[deanm3]

Just got a notification that my custom color Q7 will be arriving today, well short of the announced street date.

Looking forward to playing with it.

Edit: I placed my order on 7/9 directly from the Pentax Web Store

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Last edited by deanm3; 08-21-2013 at 12:18 PM.

[Docrwm]

Congratulations. Amazon is still showing this:
This item will be released on September 15, 2013.
Pre-order now.

[Adam]

Just got a notification that my custom color Q7 will be arriving today, well short of the announced street date.

Looking forward to playing with it.

I was in touch with B&H and they said they got their first shipment, though very small, over a week ago. The entire shipment was used to fulfill pre-orders. It seems that supply has been short for some reason...

[Docrwm]

I was in touch with B&H and they said they got their first shipment, though very small, over a week ago. The entire shipment was used to fulfill pre-orders. It seems that supply has been short for some reason...

Thanks for the information. I look forward to user reports as they get them on the Q7.

[DaveInPA]

Just got a notification that my custom color Q7 will be arriving today, well short of the announced street date.

Looking forward to playing with it.

Edit: I placed my order on 7/9 directly from the Pentax Web Store

Deanm...how is it going with your new Q7?

[deanm3]

I haven't spent enough time with it thus far but I do have some impressions.

One, I'm quite disappointed with the build of the unit I ordered. I selected the silver body, with brown grip. Based on the Pentax website, the unit I received is very different. The brown color of the grip isn't really brown at all, and more of a cherry wood / deep maroon color. It is significantly different than the color shown on the website. Also, the quick dial button and lens release button are shown as silver, where the unit I received they are both black. For $500, they could at least accurately depict that you are ordering.

The Q7 is much faster in overall operation than the original Q. Whereas the old Q had significant delays upon power on, focus and shutter lag, and overall sluggishness, the Q7 seems to have remedied that. However, it's 2013 and the LCD screen resolution and color accuracy are very lackluster compared to where the rest of the market is. For a brand new camera the LCD is completely substandard based on the rest of the market. I could live with the limited resolution, but the color accuracy and contrast is very poor. It's a $150 P&S display on a $499 camera.

In terms of image quality, I haven't spend enough time doing direct comparisons. Initially, I have noticed a nice improvement in sharpness, but the images have the same "feel" as the original Q. If you were expecting a generation-type leap in image quality, you wont find it here.

I may sound like a detractor at this point, but understand that I "get" the Q, and will live with the limitations because I believe in it as an effective miniature tool. I do wish Pentax had been more successful in making the Q7 feel more "high-end" and less like a dressed up P&S. A few improvements could have gone a long way.

[Adam]

I haven't spent enough time with it thus far but I do have some impressions.

One, I'm quite disappointed with the build of the unit I ordered. I selected the silver body, with brown grip. Based on the Pentax website, the unit I received is very different. The brown color of the grip isn't really brown at all, and more of a cherry wood / deep maroon color. It is significantly different than the color shown on the website. Also, the quick dial button and lens release button are shown as silver, where the unit I received they are both black. For $500, they could at least accurately depict that you are ordering.

The Q7 is much faster in overall operation than the original Q. Whereas the old Q had significant delays upon power on, focus and shutter lag, and overall sluggishness, the Q7 seems to have remedied that. However, it's 2013 and the LCD screen resolution and color accuracy are very lackluster compared to where the rest of the market is. For a brand new camera the LCD is completely substandard based on the rest of the market. I could live with the limited resolution, but the color accuracy and contrast is very poor. It's a $150 P&S display on a $499 camera.

In terms of image quality, I haven't spend enough time doing direct comparisons. Initially, I have noticed a nice improvement in sharpness, but the images have the same "feel" as the original Q. If you were expecting a generation-type leap in image quality, you wont find it here.

I may sound like a detractor at this point, but understand that I "get" the Q, and will live with the limitations because I believe in it as an effective miniature tool. I do wish Pentax had been more successful in making the Q7 feel more "high-end" and less like a dressed up P&S. A few improvements could have gone a long way.

They changed the mode dial colors on the q7 compared to the q10. Buy despite this I bet they just recycled the old q10 pics for the web site. Fail!

Adam
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