Picked up my K-5 from the post office @ 7:31am
First impressions:
Its small, very small compared to the K20D yet at the same time feels heavier or more solid. The grip is nice and deep and is very comfortable for wandering around one handed. I will probably invest in the grip though as my little finger seems to be curling under the body. You do feel the sensor array moving around, its is a strange sensation, never felt it as much in the K20D.
They moved the green button!
, this will be my biggest irritation for the next few days until I retrain myself. My finger automatically goes to the K-5s EV compensation button.
Besides charging the battery, the first thing I did was to install the M-OE53 viewfinder magnifer, the extreme upper right and left corners are partially vignetted with this, not an issue to me. The 100% coverage is already making me think more about my framing, I don't have the little extra to play with anymore. I will need the Katz Eye for this though, I am too intermittant with the 50 in nailing focus at the moment, then again the 50 is the hardest test any viewfinder will come up against
SD Card, flicking is the only way with this, came naturally to me after a couple of attempts. You have to be reasonably precise when loading it though.
Button on the mode dial, don't mind this too much, I generally stay in M or B modes and rarely change. I can see the benefits as I had the dial move on me a couple of times on the K20D while walking and it was hanging off a strap and rubbing off my side.
Shutter sound, been thinking on this one for a while, its like a knife on a sharpening stone, swish, swish. Nice, I like it, no more clunk and seeing every head within 20 feet turn towards me.
Menu?, once I found out where the Catch in Focus & Use Aperture Ring (C4 in case anyone is interested) I was set. It does have a lot happening in it which means we have a lot more to customise, I can't really comment after a few hours.
The main reason I got this was for the extra ISO capability, and it delivers in spades. One example, ISO1600, straight conversion from DNG to JPEG with max size of 1024 by 1024 as set out by Pentax Forums, K-5 with K50 f/1.2 @ f/1.2, AWB (in this instance the room was lit by LCD tv, and 2 small lamps), 1/15s
The K20D would got itself tied in knots with this shot. Colour noise (red tinge everywhere) would have been present, grain would have been a lot more visible, all in all a good 15 mins of PP would have been necessary just to get to this. Time is money and the K-5 is already paying back its €1,200