[philbaum]

My K5 arrived this afternoon from BH Photo. They have a better rate for shipping then Adorama by the way for 3 day. In any case, it arrived in good condition, no stain but appears to be one dust spot. I spent the day charging batteries and installing ver 1.03. I'll check on the dust spot again tomorrow to see if its still there and will go after it with a blower if necessary.

For some reason, had a lot of problems and finally failed downloading FW from the US site, so went to the Canadian site and downloaded it from them successfully.

I did try some low light focusing in a basement room and it appeared to me at 8x magnification that the K5 was comparable to my K20. this was after 1.03 was installed.

very happy with the handling of it so far and the quickness of its operation. quiet shutter which i love. Also tried the spot meter via locking in an exposure taken from a picture in a dim corner of the room this evening. the metering was taken 15-20 feet away and the resulting picture exposed the framed picture very well. I may not install a katz eye vf screen in my camera because of how useful this spot meter works. awesome metering IMO. Its a worthy upgrade from the K20!

[Rupert]

That's a Good Report.....now use it a couple of days and come back to this thread and give us the "Fantastic Report"! You will, just wait and see!
Best Regards & Go have fun!

[elho_cid]

Try harder... there must be a problem with that camera. You are simply not testing it deep enough. First read the thread about how much is the K-5 a failure and then you will know as well.

Kidding. I love my K-5, best camera on the market by far. Enjoy.

[DogLover]

My K5 arrived this afternoon from BH Photo. They have a better rate for shipping then Adorama by the way for 3 day. In any case, it arrived in good condition, no stain but appears to be one dust spot. I spent the day charging batteries and installing ver 1.03. I'll check on the dust spot again tomorrow to see if its still there and will go after it with a blower if necessary.

For some reason, had a lot of problems and finally failed downloading FW from the US site, so went to the Canadian site and downloaded it from them successfully.

I did try some low light focusing in a basement room and it appeared to me at 8x magnification that the K5 was comparable to my K20. this was after 1.03 was installed.

very happy with the handling of it so far and the quickness of its operation. quiet shutter which i love. Also tried the spot meter via locking in an exposure taken from a picture in a dim corner of the room this evening. the metering was taken 15-20 feet away and the resulting picture exposed the framed picture very well. I may not install a katz eye vf screen in my camera because of how useful this spot meter works. awesome metering IMO. Its a worthy upgrade from the K20!

Make sure you run dust removal once (or a few times) before you resort to the blower. It generally does the trick.

Also, KatzEye's official position is that their screens do not affect spot metering in the K7 or K5. Only in older bodies. My own experience finds this to be true. Have had one in my K7 for a while now with no problems and wasn't going to move it over to my K5, as I thought I would try to use LV more for critical focusing. But I missed it too much and moved it over about a week ago. Again, no problems.

[dadipentak]

but if you shoot with it backwards, looking in through the lens, all you get is noisy, blurry photos of your eyeball. It's a shame, really--I had such high expectations.

[GregK8]

... KatzEye's official position is that their screens do not affect spot metering in the K7 or K5. Only in older bodies.

Not entirely true. Here is from the KatzEye website:

Metering Information

The KatzEye™ focusing screen for the Pentax K-5 and K-7 shows only a very
slight effect on light metering. In our testing, the KatzEye™ screen tested within
factory tolerance in nearly all situations. The only exception is when using spot
metering with lenses having apertures of f2.8 or smaller. This combination may
produce overexposure, so it is advisable to use either center-weighted average
metering or multi-segment metering to preserve accurate meter response when
using small aperture lenses. In the event that spot metering mode must be used
with a small aperture lens, it is advisable to set an appropriate exposure
compensation by reading the histogram of a test shot. Approximate exposure
compensation values are as follows*:

Aperture Multi-Segment Center-Weighted Spot
1.4 0 0 0
2.0 0 0 0
2.8 0 0 -0.6 EV
4.0 0 0 -1.5 EV
5.6 0 0 -2.5 EV

Note: These exposure compensation suggestions are a recommended starting
point only and actual results may vary depending on conditions. Users are
advised to take a test photo and check the histogram before beginning any
critical work. Apertures indicated in the above chart are the lens maximum
aperture as indicated on the lens body and are not affected by the actual
aperture chosen for a given photo.

* Metering test results presented are based on testing of the K-7 model. While
results are expected to be similar for the K-5, users of this model are strongly
encouraged to take a test shot and check the histogram before beginning any
critical shooting.

[DogLover]

Not entirely true. Here is from the KatzEye website:

Well, that's new then. I still haven't noticed any problems in use and I rarely shoot at over f/2.4.

[dgaies]

Well, that's new then. I still haven't noticed any problems in use and I rarely shoot at over f/2.4.

I think the chart just refers to the max aperture of the lens you are using, not the actual aperture setting for a particular shot.

[DogLover]

I think the chart just refers to the max aperture of the lens you are using, not the actual aperture setting for a particular shot.

I know, but that's what I'm saying. I really only shoot with fast lenses that are capable of 2.4 (or better). I only have 2 lenses slower than 2.8.

Edit: OK, my bad. I re-read it and saw that it said lenses with 2.8 and smaller. I was thinking numerically smaller. No wonder I haven't noticed a problem! Carry on.

[philbaum]

Try harder... there must be a problem with that camera. You are simply not testing it deep enough. First read the thread about how much is the K-5 a failure and then you will know as well.

Kidding. I love my K-5, best camera on the market by far. Enjoy.

Thanks for all the good wishes folks, and cheers to Pentax - they made a classic!!!

Today, i figured out 4 USER modes that would be useful for me. I figured out what settings ot have in each, then had them memorized as user modes with these names:

Normal
Theatre
HDR-2(2 images only for walk around)
Tripod

So my Question to you folks: How do i shift quickly between one user mode to another user mode??

a. One option is: When you turn your camera on, you get this initial splash screen that lets one select a user mode right away. It also comes on if you rotate the exposure mode dial away from user mode and back again.

b. One can also go to the Menu Picture taking section and select the 1st option, but this takes about 4 keystrokes or so.

Is the A option above the only one that makes sense?

thanks for any ideas on this one.

[jbinpg]

Phil - Easy Peezy!!

When you turn the Mode Dial to User, the LCD screen will come up with the last User mode that you used. Just turn the rear E dial to rotate through all your User modes, then hit the OK button when you get to the one you want. Takes longer to type this than to do it. Pentax is all about ergonomic usability.

Jack

[JohnBee]

Dammit please say you didn't install Canadian FW on your US bought K-5?

Now everything in the menu will end with - Eh?

[philbaum]

Dammit please say you didn't install Canadian FW on your US bought K-5?

Now everything in the menu will end with - Eh?

Guess so - gosh - I didn't realize i had to be bilingual to own a Pentax - oui

Nah - everything's going fine with it.

Phil - Easy Peezy!!

When you turn the Mode Dial to User, the LCD screen will come up with the last User mode that you used. Just turn the rear E dial to rotate through all your User modes, then hit the OK button when you get to the one you want. Takes longer to type this than to do it. Pentax is all about ergonomic usability.

Jack

Jack, Thanks, the rear e wheel is a good tip. But i also asking how to then shift from one USER mode to one of the other 5 user modes easily? So far, the only way i've found is to temporarily rotate the exposure wheel out of position and back again to USER and then the user splash screen shows up. Sounds a bit cumbersome for Pentax?

Still loving the K5 a lot, tried my first processing with the images, 12,800 iso images look fine for 8x12 prints. The good news is that LR 3. NR works well on the kind of noise that these images produce, no need to bail out to Topaz in most cases.

[jbinpg]

Ahhh. The best way I have found to get to the USER selection mode is to just turn the camera off and on. Up pops the USER selection screen if you are in USER mode. Not elegant but it works.

Jack

[Quicksand]

Ahhh. The best way I have found to get to the USER selection mode is to just turn the camera off and on. Up pops the USER selection screen if you are in USER mode. Not elegant but it works.

That's totally unsatisfactory. I'm switching to Nikon.

. . .

Not really, my K-5 is being delivered today!