[mcgrattan]

I am a former Canonite and had a 7D for a year. It was an absolute treat to use with its advanced AF and felt really good in hand, but the image quality consistently let me down. I thought it was just a crop sensor thing, but then I gave Pentax a try...

[Peter Zack]

And in comparison, what do you think...?

[Peter Zack]

You can put the aperture control on either wheel on the 7D.

Oh that's a big help. Now the shutter is on the body dial and equally difficult to use. It's still poorly designed (as are all Canon's this way).

[Rondec]

It would have been interesting to see a comparison of the AF systems in low light. We know that -- despite the firmware upgrade -- the K-5 can struggle in particular scenarios.

BTW, the 7D's AF performance is highly regarded, even in Canon circles who have been spoiled by quick and accurate AF for years. The K-5, on the other hand, just started to catch up with the performance other brands had for years. To write the "7D has a slight edge" is quite an understatement. And "Large AF improvement over previous models" is a plus for the K-5 in comparison to the 7D? In a K-5 vs 7D comparison it should not matter how much of an improvement the K-5 represents over earlier Pentax DSLRs.

Lucky K-5 didn't have to compete in a flash exposure contest either (that bug still awaits a fix). BTW, the 7D has a sync speed of 1/250 while the K-5 only has 1/180. Would have been worth mentioning, AFAIC, as this is important to some shooters.

I agree with others that it is not helpful to use the artificial price increase for the 7D against it.

The K-5 is a fantastic camera and just the right choice for many shooters. I don't see why it was necessary to help it get a better score.

For other shooters, the 7D will be a much better choice, independently what an overall score value -- no matter who awards it -- says.

I would echo what Jonny says. I have no issues with my Metz 58 flash, bounce or straight on. I really think that there are QC issues, such that some cameras have flash issues, some have focus issues, but I don't believe that it is something it is problematic with all K5s.

I wouldn't say that the K5 is better at flash than the 7D, but it certainly isn't as bad as you make it sound.

[Monobod]

I also find comparisons between makes not very persuasive, simply because I am too far into Pentax to go and buy a Canon 7D even if I wanted to, which I don't. The K-5 to me is all I ever wanted in the first place when I bought the K10D, then the K20D and then the K-7. It has taken three upgrades to get there, but I am as pleased as Punch to have arrived.

I am dreading the day Pentax release a full frame dslr, because I will not be able to say no. The Bank Manager and my Financial Controller will though!

[jonny1986]

I would echo what Jonny says. I have no issues with my Metz 58 flash, bounce or straight on. I really think that there are QC issues, such that some cameras have flash issues, some have focus issues, but I don't believe that it is something it is problematic with all K5s.

I wouldn't say that the K5 is better at flash than the 7D, but it certainly isn't as bad as you make it sound.

tghis is a photo i took in canne ten days ago. i was around doing photos for an agency and i suddenly found mself in formnt of this guy, playing with his jewel without shirt in front of an exclusive place full of body guard. i had a sigma 8-16 a dn ametz 58 af 1 with stofen. camera at waist level, i just shoot without watching.

the camera and flash perfectly matched the light ambient with a perfect exposure on the subject that was completely in shadow. i mean if a falsh system can take photo lioke this without fuss, it can't be considered bad. in interior is a bit weaker, sometimes pbetter underexpose in general, but again i have shoot indoor a lot and never seen all those overexposing problem people talks about,

[Clicker]

Currently a Canon 7D user because there was no K5 at the time, features, lense selection and ergonomics aside if the K5 was available when i was looking to upgrade, it would have been in my bag because the 7D is a beast to walk around with daily even my simple 3 lense (8-16/15-85/70-200) bag needs a Sherpa for a days shoot

I'm seriously considering a change back to Pentax to save my back.

[drougge]

The spec table claims the K-5 records movies as mpeg4, that should be fixed.

[justtakingpics]

What/where is the ugly banding noise of the 7D?

"At -3EV, the 7D's output can be largely saved by adding +2EV and 40 fill light in Lightroom, but there is obvious pattern noise (in ugly vertical bands) when the result is viewed at 100%. It's just fine for web viewing, but a print would show the noise clearly."

I looked and can't see anything wrong with the picture. My eyes aren't trained enough.

I also think it is good for Canon that everyone with a new camera, Pentax and Nikon, are comparing themself to a two year old camera. I know it's their flagship but still a testament to how good the 7D really is. After two years the Pentax barely beats it out, if you subscribe to the results of the review.

[jonny1986]

I also find comparisons between makes not very persuasive, simply because I am too far into Pentax to go and buy a Canon 7D even if I wanted to, which I don't. The K-5 to me is all I ever wanted in the first place when I bought the K10D, then the K20D and then the K-7. It has taken three upgrades to get there, but I am as pleased as Punch to have arrived.

I am dreading the day Pentax release a full frame dslr, because I will not be able to say no. The Bank Manager and my Financial Controller will though!

actually they have it..is the 645d, bigger and far far better than any 35 mm in the market...

[Big G]

I thought it was a reasonably well written article and a good read, although the result was to be expected and weighted in favour of the K-5.

Neither camera is perfect, both the 7D and the K-5 both have shortcomings that need to be considered when selecting "the best" of the two. Lack of tethered shooting, lack of SDM compatible TCs, lack of lenses over 300mm, woeful SDM reliability, lack of professional support and non existant rental market really stifle the K-5's ability to be taken seriously by the professional segment. That's not specific to the K-5, but the Pentax system overall.

With the 7D, it's big, heavy, lack of compact lenses, lack of weather sealing on it's APS-C (EF-S) lenses, vertical banding in pushed shadows at ISO 100, lack of in-body IS mean that it's not suitable for a lot of reasons that Pentaxians have come to love.

On the dynamic range front, there is no denying that the Sony sensor has made a big impact on the camera market - it's a massive improvement and it's a great thing that will make all camera manufacturers sit up and listen. However, I'm a touch sceptical how much value it would add given that a lot of landscape photographers would still prefer to balance scenes out using neutral density filters thus allowing a larger dynamic range to be captured anyway. I'd like to test "neutral density v's pushed shadows" one day.

You pick your weapons. Me? I use both systems .

the IQ of k5 is even better than 5d2 especially at low iso, losing just at very hiogh sensitivities.
canon inm my opinion, is simply far in sensor technology in every field....full fram, apsc, all the sensor produced by canon are far behind for dynamic range color depth, smoothness transiction higlight midtones shadow....they have still the best af, but competition is better now.

Whilst the new Sony sensor in the K-5 certainly is awesome, the sensor in the 5D Mk2 is four year old technology which is ice ages in the electronics world. You could say that the K-5 has finally caught up with old technology which is all due for replacement. We'll get a taste for what the Mk3 will offer as the 1DS Mk4 is due out in the Autumn.

[yusuf]

I never tried 7D but did tried 60D and was impressed with AF, it's way superior compared to my k-x. However, I will any day prefer to carry k-x, 60D felt too big in my hands.

[barrypendergast]

I love my K5 (had a +Dist and K10 before) but not impressed by the amount of video it will shoot at one time even when there is plenty of space on the card. Am I doing something wrong? Seems you could not use it to record a concert or something similar?

[birderdave]

I have been a Pentax user since 1975 but in January I bought a Canon 7D having first investigated the K5. The biggest factor in my decision was the range of long focal length prime lenses available from Canon. Should my Sigma 400 APO macro fail I could see no reasonable replacement in the ranges of Pentax or the independents.

I am constantly impressed by the 7D and love the flexibility of being able to program the * button to start the focusing and the shutter button just to control shutter release and metering. Set the focus to constant (AF Servo in Canon speak) and then:

A single push of * gives one shot AF
Hold the button in and you have constant AF
Let go and you have manual focus

Great flexibilty for bird photography.

Which is the best camera? I'm sure they are both good but the lens availability tipped me towards Canon.

[efkelly]

If you look at my post here (https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5-forum/136720-k-5-bounce-flash-...onse-metz.html) you will see where the problem exits with controlled settings that you can reproduce. If you occasionally use PTTl or use the "P" mode all the time you may not notice problems. I don't know. I usually only shoot in Manual or Aperture preferred modes. What mode where you shooting this picture with? Did you have any flash compensation on? I have had 4 K-5 bodies with all the same problem. I have shot 5 weddings and 1 engagement session all with PTTL over exposure problems.

tghis is a photo i took in canne ten days ago. i was around doing photos for an agency and i suddenly found mself in formnt of this guy, playing with his jewel without shirt in front of an exclusive place full of body guard. i had a sigma 8-16 a dn ametz 58 af 1 with stofen. camera at waist level, i just shoot without watching.

the camera and flash perfectly matched the light ambient with a perfect exposure on the subject that was completely in shadow. i mean if a falsh system can take photo lioke this without fuss, it can't be considered bad. in interior is a bit weaker, sometimes pbetter underexpose in general, but again i have shoot indoor a lot and never seen all those overexposing problem people talks about,