" cam - 3 fps is fair enough for me, but I know others need more).

[Marcus]

Ben,

Has the new file format been of any use to you?

[kent vinyard]

Tom,
Amen to what you said! I can get good wildlife shots with 3 fps and the focus system of the K10 D, but I would be able to get a higher ratio of in focus shot with 5fps and a better focus tracking system. Sure, no one needs more than 1 fps to do scenics, but on the side lines of a basketball game or in the wilds trying to capture flying birds more fps is damn helpful. And to the nay sayers I don't want to change systems again---I know Pentax can do it, but will they?

[benjikan]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Ben,

Has the new file format been of any use to you?

Haven't even tried it yet...

PS..Too busy preping for the News Conference..Sorry!

Ben

[codiac2600]

Originally Posted by pgenovese

I'm with you on that 5fps would be about just right for me, 3 is adequate for most situation, The ideal solution would be to have something in the reigon of 7-9fps with the ability to slow it down to say 5 / 3 fps. I would be a relatively simple feature to implement in software.



Patrick

Ummmm.... how easy is it again?

I doubt it's so easy and it's dependent on more than software. AF drive motor, mirror motor, other hardware associated with the AF.

The file sizes will be huge with this camera and the buffer is as big as can be affordable so it may not be able to handle 7FPS due to how quickly it can churn these huge files from the buffer to the memory card. The only thing that slowed down the K10D in sports shooting was it's focus recheck and if they make a setting to turn that off it would make it so much easier to snap away like the Canikons, because they also do not double check their AF like Pentax.

Pentax has something up their sleeves for sports shooters, but it may not be adequate for everyone here so take what Ben has been giving everyone instead of wishing for something that you could be disappointed in later.

[earthbeat]

Jep... for me the main iterest is price... i think it's not this sub 1000$ anymore... if it's so superior then the new cam wil cost more like EOS 40D or so...?!

[jbcampbell]

Originally Posted by Sirfishalot

I don't think Ben is talking about a K20D here. This sounds like the professional model quite a few of us have been hoping for. I'd say there's no way this thing can be anything less than 10fps. 3 year old Canon 20D technology was at 7fps. This Pentax will have to bring it to be on par with the 1D MkIII!

JayT

Personally I would love to see a K1D (or whatever) pro body from Pentax in the $2000.00 range. Something with am integrated battery grip, faster AF, faster frame rate, etc...
I am not sure the market is there for that price range with Pentax but I would place my order on day one.

[jbcampbell]

Site is slow today

Please delete.

[Priyantha Bleeker]

Originally Posted by jbcampbell

Personally I would love to see a K1D (or whatever) pro body from Pentax in the $2000.00 range. Something with am integrated battery grip, faster AF, faster frame rate, etc...
I am not sure the market is there for that price range with Pentax but I would place my order on day one.

Well I don't think that a price range of $2000.00 is very realistic for that
I think more in line of $3500 a $4000.
And than please the following :P:

- Same pixelcount but again improved sensor as the to be introduced K20D
- AF System with 40 or more Focus points
- New metering with more segments for the matrix metering
- 8 FPS
- Buffer for 50 RAW's
- Built in Grip
- GPS built in or as a addon
- More custom settings memory banks please
- And please give us the aperture control in the mount back

[mawz]

Originally Posted by Priyantha Bleeker

Well I don't think that a price range of $2000.00 is very realistic for that
I think more in line of $3500 a $4000.
And than please the following :P:

- Same pixelcount but again improved sensor as the to be introduced K20D
- AF System with 40 or more Focus points
- New metering with more segments for the matrix metering
- 8 FPS
- Buffer for 50 RAW's
- Built in Grip
- GPS built in or as a addon
- More custom settings memory banks please
- And please give us the aperture control in the mount back

Well, the D300's really redefined what the low end of the 'Pro' body pricing is, giving an 8fps body with world-beating AF for around $2200 (As you need the grip to do 8fps, and you'll need either 8 AA's or an EN-EL4a+charger as well) and everything else you request except buffer size and an integrated grip (it has a grip similar to the K10D's in fact). So a K1D should probably be price competitive with the D300.

[pgenovese]

Originally Posted by codiac2600

Ummmm.... how easy is it again?

I doubt it's so easy and it's dependent on more than software. AF drive motor, mirror motor, other hardware associated with the AF.

The file sizes will be huge with this camera and the buffer is as big as can be affordable so it may not be able to handle 7FPS due to how quickly it can churn these huge files from the buffer to the memory card. The only thing that slowed down the K10D in sports shooting was it's focus recheck and if they make a setting to turn that off it would make it so much easier to snap away like the Canikons, because they also do not double check their AF like Pentax.

Pentax has something up their sleeves for sports shooters, but it may not be adequate for everyone here so take what Ben has been giving everyone instead of wishing for something that you could be disappointed in later.

That is not what I meant.. Assuming that there is a high frame rate eg 7-9 fps which admittedly is not easy to implement.

The easy software feature would be the ability to slow down the frame rate. That would enable the shooter to "tune" the frame rate to the sort of action being photographed. It could even be added in a post release firmware update. This would be even more useful on the new camera due to increased file sizes.

Rgds

Patrick

[jms698]

Originally Posted by benjikan

Hi Richard;
I was in the same room as my girlfriend and there was some street noise, but not excessive and I took an image and asked.."did you hear that?" she said "heard what"..."the shutter"..."No didn't hear a thing"..It freaked me out when I started using it. I think it is as quiet or more so than the Canon 400D...

I've very encouraged to hear this! The Canon 400D (and Nikon D40) is the quietest SLR I have seen. The one thing that really bothered me about the K10d was how loud it was in comparison. If the new Pentax K..d is as good as that (or *gasp* even quieter ) then I'll get one immediately

Thanks for the report Ben. This kind of information generally isn't even mentioned in the big review websites (and they usually take a few months to come out).

[mawz]

Originally Posted by earthbeat

Jep... for me the main iterest is price... i think it's not this sub 1000$ anymore... if it's so superior then the new cam wil cost more like EOS 40D or so...?!

E1299 with the new kit lens is what's leaked. Between the 40D and A700 in price, but you get a lens.

I'm a little worried by the pricing. The sample images I'm seeing appear to give D300 level quality(possibly better, the D300 at 6400 is a bit noisier than a K10D at 1600, Benjikan indicates the K..D is a bit cleaner at max ISO than the K10D at 1600), but I also expect a Nikon body with D300 level IQ based on the D80 to arrive soon at $999. But we don't know what secrets Pentax has in store for us at this point.

[vizjerei]

Just a few more days, i think i should be start save more $ again...

[nosnoop]

Originally Posted by mawz

I'm a little worried by the pricing. The sample images I'm seeing appear to give D300 level quality(possibly better, the D300 at 6400 is a bit noisier than a K10D at 1600, Benjikan indicates the K..D is a bit cleaner at max ISO than the K10D at 1600), but I also expect a Nikon body with D300 level IQ based on the D80 to arrive soon at $999. But we don't know what secrets Pentax has in store for us at this point.

Doesn't look like D80 replacement is ready for PMA. So it could come mid-year or at Photokina. And by that time, the K20D price would have dropped. So it should cost less than D90 by the time it arrives.