[saladin]

Yes, it is a big change, because it is the difference between a sensor that was average for its time (K20D) and one that is still state of the art (K-5). Just look at how much better the D90 (state of the art for 2008) was compared to the K20D. Sony sensors are just so much better than Samsung's - if Pentax got any benefit from their association with Samsung, I would like to know what that was.

Sony sensors are better than pretty much anyones, imo. Hence Nikon using them. Canons existing sensors are poor by comparison. I ran a 7D for a little while against the K5 and it was crazy how much better the Pentax was as ISO climbed.

as for the samsung tie-in, i reckon the K10 sensor was brilliant when used to its strengths. but the change to the cmos K20 - which my Dad bought because he liked my K10 - was underwhelming, to say the least. whether pentax learnt anything in terms of sensor tuning and algorithms from the samsung time, and have used that knowledge ever since, is about the only thing I can think of that may have been worthwhile. Pentax seem to get better tweeks from the K5 sensor than Nikon did with the 7000. That's why I'm hoping we see a D600 equivalent, i think pentax will do it better. and then wide angle is wide angle.........

[wildman]

Another test ISO 12800 shot.

Tried to make sure everything was spot on - histogram to the right with no channels being clipped etc.
NR and some sharpening in PP. Tried hard to retain the original natural lighting and DR with no fake "pop" added-just the facts. What I think my naked eye actually saw at the time I pressed the shutter release.

This time instead of ACR I used Capture One Pro 6 64 bit. Sharpened with PK Sharpener 2 using a bit of high pass sharpening and Noiseware for NR.
Same glass as the others.

Either I'm at the limits of the Sensor or my PP skills or both with this one.
12800 seems to be the practical limit with the K5. Beyond this and I'm capturing noise faster then useable data.

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

as for the samsung tie-in, i reckon the K10 sensor was brilliant when used to its strengths. but the change to the cmos K20 - which my Dad bought because he liked my K10 - was underwhelming, to say the least. whether pentax learnt anything in terms of sensor tuning and algorithms from the samsung time, and have used that knowledge ever since, is about the only thing I can think of that may have been worthwhile. Pentax seem to get better tweeks from the K5 sensor than Nikon did with the 7000. That's why I'm hoping we see a D600 equivalent, i think pentax will do it better. and then wide angle is wide angle.........

Very good points. I didn't realize that the K10D was co-developed with Samsung - some people used to think it had a Sony sensor, so I assumed the partnership was entered with K20D. That makes sense then - the K10D was a top camera for its generation. I am also curious how Samsung sensors fare now, but dxomark has not reviewed any recent NX models and the ones they reviewed didn't seem to improve over the K-7 sensor.