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06-30-2012, 02:34 AM   #1
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K7 - thoughts after 2 years of use

I have always owned Pentax SLRs, so can’t really compare my K7 with anything else except my Sony Cybershot compact camera (which produces excellent results almost effortlessly). I’ve owned my K7 for about 2 years and have used it a lot. K7 feels wonderful to use. Very well organised & constructed. Once set up, you don’t need to refer to menus often. Fits very comfortably in the hand.
I agree with comments I’ve read about its tendency to underexpose, though operated on full automatic ‘green’ mode this seems somewhat less of an issue – but that rather defeats the object of having an SLR! I’ve now switched to using the K7 mainly in aperture priority mode, with spot metering & using AE Lock to take a light reading before shooting. This is produces much better results, but is effectively using it manually, which reduces the speed at which you can work.
The pop-up flash takes some getting used to. Unless used carefully it consistently over exposes. However, it does have its own exposure compensation facility and when operated with spot metering is capable of producing excellent results.
I’ve seen criticisms of the K7’s ability to produce good shots in low light conditions. But I feel it is remarkable, and the pixilation that occurs at ISO6400 is acceptable, given the limits to which the K7 is being pushed. The ‘High ISO Noise Reduction’ facility seems to work really well. I’ve used the high ISOs extensively to photograph ballet by stage lighting, sometimes in very low light conditions against matt black backgrounds, producing some very effective shots.
The 18-55mm kit lens is a bit disappointing – but given the low price one really shouldn’t be too demanding! Apart from the rather low quality, my main beef with this lens is that after 2 years of regular use the lens hood no longer stays firmly clipped in place and occasionally falls off. I am about to try to replace it with a more robust screw-in model. When I have the money I’ll move up to a higher quality lens. I should add that I also have various other K-mount lenses that I use with this body, including Sigma (film) 20-200mm & 100-300mm. The kit lens performs reasonably well provided you use the smaller apertures and faster ISOs. The recent acquisition of Sigma 10-25mm (digital) wide angle lens has greatly added to my enjoyment of using this camera.

Nevertheless, I am left still with a slight feeling of disappointment – this camera is capable of producing excellent results, but under average conditions it takes quite a lot of hard work to do so compared with my much simpler Sony Cybershot, especially when the results are displayed digitally.


Last edited by Milooshea; 10-22-2012 at 02:34 AM. Reason: Spotted typo!
06-30-2012, 05:47 AM   #2
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Nice write up, I do have K-7 also. I do like mine, and usually I use it in AV or M - mode, kit lens is really not in use exept when it rains, ot can be good too.

You might consider on putting your thoughts + some images on review section too.
06-30-2012, 06:58 AM   #3
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wow..you have been using kit lens for 2 years?
so your experience with k-7 should be more satisfied once you upgrade to a higher quality zoom or prime
06-30-2012, 07:07 AM   #4
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Simply a matter of financial priorities and other expensive hobbies! 'You have to cut your coat according to you cloth'. However, I do have 3 Sigma K-mount lenses that I also use - 10-25mm (digital) and 20-200mm & 100-300mm (film). The 10-25mm is excellent.

Milo


Last edited by Milooshea; 06-30-2012 at 07:54 AM. Reason: More thoughts!
06-30-2012, 10:32 AM   #5
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Good points. I have my K-7 for 3 years and I would tend to agree overall with your comments. However I would disagree with your final comment: "under average conditions it takes quite a lot of hard work to do so". This might be true with the kit lens .... but it is untrue with good glass.

With good prime lenses, I am getting excellent results without hard work. I shoot mostly in the hyper mode (P) and I use rarely any manual settings. It is simply worth to invest in 'good glass' and this is true for the K-7.

Now that I used the K-7 with prime lenses, there is no way that I would go back to a P&S camera... and I can re-use my lenses with other Pentax dSLR: eg, my K-01 for now.

Food for thoughts....
06-30-2012, 01:09 PM   #6
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What has been said before by HCC, is absolutelly true(dunno about k-01 cuz haven't try, should be so too). Good primes and zooms makes a lot of difference, really. For now, K-7 is still good, but in near future I'll get new caera and use k-7 as second body. Not bad cam. At all.
06-30-2012, 11:28 PM   #7
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I agree about the quality of prime lenses, but they are a hassle to lug around and increase the number of times you have to change lenses, increasing the risk of getting dust inside the body. Do you find you have to make a lot of use of EV+/- in hyper program (P) mode?

Milo

07-01-2012, 12:10 AM   #8
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Sorry to cut in, but AFAIK the meter will work just the same in P as in green mode, or as in Av mode. I find the best way is to permanently add 0.7 to 1 EV comp, and just try and be aware of conditions that can trick the metering eg dark foreground with bright sky. The meter doesn't 'know' whether I want the sky or the foreground correctly exposed so I either have to apply extra EV comp or meter with the camera tilted more toward the sky, or ground, and hit AE lock before recomposing.

Point and shoot compacts do have a simpler approach - they tend to just burn out the sky and don't provide the flexibility to avoid that.
07-05-2012, 11:14 PM   #9
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Do you have experience carrying around a bag of primes and not like it? I also have a K7 (and came from using a cybershot oddly enough) and found that the issues that come with prime use are far outweighed by their benefits for my shooting style anyway. If you haven't already I would recommend grabing a cheap M 50mm 1.7 off ebay and give it a go. That was the lens that made me into a full time prime lens user and really helped me to figure out how to get better satisfying results from the K7. And if you have tried prime lenses and really didn't like it forget everything I just said!
07-06-2012, 02:49 AM   #10
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The K7 goes so well with K and M primes - just looks and feels right!

I know how much better the Sony Exmor sensor models are in high ISO / DR, but the K7 really is very good for most of the photography I seem to do, and I am not phobic about a little noise, so long as it is grainy rather than mottled (like I used to get with my K200D). I use it up to ISO1250 with acceptable noise levels, and that's OK for most situations I shoot in.

I do, however, have my eye on the K30....
07-07-2012, 06:45 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by Milooshea Quote
after 2 years of regular use the lens hood no longer stays firmly clip in place and occasionally falls off.
Judiciously "paint" the bayonet area with hard acrylic fingernail polish to rebuild a tighter fit. Make sure it's dry before trial fitting the hood. Has added years of use to a few of my hoods.

H2
07-10-2012, 02:30 PM   #12
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I'm just getting started with my K-7 but have also noticed the tendency to underexpose. Thankfully exposure compensation and being mindful of where I point the exposure meter helps a lot (I'm assuming that it does expect to see midtone gray just like most other exposure meters). I haven't ventured into the really high ISO's myself but ISO 1600 seems perfectly usable to me provided that the exposure is ok. The pleasant surprise was the relatively lower amount of chroma noise compared to my compact. I can live with a fair amount of luminance noise but the colour blotches get ugly fast.

The only real annoyance I have is that mine seems to forget the date/time settings every time I change the battery. This seems a bit silly because it seems to remember perfectly well all the other settings.

For screw on hoods I can recommend heavystar's hoods on Ebay. Reasonably priced and good protection against flare and for the front element.
07-10-2012, 04:29 PM   #13
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@Imcalfin
QuoteQuote:
The only real annoyance I have is that mine seems to forget the date/time settings every time I change the battery. This seems a bit silly because it seems to remember perfectly well all the other settings.
Not so silly. The settings are stored in flash memory, which holds the information without needing energy. The clock for date/time would have to run all the time. This means it would need its own power supply (separate power lines on the chip). The power line would have to be buffered with a capacitor - probably not a small one, if it should cover more than 1-2 minutes. Maybe there was not enough room on the printed circuits?
And I am assuming Pentax uses a dedicated clock chip - if date/time are provided by the internal clock of the processor, this processor would need to have 2 separate power inputs, one directly from the voltage regulator, the other via a buffer capacitor.

Now-a-days we are used to the luxury of our computers, but they have a separate clock chip powered by a battery. My computers in the early eighties always lost time/date every time they were switched off!
07-11-2012, 12:37 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by RKKS08 Quote
@Imcalfin
Not so silly. The settings are stored in flash memory, which holds the information without needing energy. *snip*
Good point there. As I said it is an annoyance, and a pretty minor one at that. I can't help but compare K-7 to my compact camera, though. The compact remembers the time and date between battery changes.
07-11-2012, 02:48 AM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by Imcalfin Quote
The only real annoyance I have is that mine seems to forget the date/time settings every time I change the battery. This seems a bit silly because it seems to remember perfectly well all the other settings.
It shouldn't do that. The clock on mine runs for days without the main battery inserted.
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