Originally posted by boriscleto Hear, hear.
Canon is still flogging the 18MP APS-C sensor...
....now that 18 MP sensor has phase detect focusing on it - so phase detect works in live view. I've read they also reduced noise levels at higher ISO settings. In the MP war it seems Nikon has gone big and Canon has gone better - flipped from what it's been for the past few years.
Reviews say the image quality of the low-end Nikon D3200 with 24 MP is awful. So more MP doesn't automatically translate to better quality. The 16 MP Sony sensor in the K-5 is a proven performer, so I can see why they didn't mess with it. That and it's attendant low-noise amplification circuitry are the real heart of the K-5. The burst performance is still competitive with cameras that cost twice as much. That would probably change with a larger sensor and it's resulting larger image files.
Still, there were issues Pentax should have addressed: the silly histogram in live view that only measures the levels on the LCD,
not on the sensor is one. Small things that could be dealt with in firmware - although who knows, maybe that is part of the new firmware upgrade?