[tuco]

Does the K5 have the same focus system as a K7?

If so, terrible for focusing with studio strobes preview lights. It's friggin slow and unreliable in low light. Sorry if I called your baby ugly. And, yes, I have done studio lighting with portraits.

[Homo_erectus]

Does the K5 have the same focus system as a K7?

If so, terrible for focusing with studio strobes preview lights. It's friggin slow and unreliable in low light. Sorry if I called your baby ugly. And, yes, I have done studio lighting with portraits.

The K5ii will focus in near total darkness. No idea how it works with studio strobe preview lights but if there's any amount of light at all I'd expect the K5ii to be able to focus.

[tuco]

The K5ii will focus in near total darkness. No idea how it works with studio strobe preview lights but if there's any amount of light at all I'd expect the K5ii to be able to focus.

We are not talking about the K5ii here. I'd highly recommend it over the K5 for this.

I'm just being honest without fanboy sugar coating. Some studio strobes have proportional light preview. That is, the preview light strength is proportional to the power setting on the strobe. You don't need much strobe power when you are shooting at f4 and the strobes are only 3m away. The contrast to my other DSLR is like night and day. It takes the shot under these conditions when I'm ready instead of the other way around.

[RonHendriks1966]

I work together with and he uses a 5d mkII and i the K5.
There is a differnce but not so much in quality though, one of pentax weakneses is that it has no tethering, that is quite crippling they really need to sort that out.
For the rest, my pentax gear cost half of his gear and it's all weather sealed so i'm less worried when something breaks so i take more risico and it's smaller and lighter to carry.
So if you're on the run, Pentax is better but for static shots in the studio i prefer the Canon.
But this is beacuse of the features not because of the quality.

There are also wifi card to use with as a way off working around it.

[Cynog Ap Brychan]

My K-5 does OK in pretty dim light. The specs say it can focus down to EV-1, and I believe it. No idea how it would cope under light preview though.

[Anvh]

Given film can't have tethering not sure how not having it can be construed as 'crippling' - It's like live view only less so - of limited use (due to a theft I'm limited to using a Q at the moment and keep wanting to use the - absent - view finder!!!). Even for studio portrait work (which I haven't done a lot of) I honestly don't see the point.

We don't live in the film era anymore you know
Sure you don't "need" it but it's damn handy.

During shooting you don't look at it much, sometimes just to check some details but the hairstylist, MUA and the stylist are also looking with you and they can spot errors as well in their part of expertize.

With product photography is even handier, you use the tripod and hit the button on the screen to make a photo and directly judge if the photo is good or what need to be changed.

[Anvh]

There are also wifi card to use with as a way off working around it.

Yes and no, you can not trigger your camera that way so it's limited. You can show your photos though atleast.

[kenyee]

Some studio strobes have proportional light preview. That is, the preview light strength is proportional to the power setting on the strobe.

I don't think I've ever used proportional modeling lights. It's usually full power for aiming and sometimes I wish it were brighter in the gridded modifiers.
No issues for me at full brightness...on a K20D...

[tuco]

I don't think I've ever used proportional modeling lights. It's usually full power for aiming and sometimes I wish it were brighter in the gridded modifiers.
No issues for me at full brightness...on a K20D...

It's not an essential feature since you can always snap a shot and see the effects of the key vs fill light strengths but a handy feature for initially setting up mostly your key and fill light ratios. Hair and background lights never seem to preview very accurately though.