[mike.hiran]

regarding weather sealing - a friend had unfortunate weather at a wedding and it rained for both the ceremony and reception. most of the other shooters stayed under tents and had to shoot around all the other attendees, while me, the k7 and the da* 50-135 was free to roam around to go where the shots were and not be concerned about the wet.

I've done a fair amount of hiking this year too and find the ergonomics of the camera really great. It's compact, rugged, has a built in leveling feature (my head gyroscope must be off as I often take unlevel pics - thank goodness for software!), gives awesome colors, and is very quiet so disturbing fellow campers is kept to a minimum (easier to get those natural candid shots).

The DA* series has the best weather sealing (with a healthy price to match), but the WR DA series are very good too. There's supposed to be a new WR lens, the 18-135, coming out soon. I like the range of the lens a lot, but I'm waiting to get some reviews to see if the image quality is good. My other favorite lens for outdoor work is the DA 12-24 - very wide, sharp and just a pleasure to use. But it's not weather sealed, so get a good WR case to hold your stuff in.

[Tony3d]

could you explain how I might approach a solid verification process? I would greatly appreciate you taking the time to do so and thanks for the tip!!

I am thoroughly excited about the K-7 and have high hopes for it to record a great deal of family and place

as I write my 17 month old is walking across the room backwards hah wish I had my K-7

I am really grateful for the help and ease of discussion and candor. Thank you to those who possess the expertise to give good advice to a soon to be new Pentax owner, I shall reciprocate the gesture in the future when I have immersed myself in all things Pentax

hope everyone has an enjoyable evening

My K7 is in for auto focus repair. I sent my two lenses, and the body so they can calibrate the lenses to the body. My 18-55 had great difficulty focusing at wide angle at infinity. Would not lock focus 70% of the time. 55-300 had back focus problems, and de-centering issues. According to the report from CRIS they calibrated the two lenses to my K7 body, and made adjustments to my auto focus system. They also re-aligned the 55-300 to fix the De-centering problem. It's actuall out for delivery, so I should be getting it soon. Hope everything is fixed. It's been gone for over 4 weeks. So far, I'm not especially impressed with Pentax quality control.

[kytra]

How much experience do you have with the K-x?

one year of use. I don't know why, but whereas in static tests Kx AF was ok, in field conditions I have had a lot more keepers with the K7.
BTW, if one forecasts a lot of flash usage, do yourself a favor and get a Nikon, the p-TTL of Pentax is clearly inferior, and I am saying this after trying side by side Kx, K7, D40 and D90.

My two cents...

[Rondec]

I have owned my K7 for about 6 months now and it is a beautiful camera. With the DA * lenses, you don't have to be afraid to take it out in the elements (the same is true of the K10 and 20). Stick on a limited lens and you have a tiny package that can basically go anywhere unobtrusively. I really enjoy shooting with it.

The biggest weakness for me is that the dynamic range goes down a lot at higher iso. Noise really isn't too bad up to iso 1600. The rest of the camera is great from my standpoint.

This is a thread where someone shot a fly fishing promo video with the K7: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-video-forum/84333-my-first-filming...-my-k-7-a.html.

[SkagitFly]

thank you Rondec

really appreciate you sharing this

[Nass]

Came across this, fyi

People Definitely Love Pentax K-7

[Frogfish]

Those are gorgeous shots Vagrant !

Have a K7 and love it. I'll be going for the K5 though for the increased ISO and AF features.

[LeeRunge]

I have a K-7 with DA* 16-50 and 60-250

It shoots great shots at low ISO (below 1600) as far as image quality.

The controls are very good and offer customization in spades.

Weather sealing is very good. I have used mine in a thunderstorm with no issues.

AF is ok if you are going after slow or non moving targets. I picked up a 7d because of AF letdowns. It hunts a lot and is slow (even with sdm) compared to 7d.

Movie mode and live view have given me problems. Mine overheats very quick (less than 2min) regardless of temps between 60-110f. I can't use live view over 90 degrees as it overheats. Movie mode is almost useless in mine because you can't rely on it.

SR is hard to judge but it seems to work.

[JoepLX3]

I have a K-7 with DA* 16-50 and 60-250

It shoots great shots at low ISO (below 1600) as far as image quality.

The controls are very good and offer customization in spades.

Weather sealing is very good. I have used mine in a thunderstorm with no issues.

AF is ok if you are going after slow or non moving targets. I picked up a 7d because of AF letdowns. It hunts a lot and is slow (even with sdm) compared to 7d.

Movie mode and live view have given me problems. Mine overheats very quick (less than 2min) regardless of temps between 60-110f. I can't use live view over 90 degrees as it overheats. Movie mode is almost useless in mine because you can't rely on it.

SR is hard to judge but it seems to work.

Sounds like you are not a 100% happy user...

[Vote4Pedro]

It sounds like the K-7 will fit your needs quite well. I think the K-7 is phenominal outdoors, and at least average indoors. I can't say anything about the DA* lenses, but I got the two kit lenses, the 18-55 WR and the 50-200 WR because I wanted to have a great, light setup for the outdoors. These lenses take good pictures and if they are damaged on a rough outing, they could be replaced as compared to a DA* lens. I have not been disappointed. The DA* lenses are supposed to be better and that thought makes me giddy because the kit lenses on the K-7 can take amazing shots.

To answer one of your questions, yes, the K-7 is very weather-resistant. I have been caught in two heavy storms with it so far, and the camera and lenses withstood everything.

The other thing is I think the K-7 continuous autofocus gets a bad rap. For outdoor photography (non-sports) you won't use it a ton unless you shoot birds in flight. Honestly, I was surprised recenly while shooting some birds at the beach because from what people say about the K-7 focus, I shouldn't have gotten many keepers. The majority were keepers. You can see the continuous autofocus shots here if you care to.

Of course the K-5 has to be even sweeter, so if you have the patience and the money, I say go for that. But going with the K-7 now is not a shabby choice either.

Good luck with your decision!

[deadwolfbones]

Sounds like you are not a 100% happy user...

Just sounds like a balanced review to me.

[Douglas_of_Sweden]

K7

Had it for more than a year. Used it a lot. Had it covered in rain and sea spray, covered in sand. Still works. Though you better get rid of the sand before you start to open anything. The grains like to stick to the rubber parts. Dropped it a few times, still works.

Only problem I had was when the AF got crazy and I thought it needed service, but I discovered a fiber of some sort that ended up in front of the AF sensors, which was easilly fixed. Could have happened with every camera.

Ergonomically a great improvement from the K20D. By now it is almost an extension of my arm, and I used most controles without looking or thinking much. That is amazing for such a complex camera.

In high iso K-x, K-r and K-5 will beat it, but that's because the development is so fast. I can't see any difference between the K-7 and K20D in practise, though some claim so. The sensors are too similar. I've got plenty of high iso shots in my street folder in my flickr as evidence that it can be used well at 1600iso.

With some DA ltds it is a very compact street/hiking/travel kit. I often just cary three ltds, one on the camera and two in my pockets.
With the grip it is a stable platform for heavier lenses and flash.

Tethering is the only thing I miss, so for that I still use the K20D. I use live view more than I thought I would, especially in technical and/or macro applications.

[dylansalt]

I do a lot of mountaineering and one of the main reasons I did not get the K7 is that I did not like how the Samsung Sensor handled greens, especially in good sunlight - which we get a great deal of over here - whatever pp I tried with test files, just was not giving me what I had in the K10D.

They greens were always either too yellow or lime looking for my tastes - just my personal take