Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
07-14-2009, 10:32 AM   #1
Inactive Account




Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 7
How's the K7 with the DA*16-50mm and 50-135mm lenses?

Does the K7 perform any better with these two lenses or it's about the same as on the K20D? I haven't notice much reports on the performance of the K7 with these two lenses and I'm trying to evaluate on whether I would get the K7 over the K20D if there's no noticeable performance improvement.

07-14-2009, 11:31 AM   #2
Veteran Member




Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Sugar Land, TX
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 684
Performance as in AF? Technically,the same resolution sensor doesn't magically make your pictures more detailed with the same lenses though, if THAT is what you are asking (which I doubt but I would like to point it out anyways).

AF has been said to be noticeably faster, although there are a lot more differences between the K20D and the K-7 than just AF, so I wouldn't consider buying the K-7 just b/c it AF faster with those two lenses. FPS, small size (mag alloy just feels different, although not much tougher than the plastic build of the K20D+k200D), 3-inch screen with live-view, art filters, movie mode, etc ( I don't have time to note them all!!! )
07-14-2009, 12:38 PM   #3
Loyal Site Supporter
Loyal Site Supporter




Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Wherever I’m Parked
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,003
My perception (and that's all it was, a perception since I didn't time it or anything) is that the AF is about the same with my DA 50-135. It seemed quite a bit faster with the 55-300. I didn't notice it one way or the other with the 12-24, but it's always fast anyway. I didn't try the 77 on it before I shipped it back to Amazon yesterday. I don't have the 16-50.
07-14-2009, 01:48 PM   #4
Veteran Member




Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Iowa
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,369
QuoteOriginally posted by lsquare Quote
Does the K7 perform any better with these two lenses or it's about the same as on the K20D? I haven't notice much reports on the performance of the K7 with these two lenses and I'm trying to evaluate on whether I would get the K7 over the K20D if there's no noticeable performance improvement.
Hey lsquare. I don't own the DA*50-135 and have never tried using one, but I've tried the DA* 16-50 on both the K20D and the K-7, so here's what I've noticed:

With Screw driven AF (non SDM) lenses: K-7 AF speed is much faster, and hunts much less in low light conditions (even without the AF assist light on)

With SDM lenses: I'm not sure if the DA*16-50 focuses that much faster on the K-7. I would say it probably is a little better just because the K-7 is just much more responsive in general. Where I've noticed the biggest improvement is in low light conditions, where the lens doesn't hunt as much. On the whole I think it responds very quickly on the K-7.

Another nice thing about the SDM and K-7 combo is that if you turn the autofocus confirm beep off the K-7 with a DA* lens on it is really silent. Compared to the K20D it's like you're in stealth mode, haha.

So I guess my advice on you getting the K20D over the K-7 would depend on how much you're going to try to use these lenses in challenging light conditions because this is one area where the K-7 really shines over the previous Pentax cameras.


Last edited by Urkeldaedalus; 07-14-2009 at 01:58 PM.
07-14-2009, 02:22 PM   #5
Veteran Member
nostatic's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: socal
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,575
the 50-135* is a stunning a performer on the K7 as it is on the K20d. Period. Best zoom lens I've ever seen and rivals the ltd primes wrt final output.

The only issue is that the K7 body is a tad undersized compared to the 50-135*

K7 w/50-135* - K20d w/16-45

07-14-2009, 02:36 PM   #6
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Ste-Anne des Plaines, Qc., Canada
Posts: 2,013
One thing I noticed is that the SDM lenses sometime try to focus, goes to the infinity mark, then freezes. It seems to happen a lot more on my K-7 than it does on my K20D.
07-15-2009, 10:58 AM   #7
Inactive Account




Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 7
Original Poster
What about the optical performance of these lenses with the K-7? I heard that the K-7 had been optimized or have features to better take advantage of these two lenses. Any opinions here?

07-15-2009, 11:13 AM   #8
Veteran Member
PentaxPoke's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 1,411
QuoteOriginally posted by lsquare Quote
How's the K7 with the DA*16-50mm and 50-135mm lenses?
Answer: As slow as the k20d was with those two lenses. IQ is great on the 50-135. Poor sharpness of the 16-50 wide open compared to the competition wont be affected by body type. I think if you judge the K-7 paired with an SDM lens, you will be dissapointed. With any other Pentax screw-drive lens, you will be impressed by how much faster the K-7 is.

QuoteOriginally posted by lsquare Quote
What about the optical performance of these lenses with the K-7? I heard that the K-7 had been optimized or have features to better take advantage of these two lenses. Any opinions here?
I dont believe there is any such thing, unless you are talking about the lens distortion correction that you can turn on which works for DA, FA, etc. lenses. The problem is that it severely reduces the fps capability of the camera. It is good for single shots though.

Last edited by PentaxPoke; 07-15-2009 at 11:28 AM.
07-15-2009, 04:45 PM   #9
Veteran Member




Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Boulder, CO
Posts: 883
QuoteOriginally posted by PentaxPoke Quote
Answer: As slow as the k20d was with those two lenses. IQ is great on the 50-135. Poor sharpness of the 16-50 wide open compared to the competition wont be affected by body type. I think if you judge the K-7 paired with an SDM lens, you will be dissapointed. With any other Pentax screw-drive lens, you will be impressed by how much faster the K-7 is.
That's why there should be a firmware release that lets you opt to use screw drive on the all the SDM lenses. Anytime I don't need to be quiet, I woudl rather use Screw drive, because it's seems to be faster. I downgraded my K10d to v1.01, so it wouldn't support SDM, and my two DA* lenses seemed faster.
07-15-2009, 07:12 PM   #10
Veteran Member




Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Trinidad and Tobago
Posts: 419
QuoteOriginally posted by mtngal Quote
My perception (and that's all it was, a perception since I didn't time it or anything) is that the AF is about the same with my DA 50-135. It seemed quite a bit faster with the 55-300. I didn't notice it one way or the other with the 12-24, but it's always fast anyway. I didn't try the 77 on it before I shipped it back to Amazon yesterday. I don't have the 16-50.
were you dissapointed with the K7, i see you shipped it back to Amazon already

Dave
07-15-2009, 07:31 PM   #11
Loyal Site Supporter
Loyal Site Supporter




Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Wherever I’m Parked
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,003
I wasn't disappointed at all - I had one of the units that had the vertical line turn up after briefly using the movie mode - best guess is its a faulty sensor, I think. While I probably won't use video much at all, I figure that I should have a perfectly working camera, since I'm paying full price for it. So I've asked for an exchange. It's driving me up the wall not having it though, I'm glad I chose to get a replacement rather than sending it into Pentax for repair.

P.S. I didn't notice any better lens image quality between the K20 and K-7, but didn't take many comparison shots with the DA*50-135 and both cameras. I did use it on the K-7 one day when I had the 77 Ltd on the K20. The 77 won, but I was quite happy with the 50-135 on the K-7 (just as I am with the lens on the K20, too).
07-15-2009, 07:51 PM   #12
Veteran Member




Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Iowa
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,369
QuoteOriginally posted by lsquare Quote
What about the optical performance of these lenses with the K-7? I heard that the K-7 had been optimized or have features to better take advantage of these two lenses. Any opinions here?
On the K-7 you can turn on in camera settings that will correct the Lateral Chromatic Aberrations and or Distortion for these and other DA lenses (and D-FA, too, if you have some). The two things I've noticed about this corrective feature:

1. It does slow down the camera a bit after a shot is taken because it requires the camera processor to work on applying the changes. This is only really annoying when you want to check the picture instantly or hold the button down machine gun style.

2. The corrections are noticeable ones, even without pixel peeping. I haven't checked yet to see if I like the non corrected version over the corrected one or vice versa. I usually just keep the correction option on so I have that option when I'm processing the RAW files.
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
camera, dslr, k20d, k7, lenses, performance, photography
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
For Sale - Sold: Great Pentax DA* Lenses: 16-50mm and 50-135mm (US) letgo12345 Sold Items 18 05-09-2010 11:01 AM
Cosinon Lenses: 50mm 1.7, 28mm 2.8, 135mm 2.8 esben Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 5 04-21-2010 12:36 PM
For Sale - Sold: Pentax Lenses F2 50mm, F4 75-150mm, F1.7 50mm, F4 200mm, F2.5 135mm, F4.5 80-2 hangu Sold Items 10 03-27-2010 07:51 PM
For Sale - Sold: Three Pentax SMC M-Series Lenses: 50mm/1.4, 50mm/1.7, 135mm/3.5! wallyb Sold Items 12 02-19-2010 01:24 PM
For Sale - Sold: M42 Lenses - SMC 50mm F1.4 | SMC 135mm | 135mm barbosas Sold Items 8 02-17-2008 11:49 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 02:26 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top