[andre-mz5]

I guess if you need more than 3 seconds to catch a moment, you'd might as well buy a camcorder.

I frequently shoot sports and the moment of the action normally takes place in a fraction of a second, not THREE seconds. With my K5 the 6 fps gives me a better chance that I got the action at the right split second.

[Kunzite]

The K-5 can shoot slightly over 3 seconds with a reasonably fast card (I haven't timed it precisely, but DPReview did - and their result is subjectively confirmed by my "tests"). Some people should not forget we own those cameras, and know their actual performance.
AFAIK from the current APS-C cameras, only the Canon 7D has a larger RAW buffer and Pentax cannot process&write JPEGs as fast as the competition. Indeed, full UHS support is needed (Canon and Nikon already benefiting from the faster CF cards), as well as faster JPEG processing and a better compression - I think we'll see that from the next high end Pentax model.

I have one of the best cards.

Which one is it? For example, the new Sandisk Ultra II UHS has slower writes than the old Extreme III even if they're both "30MB/s".
Are you attempting to review the images after a burst?

[gazonk]

I'm certain the limitation is not high shutter speed, but high ISO, simply because high ISO files are usually significantly larger and take more processing. I just tried it with 1/2000s and detect no appreciable difference, but with high ISO it slows down very rapidly.

One point here: This would only affect write speed after the buffer is full. It does not affect the fact that you can shoot ~20 RAW images at ~7fps. (I forgot to mention that when I tested yesterday to verify that my K-5 lives up to the spec, I shot indoors at 1/500 so I used ISO 6400)

[gazonk]

(*) speaking of which, Pentax USA says the K-5 II can shoot only 8 RAW here: PENTAX - K-5 II - they've probably copied the K-5 specs from before the firmware update

I told them this via their Facebook page, they'll fix it!

[RonHendriks1966]

It's 22 RAW frames at 6.5fps - real life continuous shooting.
Almost 4 seconds worth. How much continuous shooting buffer is needed in real life shooting?
If a photographer cannot get one keeper from over 3 seconds of 6.5fps shooting, then the issue is with the photographer rather than the camera.

Well I only had this as a problem once. I started to early on a sequence and the starter was to late, so my sporters came late in my frame.

With kickboxing there is a small chance off filling the buffer, because emptying it does take 30 seconds.

I was at a boxing fight, final European Championship, 5 times 2 minutes fight and a full buffer can trick you into missing images. Wasn't a problem, but I did had my fears.

[kenyee]

My 5DMKII has a slower maximum frame rate then my K5. The 5DMKII has a max of 4 FPS, but it doesn't slow down. Either it has a bigger buffer, or it clears out its buffer faster. I don't care and certainly don't complain, because it simply works. The K5 however, has a much faster frame rate of 7FPS but slows down to 0.8FPS after a second?

FYI, CF cards transfer a *LOT* faster than SD cards. I think they have 8 or 16 data lines vs. SD's 2 or 4. That's why Canon DSLRs w/ CF cards have a fast continuous rate (if you look at their newer bodies w/ SD cards, the speed has dropped a lot :-)

On your K5, make sure you don't have any funky photo settings. Set it to Neutral or Natural (whatever the default was when you got it) and no lens correction, vignette correction, etc. I found out that if you change this at all, continuous speed drops a lot on my K20D. I doubt it's different on your K5...

[ak_kiwi]

It's 22 RAW frames at 6.5fps - real life continuous shooting.

Trouble is "in real life continuous shooting" one may also be using "continuous" focusing

[Racerdew]

Awesome! sounds like Pentax is really working on the FF. Everyone is asking if 20 MP is enough? Do you really want those giant files on your PC? I want top resolution yes, but I don't want files that are massive! Take those Jpegs and convert them to TIFF files for printing and what will you have? A 60 MB file for one picture? How much is enough?

Pentax may be slow out of the gate but they always put out a solid product. As good as the Sony alpha cameras are, they are not that good at higher ISO settings. Pentax has great cameras at hihger ISO's and across the board they are excellent. If they can hit on the consumer demands that they are lacking like good, fast auto focus and competitive video, they will meet a broad consumer market. We will all buy it because we have been Pentax children.

[Winder]

(SR5) New NEX-7n to be announced in April. With new 24 Megapixel sensor! | sonyalpharumors

The Sony NEX-7n will have a new 24MP sensor. It looks like 24MP is the new standard for flagship APS-C cameras. That is a lot of data to move at 14-bit and at 7+fps.

[Racerdew]

(SR5) New NEX-7n to be announced in April. With new 24 Megapixel sensor! | sonyalpharumors

The Sony NEX-7n will have a new 24MP sensor. It looks like 24MP is the new standard for flagship APS-C cameras. That is a lot of data to move at 14-bit and at 7+fps.

You said it! That is a lot of info to move a long. How about editing a 24MP RAW photo in SilkyPix? that will take a weekend to get through 50 shots!

[Alizarine]

Everyone is asking if 20 MP is enough? Do you really want those giant files on your PC? I want top resolution yes, but I don't want files that are massive! Take those Jpegs and convert them to TIFF files for printing and what will you have? A 60 MB file for one picture? How much is enough?

Well memory is getting cheaper by the minute, and computers are also speeding up faster than the market can acquire enough money to buy them. Personally 16mp is mighty good enough for what I do, and actually is overkill most of the time already. The moment I gain enough reputation in the local industry to be commissioned for shooting Hindenburg-size billboards, is the time I'll consider going beyond that number, or completely go into a medium format system. Perhaps for the next 3 years, I'll still be smiling at my K-5 IIs.

I guess it's also a matter of personal needs... but of course, marketing will make you want something you really don't. Unless you know you don't

[Ash]

there is a small chance off filling the buffer, because emptying it does take 30 seconds

However the buffer does not have to be completely emptied before you can resume continuous shooting at 6.5fps. When the buffer has been filled but given time to empty enough of the files onto the card, the camera resumes its full continuous shooting capacity.

Trouble is "in real life continuous shooting" one may also be using "continuous" focusing

Which makes the buffer size even less of an issue to the photographer who shoots in AF-C, since there is going to be lag between each exposure due to focusing and focus locking.
Essentially, the K-5 buffer is quite appropriate for the K-5. The next camera's buffer should be as capable, but the continuous shooting specs remains to be seen...

[monochrome]

FWIW, my daughter, who was trained by SI staff photographers shooting college football, never shoots more than five frames in AF.c, rarely more than three. In her opinion (not to be construed as an affront to anyone here) a great SI photographer should be able to capture a PLANNED MOMENT in no more than three continuous frames, preferably one.

The key is PLANNED MOMENT - know your sport, your subject and your position and you should be able to make your capture in ONE FRAME. She'll allow that, of course, doesn't take into account the unexpected, such as the Daytona 500 crash - but those are exceptions that prove the rule.

Granted, she parlayed her connections into a Network News Producer gig, but still.

Just 'sayin.

[Racerdew]

Well memory is getting cheaper by the minute, and computers are also speeding up faster than the market can acquire enough money to buy them. Personally 16mp is mighty good enough for what I do, and actually is overkill most of the time already. The moment I gain enough reputation in the local industry to be commissioned for shooting Hindenburg-size billboards, is the time I'll consider going beyond that number, or completely go into a medium format system. Perhaps for the next 3 years, I'll still be smiling at my K-5 IIs.

I guess it's also a matter of personal needs... but of course, marketing will make you want something you really don't. Unless you know you don't

I think you said it very well! I do not need giant prints, but it is fun to zoom in and zoom in again to 100% and see some amazing detail with the
K-5 IIs. Going from a k-r 12 MP to the 5 IIs, I emediately noticed the difference in uploading my files and processing them. they take much more time to process than the files I was use to from my K-r. At first I thought it was my computer and then I remembered, these files are much larger.
I have backed the camera down to 10 MP on some jobs when I knew the size wouldn't matter adn they loaded much faster and were faster to work with.
Everytime I use my IIs I think what an awesome camera! That won't change no matter what comes down the road.

[Belnan]

How surprised would everyone be if the K-3 turned out to be full frame. Not that I think it will happen but there was a rumor that a full frame would be released in the spring of 2013. It never surprises me how rumors turn out to be wrong so often.