Okay, the K5 + 15+43+77 is with me for one week now. Probably I would have had to wait a little longer before I post, but anyway, I can come back with additions and clarifications if appropriate. For the sake of consistency, I've used the 7D for more than 1 year. Please bear with me as I'm an amateur, and probably some of the explanations will be amateurish.
So, I'll start with the overall conclusion: the 7D goes for sale. That's the conclusion. The K5 is not a revolution, but in most aspects it is what I was expecting. Smaller, competitive regarding the 7D, and the ltd lenses have that something special I missed at Canon.
- Color: wonderful, but the 7D was not bad either - a draw here. Probably lenses count here.
- Dynamic range, K5 advantage, and by a big margin. Underexposure can be revived with fill light without the huge chroma noise that 7D had in such cases.
- Sharpness - K5 seems better, not by a fantastic margin, but it seems better
- ISO performance - luminance noise absolutely comparable from an IQ standpoint, while for chroma noise K5 is miles better.
- Autofocus - better than what I expected, some problems (non-central points seem to give different results than central point) but good enough. Seems to be reasonably consistent, maybe more consistent than the 7D. Using only Ldt lenses, so noisy but not excessively slow; definitely comparable with the speed I got from my fave on the 7D, which was the Canon EF 50mm 1.4. The autofocus seems to work equally well in AFS and AFC. Only used it with manual point selection, generally center.
- Auto white balance - generally good, but when it fails it fails miserably. On the 7D it never failed. Pentax should definitely improve it. Since I shoot raw it's not a problem.
- Automatic exposure - the Canon was a little more consistent, almost perfect in consistency as a matter of fact. Not a problem though.
- Auto ISO - K5 better, it can go higher in (TAv etc) while the 7D was ceiling at 3200 in iso auto mode.
- Flash - cannot compare, as I don't have a Pentax flash for now; will buy a 540FGZ in 1-2 months.
- Drive speed - comparable.
- Buffer size - didn't hit a limit, I'm shooting raw, however generally max 5 consecutive shots is enough for me.
- Size - long live K5 with Ltds. Smaller, lighter.
- Ergonomics - mixed opinion. Most of the things the K5 does better (feature selections) however the focus point selection is a nightmare compared with the joystick on the Canon body which is pure genius. Not to mention I've tried to select a focus point innumerable times just to realize I was setting WB, Drive mode etc - i.e. I was not in autofocus point selection mode... I'll probably get used to that, i.e. more attention to the viewfinder where the autofocus point selection availability is displayed.
- Bayonet/lens change - what the hell? The Canon was so smooth, while in the K5 there is such a high amount of friction when "screwing" in a lens.Not important, but worth mentioning.
- Operation speed (responsivity) - below 7D in general, not problematic though.
- Build quality - almost on par with 7D, 7D a little better though. That lens release button on the K5 is freakishly loose, while the 7D is really built like a tank from all points of view.
- Battery - I've got 700 pics and 1/3 of battery on display. It's okay. However, I do miss 7D's battery report in the menu, with number of shots per battery since last full charge, percentage remaining etc.
- Viewfinder - the 7D has the focus points displayed all the time (excellent, at K5 you have to guess what to select), otherwise comparable.
EDIT (nov 21 2011)
- Flash - I have a 360FGZ now. Well, Canon is miles ahead at this department. I'm referring both to the flash unit (recharge times with the same batteries I used on Canon 430EX1) and flash system which is extremely inconsistent in terms of exposure. Been using the body in M (manual) mode and the flash in P-TTL mode.
- Build quality - after using it for a few months, I'll have to degrade Pentax from that "almost on par" grade by a notch at least.
Last edited by mchis; 11-21-2011 at 06:34 AM.
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