[Nicks]

But the K5 II is double the price and in a different class... the point is we shouldn't have to suffer bad NR techniques on a new camera that uses the same sensor as a 2 year old camera. It seem like wilful deception, mild sabotage even, from the Pentax engineers. Why would they do that when they know it affects IQ on RAW files of all things?

If you ask me, I think the switch to Ricoh messed up their plans so they came up with some, as far as I'm concerned, doubtful decisions. I believe K30 could've easily been the flagship camera with proper implementation of the already proved sensor. K30 has the better processor which already brought better movie mode, focus peaking and should've brought better burst, 14bit conversion, expanded ISO etc. For some reason they chose not to use the capabilities of this new processor....The resolution at lower ISO seems to be better than K-5's. Pentax K30 already has a much accurate AF than K-5 as well. So I believe, with good implementation this could've been a better camera than K-5II, at least on paper....Pentax should've made K30 the flagship and leave K-5 in production as the entry/middle class. Just my 2 cents.....

[Anvh]

But the K5 II is double the price and in a different class... the point is we shouldn't have to suffer bad NR techniques on a new camera that uses the same sensor as a 2 year old camera. It seem like wilful deception, mild sabotage even, from the Pentax engineers. Why would they do that when they know it affects IQ on RAW files of all things?

Don't forget there is a different image processor in it.
I've the idea the Prime-M is more aimed at the lower end market when you compare the features and the speed. It's blimey fast with JPEG but with RAW the Prime II is almost just as fast but then with 14bit .