[rparmar]

Thanks for the info. Had great fun with the translations as always.

Shake your body stapling

Some sort of new feature for disco lovers? Or office workers? Or... perhaps disco loving office workers!

Custom images can be controlled and sharp sense of color of the picture, a new "reversal" and "left bank"

Perfect for that bohemian French look.

Multi-exposure shooting is difficult, easy to enjoy.

If you enjoy difficult things, that is.

Cut the moment vividly.

With this new Ginsu knife! It slices, it dices, it juliennes...

Withstand abuse in the field is a functional disk volume.

You mean, like FAT32?

including Makoto Makoto Hyper 03

Cool! My own robot! I am your master Makoto Makoto Hyper 03! Obey me!

[Adam]

LOL!!

[hcarvalhoalves]

If you know Japanese, looks like a very informative, in-depth hotsite

They need to start doing those in english too, if they are serious on getting into international market, instead of just handing out for the local companies.

[Clinton]

The sound of the camera (AF drive noise and sound and focus the iris) or if you do not want to record is useful when you want a more realistic sound.

Does this mean autofocus in video mode?

[opiedog]

Does this mean autofocus in video mode?

interesting catch. it "could" mean AF in video. could also mean manual controls.

if it can't AF, then why worry about the AF motor sound being captured?

c'mon Pentax. If it can be a feature, ADD it. it's your top-of-the-line dslr anyway.
let's pare down the not-in-K5 features vs d7k list.

arigato!

[enoeske]

It also says "Video exposure control by setting the aperture to preferred depth of field" below that line. This implies a somewhat semi-auto video control at least.

[knoxploration]

It also says "Video exposure control by setting the aperture to preferred depth of field" below that line. This implies a somewhat semi-auto video control at least.

The ability to manually control aperture in video recording was already included in the K-7's video mode, and is still there in the K-5. You just can't control shutter speed or ISO sensitivity along with the aperture.

[enoeske]

The ability to manually control aperture in video recording was already included in the K-7's video mode, and is still there in the K-5. You just can't control shutter speed or ISO sensitivity along with the aperture.

I've only got a K20d so I don't know much about the video stuff. How exactly does Shutter speed impact video? I assumed the shutter just stayed open so that you could take video with the sensor.

[knoxploration]

I've only got a K20d so I don't know much about the video stuff. How exactly does Shutter speed impact video? I assumed the shutter just stayed open so that you could take video with the sensor.

The mechanical shutter stays open, but you use what's called an electronic shutter instead, achieved using the image sensor itself. On-chip circuitry allows it to finalize the exposure as if the shutter had closed, and the image can then be read off.

You can consider each frame of the video to be a still image, and so each frame has its own exposure level -- and by adjusting the shutter speed and gain, you can affect that exposure level without changing the aperture.

Shutter speed has one important impact for video, though. In the same way as with a still image, a fast shutter speed freezes motion, and a slow one blurs it. Thing is, with a video, you've got a fixed frame rate -- so if you have moving subjects and you freeze their motion with a high shutter speed, then there are noticeable "steps" in the position of the subject between frames, without blurring that tells your eye the subject is moving. The result is that the final video can look choppy / stuttery, so it's generally desirable to use a slower shutter speed. (If you're wanting to extract still images from the video frames, then it can conversely be desirable to have a high shutter speed and reduced motion blur.)

[rparmar]

Good explanation!

Generally one wants to restrict the shutter speed to twice the frame rate, so the action is blurred enough in a given frame to provide a convincing sense of motion, or at least the one we are trained to appreciate from years of film watching. Most prefer to shoot at 24fps for that "cinema look". Hence the shutter speed should be 1/50s (if we round off to something achievable). This can be rather counter-intuitive to those used to still shooting.

In order to achieve 1/50s and still get control over depth of field one needs to use neutral density filters to reduce the light that gets through the lens. That's why any decent video camera has a variable ND built in.

Basically, shooting video involves using "M" mode to enable perfect control over all photographic parameters. Pentax should really have made this possible without jumping through hoops. It's not a frill or advanced feature; it's a necessity.

[Ron Kruger]

The K7 didn't have features that prompted me to upgrade from the K20D, but this K5 looks like a dramatic upgrade. My only reservation is the different sensor. Better? Maybe. But I'm going to wait until I see a good number of images from users.
My fear is that Pentax is buckling under to the high-ISO demands of the average shooter, and the trade-off for that is a more plastic look, such as with the Kx.
I switched from Nikon to Pentax because I liked the rich look of their images. If they lose that, they lose me.

[opiedog]

ron,

if you don't mind me asking, from which Nikon body did you move from?
was it the high-iso NR from the Nikon makes the images look plastic?

not sure about the kx, but i don't find my kx images plastic looking

tnx
jordan

[Ron Kruger]

Opiedog,
It's a personal prefference. I'm from the old school and miss the rich qualities I once got from Kodachrome 25 and 64, and I found the look of digital images from all Nikon and Cannon cameras plastic in comparison. Pentax, to me, retains some of that richness, especially when matched with lenses like the DFA 100mm and the DA 15mm Limited.
I once thought much of it had to do with the lens coatings, but since studying the imagry from the Kx, I suspect it also has something to do with the sensor type.
I really don't know for sure, but I believe a sensor that handles higher ISOs also has this trade-off of image richness.
Please don't take offense. If you like the look of Kx images, that's fine. Most people do. It's a personal prefference.

[rparmar]

Actually, Ron, I know where you are coming from. I wonder if there is a thread describing this effect, because I am noticing it as well with my K-x, compared to the K20D.

[opiedog]

ron,

well, reason i asked is i found a thread in another forum about some folks saying the new d7000's high ISO shots also are very clean, but plasticky.

i'm contemplating between a K5 and a d7000 since they're both very similarly spec'd.
the D7k has quite a few features that the k5 doesn't have (dual SD, 39pt af, tracking, video AF, and the k5 has a few as well (SR, FPS, better magalloy) that the d7k doesn't have.


i guess for me it'll all boil down to price first then IQ as i think the IQ will be very similar.

i haven't found all the entry level or mid level nikons (upto the d90) to my liking. haven't tried a d300 and up but those would be too heavy/big/pricey$ for me.

as far as specs, both cams look great on paper. still waiting for some real-world tests and price on the k5 to settle, at least here in the US.

sorry, but $1599 a little beyond reach for me and that's just being realistic in today's economy.

tnx