[eurostar]

PENTAX K-5? ?????????????????PENTAX

If the google translator is reliable, they plan to upgrade the 8 raw buffer to 20! How they will is beyond me... unless it was hardware-planned that way and only the rush of the Photokina presentation prevented them to be able to make the camera wrks that way since the start...

[inferno10]

It looks like they will be able to speed up the burst from 8 frames to 20 at ISO 100. My guess is that they can do this by minimize any processing at such a low ISO and dumping straight to storage.

Now if they can only work on adding manual video support. I'm THIS close to spending the money on a K-5...

- Jason

[rawr]

I think on the other forum and here there has been some discussion of what some software options may be. Optionally switching to 12 bit RAW rather than 14 bit RAW is one.

It's a good development, especially given how widely the issue has been discussed online. Pentax must have spies everywhere .

[eurostar]

I think if the obtain that switching to 12 bit, they should be able to give some more option that just PEF at 100 ISO. They should be able to increase buffer for every ISO speed.

[dankoBanana]

this seems great ... that would up the dpreview score

[Edvinas]

Switching from 14 bits to 12 bits gives only 15% of savings. Increase from 8 to 20 frames is 150%. Definitely there's going to be something different than switching from 14 to 12 bits.

[RonHendriks1966]

Great news, as I'm asking for this for a while, and is confirming the info from the photokina stand from Pentax that this would be the case.

[stormcloud]

never did see why images couldn't be set to process at a later date when the camera isn't doing anything else

[Priyantha Bleeker]

This would directly mean that the K-5 Is going to beat de Nikon D7000, Canon 50/60D and Canon 7D in buffer depth
The Nikon D7000 does 15 Images compressed NEF in 12bit and 12 Images compressed NEF in 14Bit This all @ 6fps
The Canon 60D has a buffer depth of 16 images @ 5,3 fps
The Canon 7D does 15 images in RAW @ 8fps.

So this means that the Pentax K-5 will be in one big bang suddenly one of the biggest competitors in this field

[Asahiflex]

So this means that the Pentax K-5 will be in one big bang suddenly one of the biggest competitors in this field

But only at ISO 100. Which is of course still a limitation (like Ron Hendriks said: what about sports at night or indoor?)

[Priyantha Bleeker]

But only at ISO 100. Which is of course still a limitation (like Ron Hendriks said: what about sports at night or indoor?)

Well the Nikon D7000 is also just only spec'd on ISO 100 with those buffer value's
And the Canon 7D will also dramatic decrease it's buffer depth if you going higher in the ISO's.

I think the 'new' buffer depth of the K-5 will be for all ISO's but the 'most' for ISO 100 All ISO mode's will benefit of this I suppose.

[falconeye]

I discussed the raw buffer properties with Gordon at DPR.

Here is my latest assessment after taking the firmware announcement into account:

Re: K-5 RAM size - big enough for a 20 frame buffer (RAW): Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

And this is what I said:

yes,

the new Pentax announcement indicates that Gordon's assumption was correct (full raw frames in the buffer) and that now they move to a scheme like I hinted at (compressed files in the buffer). 20 compressed RAWs are 400 MB, so, the minimum memory needed would be 512 MB much like Gordon assumed.

If the memory was 1024 MB in the first place, it is unlikely that the initial write buffer was crippled to 8 frames (256MB or 1/4 of memory) only.
If it is 512MB, then the available memory for processing (256MB initially) would now be lower (112MB) and I don't think they have been that radical in redoing their algorithms.

Therefore, I think that the memory is 512MB and the write buffer (256MB) is now used for compressed RAWs yielding 13 RAWs, not 20. If 20 isn't an error in translation (like 20% better), then they may additionally offer a 12Bit option which is also known as level compression, a rather common option elsewhere. 20 requires to store 17 (3 can be written to SD) or 15MB per RAW, corresponding to 13.7 MB for a K-7 RAW taking the #pixels into account. That's a familiar size indeed

So, that's my new guess indeed:

1. 512MB overall memory, 256MB reserved as write buffer (WB) to SD

2. FW 1.0: Partioned into 32MB 16Bit memory frames -> 8 RAWs in WB


3. FW x.x (Nov):

• Compressed 14Bit raw files -> 15 RAWs (13 in WB, 2 written)
• Compressed 12Bit raw files -> 20 RAWs (17 in WB, 3 written)

So, if the announcement is accurate, it implies (if my reasoning isn't flawed) that they add a 12Bit option too. It would be strange if they would only enable it in burst mode, so yeah, we may see a general level compression option (aka 12 Bit).
The good thing is Pentax is listening
The bad part is that they didn't use state-of-the-art coding in the first place

Yes, the buffer size would shrink at higher ISO. But maybe only roughly proportionally to the size increase of 12Bit raw files.

[Mystic]

what was impossible yesterday, today becomes possible.. welcome to the Pentax world

[Col]

what was impossible yesterday, today becomes possible.. welcome to the Pentax world

And next April the viewfinder grows. Then again, maybe the update will only be valid until the end on November? Just to stimulate the market!

[falconeye]

And next April the viewfinder grows.

Viewfinder size is a question of eyepiece magnification and eyepiece degrees of view. Doesn't need Aprils to grow