Originally posted by Mister Guy I hate to sound all fan boy and negative at the same time, but the K-5, from reading the spec sheet at least, looks like someone from Pentax came over here right after the K-x came out, saw that everyone that got a K-7 seems to mostly love them, with a few exceptions. Then they saw those same people saying they'd be thrilled with the K-7 with a few envelopes pushed out a little farther, and the K-x quality high ISO, and they said, "Sounds good to us", and used that to spec out the K-5.
I'm pretty satisfied with my K-7, and I'd hate to give myself buyer's remorse this far out, but I have to admit the K-7 is starting to look like the prototype for the K-5, and was just the first stable version, rather than the K-5 being an extension of the K-7.
To me it sounds like what Pentax decided to do was take the K-7 and fix all weaknesses fixable with buying a new sensor developed by someone else (Sony in this case) and putting it in the K-5. They haven't really listened to users by adding things that were NOT in the K-7 into the K-5.
Here's what we asked for from Pentax:
1. Manual video controls - not here
2. Video AF - not sure if its here but they didn't say it's here
3. A digital level that can be user calibrated - not here
4. 1/250 flash sync which is industry standard - not here
5. Better AF tracking - maybe but no mention of predictive AF so not keeping my hopes up
Here's what Pentax fixed using Sony's sensor:
1. Sub-par high ISO performance - fixed with Sony's sensor
2. Sub-par dynamic range - fixed with Sony's sensor
3. Higher fps (not a K-7 weakness) - provided by Sony's sensor
4. 14 bit raw (12 bit is really fine) - provided by Sony's sensor
5. 1080p video at 24 fps - provided by Sony's sensor
I dislike the K-5 because they're not pushing the bar with it like they did with the K-7. The K-7 was not the perfect camera minus a good sensor. It was a camera with a lot of useful nifty features minus a good sensor. Well it's a year later and the competition now have all these useful nifty features, good sensors, and even newer useful nifty features. We are getting now what should and could have been provided one year ago.