[gnaztee]

A couple of things to add:

1) On the LCD sensor idea, you do have the option of the LCD staying off except for photo review or when you push the "info" button.

2) The "?" or help button can be configured for other uses (I use it for digital preview)

It makes the K-m seem a bit better than when I took it out of the box and started playing with it (who needs manuals?)

Todd

[jsherman999]

.

Just arrived, only had a few moments of daylight to try it out outside... I'll
be posting more in the coming days as I put it through its paces.

The 18-55 II kit lens doesn't seem too bad...

18mm f/4 1/180s ISO 400

55mm f/5.6 1/90s ISO 400

32.5mm f/4 1/125s ISO 400


I love the feel and handling....


.

[jsherman999]

.

Anther quick note - without a shadow of a doubt, faster low-light AF performance
than both my K100DS and K20D.

I'll have to pixel-peep to see how accurate the focusing is, but it locks focus
faster.

Also, the in-camera filters are amusing toys, but I'm not sure when I'd want
to use them - maybe on an out-of-town shoot at family where I didn't have my
laptop and wanted some neat effects to impress people, I don't know...

Normal shot, "High Contrast" digital filter:




"Extract Color" filter, extracting all but blue:



More "High Contrast" filter effect:




Mainly useful because it's in-camera & so easy, but nothing that can't be done in
Elements or PS pretty easily too.


.

[arbutusq]

I just took mine out of the box and am quite enjoying it. I'll post my impressions in a little while as it is night time and raining.

How does yours like nimh batteries? Mine seems allergic to them.....

[jsherman999]

I just took mine out of the box and am quite enjoying it. I'll post my impressions in a little while as it is night time and raining.

How does yours like nimh batteries? Mine seems allergic to them.....

Haven't tried yet - using the Lithium batteries that came with it.

I'm really growing to like the menuing system - I'm pretty sure the K3x*'s will be
using this next-gen menu system. More intuitive and easy.

Here's an ISO 1600 example (43ltd @ f/1.9), before I had 'high iso NR' turned on -
what's significant about this is that he was moving in pretty low light, and I
know my K20D wouldn't have locked focus here when the K-M did.
(focus was on hair right above ear)



So that's pretty cool. I am missing the AF-lock red light indicator in the VF,
though.

Here's a 43ltd shot in 'bright':



Since I mainly shoot jpeg, I'm going to want to experiment with bright and
'natural' to see if it does it differently than my K20D - I've heard that I may want
to stay with 'natural' with the K-M. We'll see....


.

[jsherman999]

.


One more 'bright' setting jpeg - really need to get outside to test. In the
*&^&^(()* Spring.




This one was an accidental 'color extraction' digital filter effect (deflated clear mylar
balloon.) I was screwing around with the menu before reading the manual and
inadvertently turned on this filter. It extracted everything but a couple colors?.
Somewhat neat effect.

[rparmar]

That last one I like a lot.

But no focus confirmation? Yikes! Is that true?

[gnaztee]

*note* There is audible focus confirmation, but no red square flashes

Here are some of my pics, processed in Lightroom and PSE 4





This one was processed using a trial version of Nik Siver Efex software. Pretty cool program for black/white and monochrome processing







The more I use it, I definitely feel the missing aspects of the K10D. I couldn't use the K-m as my only body, but as a travel kit for walking around a new city with the DA Ltds., I really think it will be perfect.

Todd

[jsherman999]

That last one I like a lot.

But no focus confirmation? Yikes! Is that true?

Yes, there's focus confirmation - a beep, and the green hexagon, but no
little red square appears in the center when focus lock is achieved prior to
focus confirmation. There's a little more 'trust' involved that you are using the
expected focal point and don't have it set on an edge point still.

It's an annoyance - I'd like it if it was still there.

[Steinback]

I played around a bit with a demo K-m at a local camera shop and it performed alright but there were a couple of trade offs I wouldn't be willing to make from my K10 body. The lack of a depth of field preview/ stop down metering switch was the main thing. I took along an m42 Super Tak 50mm to see how it worked with the body and green button metering with the m42 lens seemed to underexpose even more dramatically than my k10 does.

The other main annoyance was the lack of focus confirmation square in the viewfinder, I could get used to watching for the hexagon at the bottom of the display but it would take a while.

Overall build quality and layout are quite good and the camera handles well. I couldn't really see myself buying one to use with pre A-series lenses, but as an only camera or backup body using newer lenses I could live with the K-m.

[rparmar]

Yes, there's focus confirmation - a beep, and the green hexagon, but no
little red square appears in the center when focus lock is achieved prior to
focus confirmation. There's a little more 'trust' involved that you are using the
expected focal point and don't have it set on an edge point still.

Whew, I'm glad the hexagon is present.

But... "set on an edge point"? Now I'm even more confused! I thought with the K-m you could not change where the focus was set? That's the main reason I wrote off this model, as I rely on off-centre focus for narrow DOF shots.

[RBellavance]

But... "set on an edge point"? Now I'm even more confused! I thought with the K-m you could not change where the focus was set? That's the main reason I wrote off this model, as I rely on off-centre focus for narrow DOF shots.

You can put it in "center-point-only" mode. But there is no way to manually choose any other AF point.

[jsherman999]

.


Some ISO 100 & 200 shooting:

[Kirivon]

Some ISO 100 & 200 shooting:

...

What white balance setting were these shots taken with? The colors in the third and fourth images especially are really nice.

I've seen about three k-m test shoot galleries so far, and I've been really impressed by the way the camera handles white balance and color. The exif has been missing in each case, though, so I couldn't verify if it was AWB or not.

[jsherman999]

What white balance setting were these shots taken with? The colors in the third and fourth images especially are really nice.

I've seen about three k-m test shoot galleries so far, and I've been really impressed by the way the camera handles white balance and color. The exif has been missing in each case, though, so I couldn't verify if it was AWB or not.

All AWB, set on 'bright' setting jpegs.

I shot those raw+, so I'll see if I can do anything with the raw images that look any
better than these. I also still want to try out 'natural' outdoors and with skin tones.

With some of these snow shots, I wanted to see what the sensor/jpeg did
shooting into the sun. The lens is the biggest part of that, but I noticed that
my K20D did a better job at shooting into the sun than my K100DS with the
same lenses. The K-M acts more like the K20D.