Actually, not quite.

I am going to go pick it up at Yodobashi camera in Shinjyuku tomorrow morning. I couldn't take it home tonight because my credit card won't go through. I had to call Citibank to rectify the situation, and now I have to return to the store tomorrow.

Finally I did get my hands on it, and it was beautiful. More edgy, easier to hold in your hand despite the fact that it was smaller, and that viewfinder!!! It is huge.
I do have an opinion on autofocus, and I like it. As some might argue, it may not match that of D3, but compared to K20, it is more decisive, locking on convincingly.

Can't wait until tomorrow. By the way, the price was 124,000yen(about $1,300), and the battery grip was less than $200.

[mickey]

Did they have much stock?
Any idea of how it has been selling?

I had a look in Yodobashi Camera in Kichijoji last weelend, and they were all sold out.

If you go to Yodobashi in Shinjyuku off the west gate where Keio departement store is, and then typically the guy there told me that they would have one or two for walk-in customers. I also went to Sakuraya, Big camera, and one more store the name escapes me at the moment but they were all out. The guy at those stores were telling me that they were selling like hot cakes. If you want one, I say you got to go to Shinjyuku. After all, it is just few stations away on Central line from kichijyoji. By the way when I was a child I used to live in Musashisakai, 2 stations east of Kichijyoji. I love that town. Very lively. Gee, it is humid here.

[mickey]

Cheers for the info.
No, won't be buying...at least not this side of Christmas.
Just curious. I had a feeling they were selling well in Japan.

Don't know Musashisakai much. Kichijoji is about as far east as I travel. Good place.
Yep, getting real humid now...even moreso when rainy season has gone...

[dugrant153]

Curious how much you paid for it?... guessing all the menus are in japanese?...

haha... I'm heading out to Japan for travel purposes.

[mickey]

^ If you get one in Japan, the menu has a lot of different languages.
When I got my K10 here, I set the language to English, but the manual is Japanese only.
I bought the Magic Lantern guide, though.

[figmental1978]

I was in Hiroshima at Deo Deo and they said the K-7 doesn't ship for another month...morons. Anyway,　I also got my K10D here and the manual was in Japanese so I rang Pentax Japan and they said send us the Japanese version and we'll send you an English one.

Curious how much you paid for it?... guessing all the menus are in japanese?...

haha... I'm heading out to Japan for travel purposes.

I am going to pay about $1,300 for the body, and less than $200 for the grip. As Mickey says, display is not a problem, but manual is in Japanese. But I already downloaded the manual off Ned's site.

As for the warranty, it is good in US.

Lenses are expensive here. FA 31 ltd was over a grand. DA*55 was close to $800. What the Pentax guy at the store(he happened to be there for demo) told me that pricing structures for FA limited have not changed for a long long time. Last year they increased the prices on accessaries, and the next year DA lenses will go up in prices.

I also asked him about the issues regarding K-7 being the replacement for K20D(or not). His answer was interesting. He said, "well, that depends on how you look at it." He said to wait for the next camera(he did not call it DSLR, hm....) before Christmas.

[Jonson PL]

If you go to Yodobashi in Shinjyuku off the west gate where Keio departement store is, and then typically the guy there told me that they would have one or two for walk-in customers. I also went to Sakuraya, Big camera, and one more store the name escapes me at the moment but they were all out. The guy at those stores were telling me that they were selling like hot cakes. If you want one, I say you got to go to Shinjyuku. After all, it is just few stations away on Central line from kichijyoji. By the way when I was a child I used to live in Musashisakai, 2 stations east of Kichijyoji. I love that town. Very lively. Gee, it is humid here.

Thanks for your info.
Looking forward to hear how you like it, when you get it

Alright, I got one finally. I also got a battery grip. This time I showed up with passport and got the duty free discount of 5%. For both grip and the body I got them for slightly less than $1400 US. If you want to buy one on the net in Japan, you can knock off another 10% or so at http://www.kakaku.com.


I loaded some pics on my album:

User Photo Gallery - Uploads Posted By Nubi

Today and tomorrow I plan to shoot with my new k-7 like a machine gun. I will post them in the same place tonight or tomorrow.


Here are some highlights that I noticed immediately out of the box:

1) Yes the body is smaller, but not by much compared to K10 or K20. I hope they didn't spent too much of their resources making it smaller because personally the difference in size and weight that I see in K-7 does not add all that much.

2) Ergonomics are good. I think I like the button arrangements. I think that Pentax purposefully made all the buttons that you need during shooting on the right side where your right thumb can reach. What you need during the preview the buttons are on the left side because the chances are your left hand is no longer holding the lens. I think I understand their reasoning for this.

3)LCD screen is bright. LV much more useful. I think that the heat generated by the camera on the sensor can be an issue with mag alloy body. But I think they used plastics where they did to fight the heat problem. The info shown on the screen are also better arranged and easier to see. But it does remind me of Nikon display, sort of.

4)Overall design is certainly different from k10 or k20. Enough said on this already

5)AF - well, as I said earlier, I think that AF is more decisive. It's certainly faster. They lock on convincingly. But when I compare side by side to k20, or even k10, the improvement is not so dramatic. This doesn't bother me however, but I know that this is bug some of you. This is not part of K-7 that I jump up and down, but certainly better than it was before. I haven't tried on AF.C mode yet.

6) Shutter sound: This is a weird one. I can see that quieter shutter noise is desirable for, say, bird shooter and so on, but personally, I love the sound of the shutter sound on my k10 and k20. I will say this however, is that the shutter works more quietly, and the shaking caused by the action of the shutter is much less. I am sure this helps in conjunction with SR.

7) SR: This is again sort of like AF. Kind of hard to tell how much of an improvement there have been. I need to use it more.

8) One funky thing. When I flip the camera up side down, and back, you can feel what feels like a "rattle" inside the camera. The sound is close to what you hear when you do the dust removable. It sounds like a sensor rattling within the slot, or something like that. I got worried, and did the same thing for k10, and there is a bit of that in k10 but not as much as what I feel in k-7. I need to talk to the manufacturer about that.

9) Newly designed flash unit is a good one. If you use this a lot, you will like it better. You can actually use a long lens like 50-135 and not cast a shadow.

10) The new grip is also grand. Especially when you hold it vertical, the grip feels very secure. Very well done on that.

11) I have not used the video yet.

12) One huge problem that this camera has is the fact that it is having to deal with massive amount of expectation. I think that this is a camera that should grow on you the more you use it. So the satisfaction may not come immediate. In this day and age of immediate gratification, this may not sit well with some people. I know that this is a strange thing to say, but when I inspect this camera, I cannot help but think how far ahead k10D was of its time. So much so that I am thinking about getting rid of my k20, but keep my k10.

Hope this helps a bit. Plan to post the pics by k-7 shortly.

And one more thing:

The lock button on the dial is a nuisance. I don't like it. You don't need that.

[dugrant153]

I am going to pay about $1,300 for the body, and less than $200 for the grip. As Mickey says, display is not a problem, but manual is in Japanese. But I already downloaded the manual off Ned's site.

As for the warranty, it is good in US.

Lenses are expensive here. FA 31 ltd was over a grand. DA*55 was close to $800. What the Pentax guy at the store(he happened to be there for demo) told me that pricing structures for FA limited have not changed for a long long time. Last year they increased the prices on accessaries, and the next year DA lenses will go up in prices.

Hmm... those prices are pretty standard prices (no difference from the local market) assuming you're quoting USD prices. Guess I'll skip camera shopping in Japan!

Appreciate the info though!

No. It is no cheaper here than else where. Even the pentax guy said it himself that buying in US is the cheapest. They do this on purpose, as US market is very stagnant for Pentax. It's their attempt to spice up the sales. It is almost unknown for crying out loud. FA lenses prices here are crazy.

The Pentax guy told me that Pentax USA is a very "unique" organization. Dunno what he meant by that although he did raise his eye brows. I thought that was a bit weird....