Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: Florida Gulfer Posts: 3,054 | Review Date: May 27, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $1,599.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Size,Very Quiet,WR,Interface, | Cons: | Mirror Flop, Sensor Boogers, when New | Years Owned: 2 1/2
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 8
Features: 10
Value: 8
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
| | My first K-5 was bought when they were released in the US and I sent that one in Dec.2010 for a replacement. Since then I have been very pleased with it.
I have use other DSLR's belonging to friends and just never like the handling compared to the K-5, although I have very large hands so I ended up getting the Grip and that solved that problem. Now if Pentax would release some reliable lenses so we don't have to fall back on Sigma for our shooting we would have the number one system on the market..IMHO
Anyone who owns a K-5 can tell you it's a hard camera to beat for IQ, Ergonomics, Build Quality and just fun to own.
I also own a K-01, K100D, K-30, and have owned a K-20,K-7,K-R. And the K-5 is still my Favorite.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: February, 2013 Posts: 9 | Review Date: March 6, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $1,200.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | great image quality and prints | Cons: | AF in slower than expected in low light | Years Owned: 1.5yrs
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 8
Features: 9
Value: 9
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
| | This is an excellent camera for the serious photographer-->semi-pro. It has excellent image quality and prints up to and including 16x20 look very good fromthis camera. It makes for a great photo-journalism camera in all regards except sports where it falls short because of its slightly slower buffer and inability to take use of the USH-1 memory cards. I liked the K-5 enough that when I wanted a second D-SLR body to have one as a back-up (and two for wedding work) I got the K-5ii camera which I love even more than the K-5, making the K-5 my second/back-up camera
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2011 Location: ON, RH Posts: 2,181 | Review Date: January 31, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $1,300.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | WR, SR, Great IQ, great ergonomics and so many more ... | Cons: | Overpriced battery grip ... crippled K-mount ... :( | Years Owned: 2
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 8
Features: 7
Value: 9
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 10
New or Used: New
| | For a MF guy this camera has already more than I ever need ... including no problems with AF .
This camera makes me proud to be a Pentax owner and I don't think I will be upgrading to a new camera any time soon (unless FF comes along). Would I recommended this camera!?
If you like photography and you just want to take good pictures and you are interested in the end result; and you are the kind of guy that can do with a little less when compared with the other brads; then yes, I strongly recommended!
At today's prices and compared with what it can do against competition, this is one of the best cameras on the market.
If you are the kind of guy that must have all the gadgets inside one body, and not willing to work around the missing options, than maybe this is not for you ...
| | | | New Member Registered: April, 2012 Location: Prague Posts: 18 | Review Date: December 29, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $1,000.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Everything | Cons: | AF | Years Owned: 1
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 8
Features: 9
Value: 10
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
| | I use K-5 for 1 year and I think I kind of understand nearly everything about it.
I love my K-5 much, it is smartly small unlike Canon but still very solid in hand. (Ahh, I am an Asian, so it really fit my hand)
Image quality is very good and I love ISO 80, if the Full-Frame Pentax (In dream) come with ISO 50 it will be the best, but at this time ISO 80 is quite enjoyable. I never use high ISO so with me Noise Redution does not make any sense.
Tradition of Pentax but still worth is the compatibility with Legacy Lens, even M42 with fully support of metering. I have many M42 lens and I really love them when they go out in action with my K-5.
AF of K-5 in my opinion is the strongest minus of overall grade. It is fine, but not best and be careful with it and believe your eyes ! :-D I hope it will be improved. I read much about new AF of K-5 II but I did not hand-on it so, just hope the Full-Frame will have good AF then.
It is hard to find a bad thing of K-5 so AF is the only thing I can complain | | | | | Senior Member Registered: September, 2012 Posts: 100 | Review Date: December 10, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $750.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | IM, menu, function, noise, small, battery | Cons: | AF in low light | Years Owned: 4 months
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 9
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 7
Features: 9
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 8
New or Used: Used
| | I switched from Canon to Pentax K5 with some M42 lens. Very good IM, noise reduct, small and light weight. But the AF system is bad, very bad in low light although i had upgrade firmware upto 1.13.
If K5 have Nikon's AF system, it'll be a perfect camera.
I'm waitting for K5IIs down price to ~800$
| | | | New Member Registered: October, 2010 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia Posts: 16 | Review Date: November 27, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $799.99
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Everything | Cons: | Feels small, see below | Years Owned: 1 month
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 10
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 10
New or Used: New
| | Just upgraded from a K10 with grip to the K5 with no grip (yet). The K5 seems small (big hands and all) although I'm sure that I'll get use to the size difference once I get the grip in the new year. So far I'm very impressed all the way around. Will likely update soon once I get a few more frames through it! | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: South of Sweden Posts: 10 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: October 15, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | size, speed, IQ, noise | Cons: | AF but better than K10D | Years Owned: 1
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 7
Features: 9
Value: 9
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
| | Upgraded from K10D and very pleased whith this camera
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2012 Location: Albuquerque, NM Posts: 464 | Review Date: October 13, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $799.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | EVERYTHING | Cons: | SO FAR NOTHING | Years Owned: 3 month
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 9
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 10
New or Used: New
| | What I can say with this camera?
Someone said K5 is a both a good and bad move for Pentax. The good side is that after the average K7, Pentax did announce that they are capable of building this APS-C monster. And the bad thing is that, any Pentax APS-C camera after K5 might find it is difficult to climb on a higher peak. So for the K5 II and K5 IIs, good luck
I became a Pentaxian around 2 years ago. The first DSLR I bought was the K7---that's okey. Though I had to send it back twice due to the e-dial problem, but I really didn't have any further experience with DSLR, so I let it be.
And this June, I updated it it K5. Everything changed.
The EXCELLENT (sorry I could not use a better word on it) ISO---even usable under 6400. This means under some circumstances, "one step faster", "two step faster" does not matter that much.
And on DXO site, the K5 is the only APS-C in the top-10. And it even beated the 5DMKII and MKIII.
So, let's say Pentax won't release the FF this year...but anyway, with K5, there is still hope there that Pentax can make first class DSLR.
Good job, and please carry on. | | | | | Review Date: September 29, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $750.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | see below | Cons: | see below | Ergonomics: 7
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 5
Autofocus: 8
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 10
New or Used: Used
| | Before: Canon EOS 40D and EF 17-40mm f4 L USM (2008-2012)
Setup: Pentax K-5 and DA 17-70mm f4 (2012+) Canon 40D / Pentax K-5 Ergonomics: 9 / 7
Build Quality: 9 / 10
User Interface: 8 / 5
Autofocus: 10 / 8
Features: 4 / 10
Image Quality: 8 / 10
Noise: 4 / 10
Battery Life: 8 / 6
Viewfinder: 8 / 7
Screen: 5 / 8 TOTAL: 73 vs 81 PROS (against Canon EOS 40D):
+ Usable ISO up to 12800 (vs Canon ISO1600 or 3200 with Highlight Priority turned off)
+ Image quality (but have yet to find out how to fine tune JPEG and RAW settings to match image quality of my old Canon)
+ Smaller
+ Lighter
+ Faster
+ Quieter
+ Weather sealing (dust and moisture proof)
+ Supports SDXC cards which are quite cheap
+ Better neckstrap
+ AF assist lamp
+ 100% viewfinder coverage
+ Built-in image stabilisation
+ Higher resolution screen
+ Good video quality
+ Fast AF in live view
+ Custom min. and max. ISO settings e.g. ISO160-51200
+ Noise reduction can be fine tuned for every ISO level (for JPEGs only though)
+ Occasionally useful option to be able to customise buttons (but too limited) CONS (against Canon EOS 40D):
- Hand grip not as comfortable
- Outdated, slow, ugly and complex user interface
- Info button does not show information of selected settings in the menu
- AF slightly slower and louder (on DA 17-70mm f4) I really dislike the turning AF ring
- Optional image correction (chromatic abberating, vignetting) only affects JPEGs and slows down camera too much
- No USB 3.0
- No speed difference between SDXC 30MB/s and 100MB/s
- Not enough weather sealed lenses
- Average battery life
- Screen does not flit and tilt 8alternatively could have been a fixed 3.2" screen with 3:2 ratio)
- Camera created acoustic noise when live view is on
- Outdated and inefficient video compression (motion JPEG) causes unnecessarily massive video files (600MB/minute)
- Pointless User dial mode (much better on Canon EOS 40D featuring 3 separate and locked user settings)
- ISO25600 and 51200 turn black into dark blue
- HDR images only available in pure JPEG mode
- Very big RAW files (Pentax 16MP-20MB vs Canon 10MP-10MB) -> needed new laptop afterwards because my Core 2 Duo (2x 2.2GHz) could not handle Lightroom 4 anymore; it used to be okay-ish speedwise with the Canon RAW files. Might go and buy a laptop with Core i5-3210M or better i7-3610M/3612M if I have the money.
- No dedicated movie button so that cou can shoot videos in any mode
- No autofocus in movie mode
- Scrolling through images not as fast as on 40D
- Visual sharpness in live view questionable
- Not enough video settings (such as resolution, frames, colours etc)
- Mode dial has to be unlocked before turning
- Switching from one shot to 3 shot exposure bracketing takes 4 button presses (vs 1 on Canon)
- No visible AF points
- No proximity sensor underneath viefinder to automatically turn off display
- Annoying top LCD backlight (luckily can be turned off)
- Optical viewfinder smaller and not neutral (slightly too warm) and darker than on Canon EOS 40D with EF 17-40mm f4
- Images need more sharpening
- Picture settings do not affect RAW images
- DNG RAW files do not show settings nor in Lightroom 4 nor Adobe Camera RAW
| | | | New Member Registered: May, 2012 Location: Brasov, Romania Posts: 5 | Review Date: September 14, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $1,000.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | build quality, great image quality, fast AF, high ISO | Cons: | bad AF in low light | Years Owned: 2
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 8
Features: 9
Value: 8
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
| | Upgraded to a K-5 after *istDL.
It's a great photo camera and I'm happy with it. I don't use it for video, it's a photo camera by the way...
AF could be better.
| | | | New Member Registered: December, 2011 Location: Padova Posts: 8 | Review Date: August 18, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $1,000.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | build quality, fast and precise AF, great IQ, high ISO performance, 7fps | Cons: | lacks of manual video controls | Years Owned: 2
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 8
Features: 9
Value: 9
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
| | Pentax K5 doesn't need descriptions: great ergonomics, lighter and less bulky than other cameras in these class.
External dedicated microphone socket, great sealed build quality.
Exceptional image quality, great noise control at high ISO, fast and accurate AF.
The only problem is the video mode: lacks of manual control, you are limited to aperture priority only, without ISO control.
Is the BEST aps-c digital camera that I ever used!
| | | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2012 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 63 | Review Date: July 31, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $950.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | size, weight, ergonomics, weather sealing, low light performance, shutter speed | Cons: | in camera photo review is slow, autofocus is not stealthy quiet | Years Owned: 1
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 8
Autofocus: 9
Features: 9
Value: 10
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 10
New or Used: Used
| | First, one of the negatives, not mentioned in other reviews: in-camera pic review is slow! I'm talking about viewing photos previously taken on the LCD screen and scrolling through them. There's a split second delay when advancing through photos, clicking delete, and another delay when clicking OK. It's not a long delay but it should be instant and it's not. But that's a minor quibble. Everything else I have to say is very positive...
This is a relatively compact, easy to hold, easy to shoot, weather sealed, high performance SLR! In combination with the outstanding, small, lightweight prime lenses, it is uniquely small and portable. There are comparable camera and lens combinations from Canon and Nikon of the same quality, but none quite as small and lightweight as the K-5 when used with the Limiteds lenses.
I bought this camera four outdoor adventure, outdoor sports and recreation photos, and for use in photographing custom bikes which I build for a variety of clients. The weather resistant zooms are great and I use them a lot in backpacking to keep weight down and deal with rain, snow, ice, sand, etc... But when shooting products for work, or around friends and family, the primes are just so addictive. Since I'm not a professional photographer I could probably get by with a K-7 in hindsight, but it's nice to know I have a camera that I won't outgrow anytime soon.
Highly recommended especially at prices now under $900, this is a steel. If you plan on using it outdoors get it with the kit lens, any one of the WR zooms. Both are surprisingly good and it's nice to have the weather sealing when out in the elements! If you're not shooting much outdoors in the rain or snow, get the body only and a few primes. Or consider the awesome K-01 which takes the same lenses and has similar image quality in an even smaller package, with faster in-camera photo viewing.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2008 Location: Waterloo, Ontario Posts: 4,461 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: July 17, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $1,100.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Build quality, placement of buttons | Cons: | a bit small for my hand - needs the battery grip which is over priced | Years Owned: 2
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 9
Features: 10
Value: 9
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
| | I upgraded from a K10 to this unit so it is not surprising it is technically far more advanced. The increased dynamic range is amazing. Images which were impossible with the K10 are now easily available. The Green button works far better with my old M-series glass. It was virtually useless with the K10. I still prefer the portraits I get from the K10 which renders portraits in a more pleasing manner to my eye. In every other way the K5 is a far superior camera to the K10. It has more mega pixels, more frames per second and pretty much more of everything. I do find the K5 a bit small for my hand. The optional battery grip would make a world of difference but is quite expensive for what it is. Other than that it is a fine camera and I am more than pleased with it after 2 years in the field.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2009 Location: Winchester Posts: 2,523 | Review Date: July 6, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $950.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Build quality, high Iso IQ, fps, quiet | Cons: | Button placement, no SR switch, low light AF in certain cirumstances | Years Owned: 0.75
Ergonomics: 8
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 9
Features: 9
Value: 10
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 10
New or Used: New
| | Upgraded to a K5 after my K20D met with a slight accident....
After 9 months of use, I am mostly very happy but all is not perfect....
Generally the camera is very well built with a decent amount of heft. IQ is pretty good, I have used with a range of lenses, zoom and prime, Pentax, Sigma and Tamron, manual and autofocus, old and new and the K5 works pretty well in most circumstances (see later) I find the camera easy to use even without a grip-I used a grip 80% on the K20 about 5% on the K5. Battery life is excellent, seems better than the K20. The camera is quiet and autofocus much improved. I do have problems in certain low light situations, funnily enough, indoors seems fine, but external shots are a bit hit and miss, especially with wide lenses such as the Sigma 30mm f1.4. It does seem to be a body/lens thing as other lenses are better, but not perfect. I am talking of twilight/late evening shots with little external illumination, so not a common occurence at all.
Continuous shooting is fine, auto bracketing is available via the RAW button (which otherwise I don't use as I shoot RAW pretty much all the time.
Main gripe is the placement of the LV button and the need to "toggle" AF point selection- I am often finding that I think I am in AF selection mode and try to move the point using the buttons only to end up changing WB or shooting mode. There is a tiny icon in the viewfinder to show you what mode the four way arrow buttons are in, but it is hard to see. Further, the LV bitoon is close to one of the four arrow buttons, so when changing af points whilst holding the camera to the eye, it easy to mistakenly engage LV mode. Definite backward step from the K20 here
Also I prefer a hard switch for SR on/off, rather than via the info screen, menu or user mode options.
The RAW buffer is decent - 24 shots or so, although the buffer emptying time is not fantastic- a fast card helps here
High ISO noise is well controlled, shadows can be pushed in PP without nasty banding effects, which makes this camera so much of an upgrade over the K20 (and K7) -two years after launch and it is still up there with the best for high ISO shots. Stick the camera in TAv and shoot away without worry
Excellent camera, just let down by some poor button choices for me 9/10
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2009 Location: Mid North Coast,Australia Posts: 1,016 | Review Date: July 6, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $999.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Build,Quality,WR and my favourite, Electronic Level Display | Cons: | Not one thing to date | Years Owned: 1 month or so
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 9
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 10
New or Used: New
| | What can I say about this camera.One word:'Brilliant'!Compared to my K100D,(which isn't a bad camera in itself)it's a Ferrari.Only owning it for a short period of time,it gets easier to use functionality wise,with all the buttons being pretty much 'Pentax friendly' and straight forward with what the functions are. As for images,it doesn't matter what age lens you put on it, from a K series to the DA kit lens,you can almost everytime take some wonderful images with it.Basically'The sky is your limit' with the K5.I would highly recommend this camera if your still debating on whether you should or shouldn't or might just wait for the next big thing from Pentax.
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