[frank]

Nice update creampuff. And I was there too

To be honest, after several days of playing K-7, I just can't get used to the K10D (borrowed from a good friend before I get the K-7 ) anymore, although I had that one for 18 months before.

Creampuff forgot to meantion another professional photographer's quote. It's a friend of mine who's been a long time Pentax user, over 20 years or even longer. He's been teaching photography for years. He's also shooting for newspapers, sport events. After about 5min play w/ the K-7 (w/ his own Sigma 70-200/2.8 EX lens), the first thing he said was "I'm really impressed". The most important two improvement for him: AF.C is much faster, accurate and decisive, exposure is a lot accurate. And now he's preordered the camera too He's using K10D and still has the early *istD but he wasn't happy w/ Pentax dSLR cameras at all. The other comment from him is that K-7 came out a bit too late ...

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Last edited by frank; 06-13-2009 at 08:36 AM.

[jawn doe]

you have two k7s? mind sharing one?

[nanok]

creampuff (af): no. af is quick enough. i don't need better, i don't care about burst rate, i am not getting a k-7 i am not getting a k-7 iamnotgettin'a'kayseven iamnotgettingak7 iaamnot#$%&^ ....

video: i understand the "ludittes" too, and can relate to them. it's somewhat like me and a/c on cars. i bet 99% of pentaxians reading this just went "wtf are you on about, a/c is essential". well, it's similar to video: it's not really needed, and nice to have for most people, useless for some (like me); i personally don't like it, and think that, from an engineering point of view, putting a refrigerating system on a quick mobile machinery is simply stupid, much like setting up a home cinema in a church (now think about it in terms of "every church"), or something. i also happen to hate a/c in general, prefer a sunroof, and think that availability of a/c everywhere might be the worse thing that has ever happened to mankind (we should be able to handle a bit of heat, for #$^ sake, we will end up like in asimov's naked sun), much like some people think 30fps per second is pushing towards killing photography as we know it. however, i don't mind having a/c if i don't really have to pay for it, but i am not going to pay more for having it, and i am not going to choose a car which has it over a car which doesnt, but handles better (for instance), because, with all due respect, i am buying a car not a damn fridge , and yes, my current car happens to have no a/c (my friends hate me for that, i can hear it in a few years too "what, you can't shoot a video with that? what kind of ****ing antique is that, man?");

my point is: i think we're safe, there's room for everybody, us ludittes, and them "consumers", always has been. and don't forget: you are driving an a/c equipped car, aren't you (i know you are), so you will get used to having video in a dslr too, soon enough .

resistance is futile.

[Arpe]

Simply put, the K20D could barely keep up with the action capturing the wake boarders... whereas the K-7 on AF-C managed to lock-on and track the wake boarders with ease.
Hands down a lot more keepers with the K-7.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for that piece of first-hand info on the tracking ability of the K-7. That is the single biggest improvement (for me obviously) from the K20D and makes me evry very tempted to upgrade immediately. Normally I'm the kind of person to hold off new products for a while, but I'm waivering on this one.

[creampuff]

nanok, I live in tropical and humid Singapore... no air-con in a car... even in a convertible... is an impossible concept for anybody to contemplate here.
Home cinema in a church... well the church I attend (10,000 members and counting) has a million dollar, world class HD LCD screen that covers the full length of the stage... like watching a Blu-Ray movie
Different perspectives I guess.

[creampuff]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for that piece of first-hand info on the tracking ability of the K-7. That is the single biggest improvement (for me obviously) from the K20D and makes me evry very tempted to upgrade immediately. Normally I'm the kind of person to hold off new products for a while, but I'm waivering on this one.

I soooo want a K-7 now... but the K-7 is soooo good, K20D owners like me are stuck with our now "entry level" K20Ds because we can't even get anyone remotely interested in buying one.
All those that were supposed to be interested have gone ahead and pre-ordered the K-7. Maybe because our local agent has dangled an awfully attractive offer price for the K-7...

[nostatic]

I had little interest in upgrading until I read about the quiet shutter. The video might be a plus as I'm having to run and gun a lot more now, and a lot of times I don't want to haul a big video bag around. If I can mount a small shotgun on the hot shoe I've got a pretty nice HD setup. If it is capturing 16 bit 48Khz audio I'm golden. I've argued against video in the past, mostly due to audio issues. With a stereo mic input that solves part of the problem. I can also sling a small mixer and go wireless lav and boom.

But a silent shutter using a ltd prime and a smaller yet stout body and 100% viewfinder - that is compelling.

[solar1]

If posted elsewhere, I'd love to know where to see them. Are they up on the forum somewhere?

Creampuff wrote: "Well today the new Pentax distributor where I'm at had a booth for Pentax and Sanyo products (they are also the local agents for Sanyo) at a wake boarding competition.
Well the K-7 was on show for Pentax and other users to try out...

Simply put, the K20D could barely keep up with the action capturing the wake boarders... whereas the K-7 on AF-C managed to lock-on and track the wake boarders with ease.
Hands down a lot more keepers with the K-7. Almost without exception every Pentax user present was just amazed by how quiet the shutter is, the improved responsiveness over the K20D (most were K20D users with top glass) and how useful and fun 5.2 fps is in capturing the action. The funny thing was a good friend who's a seasoned Pentax K20D and Nikon user who was initially skeptical of the K-7's AF arising from past Pentax cameras, was suitably impressed after just a few minutes of testing to liken the AF to be as quick as the D700.

Using the DA 55-300mm on my K20D, there is a tendency for the AF to occasionally hunt with this lens, in part due to the long focus throw. On the K-7, this lens barely hunts which says a lot about the improvement in AF.
If you're looking to shoot plenty of action or fast movement, better get the K-7 imo."

[creampuff]

Most of the photos for the event taken by different Pentax users present are on Clubsnap...
June 13th: Pentaxian Outing at Wakeboard Competition Day 1 - ClubSNAP Photography Forums

[solar1]

Thanks for the links, I found this quote from Zoom3 that caught my attention: "Now that Emjay has indicated they will be reducing lens prices soon, maybe can afford to get the DA*50-135 mm then"

Perhaps you can comment on this - How would Emjay know, that lens prices would be going down? Interesting tidbit of info.

[frank]

It's not that the lens prices will go down, Emjay is lowering the prices (less margin) so we can afford buying Pentax lenses locally. Our current lens prices are way too high, e.g. DA21 is priced at 900 plus sgd (600 plus usd), DFA100 macro is over 1k sgd ( 700 plus usd) ...

[sodnik]

In Sweden.....DA21=800$. It's an expensive hobby.

[lawsonstone]

On a completely different point: what that I see that seems inserted inside your FA 31mm Ltd? Something seems to be sticking out from under the lens hood.

Just my curiousity!

[nanok]

creampuff: no surprise there, it's singapore after all , that was exactly my point, too

[Rener]

C* as the official camera?, makes me laugh at the plastic cover on the body and lens.

cheers,

Rene