[aleonx3]

The grip is subjective at best.
I like the grip on the K-5, it definitely grew on me and I do find it comfortable...but the K10, for me, is perfect.
Haven't held the K-30.

I agree that the grip is very subjective. It depends on the size of your hands, how "full" you like your hands to feel, and the cameras you have perviously used. For me the K-5 feels better than the K-30 because it is wider and fills my hand more.

I agree with howieb101 that the K-5 feels much better built from the moment you touch it. It feels like it would take more punishment, even though the K-30 is weatherproof. The K20D falls somewhere between the two.

I will chime in since I had a chance to touch/feel the pre-production release k-30 at the recent PhotoExpo show in Toronto. I agree that there is a slight difference in the grip between k-30 and k-5 from the feel but not much visually. The k-30 grip seems to be narrower and may be slight deeper than the k-5. However, the overall feel could also be affected by the weight of the camera since k-30 is made of different and lighter material than the k-5.

The K-5 is so cheap now. It will surely have a successor, but I doubt it will ever reach the same low price. I feel Pentax allowed the K-5 to get unnaturally cheap because it was their only DSLR for a while. If that's your budget and you must have a metal camera, this is the chance.

Agree but... if k-5 and k-30 are priced similarly (looks like it may be for a short time), would k-30 focus peaking feature be an advantage over the k-5 for manual focus lens?

[anthony mazzeri]

Yodobashi Camera (big chain of electronics stores) had a model of every body colour on display today. I took a quick picture - terrible picture, but never mind. The "silky" matte colours are on the top and the crystal ones are on the bottom. The burgundy colour is out of shot, I'm afraid.

I can't make out the olive version, is it the one at the far end on the bottom row? Did you have any opinion about that particular one in matte or gloss after seeing them in the flesh? Can you go back tomorrow and take some more pics of them?

Judging from the photo the orange matte one looks very basic plastic.

[JPT]

Anthony, the one at the end is the olive one. I was darker than the green colours they have had in the past and it looked good in both. I don't know if you've seen this page.

K-30?PENTAX RICOH IMAGING

The colours in real life were pretty close to how that page looks on my monitor. The only difference is the silver one, which is more like like grey. Actually the matte grey one is pretty cool. It would look good with an F series lens on it. The good news is the three standard colours are all very nice.

As for cheap plastic, I think that's probably right, I think the crystal ones look like they'd wear better. But the stock black model is made out of the same stuff as the K20D. It has that cracked finish and feels more grippy and rugged. If it were me, I7d get the yellow, but that's partly my regret from getting the boring black version of the K-01.

[pinholecam]

The deeper grip on the K30 makes sense. Its a smaller/lighter camera, so a deeper grip helps for heavier/longer lenses.

I liked the way the rubber felt more 'grippy' too.

CDAF was real fast, even compared to K-01 which was surprising.
I do hope they implement the new CDAF to the K-01 in the next firmware upgrade.

[Zafar Iqbal]

My first impression regarding the ergonimics were rather good but I didn't like the buttons and dials. They seemed too small/recessed it to me. I had my first proper shooting day with the K-30 today. 16 hours of wedding photography :S what I expected to bother me (buttons and dials) did not. What I did not expect to bother me (ergonomics) did.

My thumb went numb after couple of hours of shooting (at a very relaxed pace) - the size of the camera also meant the lower right corner pushed on the big thumb muscle in a way that it's very sore now. I suspect it might be worse tomorrow.

Is the problem severe? I don't think so, at least not at this time but perhaps I will hate the ergonomics in the long run - perhaps not.

Ps. shot 12 or 13 hours straight as previous record (and many times more than just couple of hours of rapid shooting) using the K-x. Never had any of those issues. instead my fingertips would get sore after 12h.. but this too was not a biggie.