[Pål Jensen]

love the deep grip on K-7 although only my first 3 fingers do touch the body/grip with pinky off body but doesn't bother me, pinkies are useless hehe

Then you are holding the camera the wrong way. There's only three fingers that need to fit the grip, including the pinky. The fourth finger press the shutter button and the thumb the rear of the camera.....

[helios]

I have average sized hands and find the K-7 suits me very well. The deeper grip seems more secure. I tried a grip with the K20d but sold it as I found that I did not really use it much and never took it with me when travelling. The K-7 though not that much smaller than the K20D feels so much more portable and slips more easily into hand luggage when flying. It also partners the pancake limited lenses admirably.
The ergonomics take a little getting used to but after only three weeks they seem perfectly natural now that the latest firmware has corrected the choice of focus points problem.

Archie

[davidt]

Then you are holding the camera the wrong way. There's only three fingers that need to fit the grip, including the pinky. The fourth finger press the shutter button and the thumb the rear of the camera.....

No, same here: the pinky is only half on the grip. So the pinky gets quite tensed up after a while with heavy lenses. But in general I like the grip (depth) very much.

[Jasvox]

Smaller lenses like the 16-50mm are just fine, same as Limiteds I guess ;-)
Remember as Pentax outlined the K-7 was specifically designed to go better with Limited lenses and what I have seen the fit very well, same as older lenses.

I am not quite sure how that relates to my post, but oh well =)

Jason

[apollo]

Just got my K-7 (battery charging now, how long can it bloody take!?). I have to say, I've got large-ish hands (big palms, average length fingers) and the grip feels pretty great - it's much better for me than the K100D, K20D and Nikon D90 - with a small lens I can hold the K-7 one handed while using both control wheels much better than the others. The big middle figher recess combined with the angled front scrollwheel makes using it a joy - on the Nikon D90 I would have to shift my grip slightly from my normal "carrying position" to use that wheel.

As to the EV compensation, I have the K100 and K-7 on front of me right now with similar weight lenses, and while adjusting the compensation on the K100 one-handed it slips out of my grip. On the K-7 I have to strain my index finger a bit more to reach the button while using the rear control wheel but at the same time my grip on the camera is more secure. I think it's a matter of getting used to it. The ISO compensation button is a stretch, but I kind of like it being out of the way, as I don't tend to switch ISO that often. All the controls are a joy to use once you hold the camera as it's meant to be - with two hands.

If I was designing the grip for my hand I would make it about 0.5cm deeper and make the whole thing taller to accomodate my pinky better, but few things are perfect.

K7 designed by Asians - i don't care who designs a camera i do care how prototypes are tested in the real world. I consider myself to have slightly smaller than average hands and fingers than the average 6 foot caucasian and whilst i agree that the K7 is very comfortabel to hold and shoot - did nobody user test the card access slot for utility/usability??? - i have great difficulty in removing a card and when successfull i have only a tenuous two fingered grip for the time it takes to make a transfer to my left hand.. any body else agree with me on this....i am a satisfied K10 and K20 user

[Torphoto]

For anyone complaining about the k7 ergos, go pick up a d700 or 5d mk2 and you'll suddenly stop complaining.

[nostatic]

For anyone complainign about the k7 ergos, go pick up a d700 or 5d mk2 and you'll suddenly stop complaining.

I totally agree with this. The 5Dmk2 creaks when you grip it and the D700 just feels wrong in my hand. I tried to like both of these but just couldn't. Sony a900 isn't much better.

K7 with a battery grip might be a winner for bigger hands.

[eva2000]

Then you are holding the camera the wrong way. There's only three fingers that need to fit the grip, including the pinky. The fourth finger press the shutter button and the thumb the rear of the camera.....

Sorry i might have confused grip as being the molded part of the body as i don't own the battery grip. Terminology wise my first finger is my index finger which is on the shutter, pinky is off the body or under the bottom of the body.