[Adam_T4]

The best bargain in dSLR history, IMO. Bit of a steep learning curve for a dSLR beginner, but posts fine results with not much input. I give it 4 of 5 Stars.

[Ben Hunt]

Got mine yesterday! I love it! I have used a K20 before and I have to say that the silent shutter, dang near instant shutter response and the better focusing and metering are worth it!

hehe, Don't tell me things like that...i just placed an order down for the k20d....

[Ben Hunt]

I hope you enjoy the K20 and glad I could offer some assistance.

As for size, I find it interesting in comparing my 3 bodies (I never sell anything)

K7 is about the same size as *istD, K10 is much much bigger. If a small size is a concern then K10/K20 (same body) are better, BUT while the K7 is a small body the feel and grip is much more positive than the *istD. So size is not the only criteria but the grip design as well.

However, unless you have specific needs for some of the other K7 features, the K20 is a good camera and offers excellent value with current pricing. My choise was to get a new / better high ISO performance than K10, and to avoid some of the same shortfalls as the K10 has with manual lenses. For me this suggested K7 was the better choise.

yea i will agree to, that in some respects the K-7 is a 'better' (using that lightly as it all subjectivie) camera but there is no real deal breaker.... And i think that i'm going to be quite happy with a K20D....

i figured that after i get the K20 i can just sell my K200D and grip and put that towards a 'K-7 fund', hopefully by then the price will have gone down making it a bit of a better deal...

wonder how much my K200D+ grip would go for on the marketplace....

[pentaxian_tmb]

Wow. how many people ordered a K20 this week?

[shaolin95]

I did. :-)

[rams]

i did too )) will be here tomorrow!

[rfranner]

I think you ended up with the right decision, because both the K7 and 20D are about equal in IQ; but having shot thousands of images with both DSLRs it amazes me how little play the K7's sensor-cleaning routine gets. Unless I overlooked something in this post, only bymy141 made reference to it in point form, along with other listed traits.
My iPhoto album bulges with images captured with *istDS, K10D/20D and they all have one thing in common: many flecks of dirt on the sensor visible in the clear blue sky of any image I didn't remember to fuss with in Photoshop.
Having just past the 2,000 mark with the K7, I'm pleased to note not one speck. An an (almost) pure user of ancient M42 prime lenses that must be screwed in and out in (sometimes) awkward circumstances, this is a HUGE issue and benefit.
Even more than the much more quiet shutter, solid feel, better display (920k-dot), and improved SR.
I wasn't being facetious: your hands dictated that the K20 is the best fit, but watch out for sensor noise going forward.
My smaller hands prefer the rock-solid K7.
But, having owned every top-end Pentax DSLR except for the *istD, I'm amazed at the reservations and negativity sometimes expressed about the K7.

[jboyde]

I shoot tethered a lot of times and until they make that a feature on the K-7 and their future lines I'm sticking with my K20s!

[hcc]

Ben

I would go immediately for the K-7. I bought the K-7 for AUD$1249 in Brisbane. You add the lens (~$100 for the 18-55WR) and you get a great, great camera for AUD$1350. It has movie mode, an excellent continuous shooting capabilities (5.2 fps and good buffer), and many more options.

Digital Camera Warehouse has the K-7 for AUD$1249 (or AUD$1349 with kit lens). This sets the price in Oz and most good camera store in Brisbane will match the price. In the negative, contact directly CR Kennedy that is always very helpful and will assist.

Since you mentioned continuous shooting, I suggest that you take a good SD card (eg class 10) to allow some good burst: I have the K-7 with a class 10 card. With a setting JPEG 6Mp, I can shoot more than 30 s at 5 fps and there is no real upper limitation but the card size

Go for the K-7.

Note as you see (below) that I did not go for the kit lens, but for two specific lenses, both purchased from North-America because they were cheaper. The lenses are expensive in Australia.

[JohnBee]

If you want ergonomics, FPS and video then the K7 is a no brainer.
However, if high ISO performance is on your list then the stay away from the K7. It tops-up at or about ISO1600 and goes downhill from there. The K20 can be coaxed up to aprox. ISO4000, though realistically it delivers ISO3200 consistently. I know alot of people don't see the K7 this way, but we hit a wall with the K7 pretty hard with noise in raw development as noise was a constant issue in shadow recovery and/or at higher ISO. Though the loose of usable ISO3200 was the most significant compromise in our case.

Also the K20D pricing really is a winning combination.
We use K20's all day long for work and they have proven to be very reliable camera's.
Great upgrade from the K200 btw(night and day)

[creampuff]

...However, if high ISO performance is on your list then the stay away from the K7. It tops-up at or about ISO1600 and goes downhill from there
...

I honestly don't know how you can come up with such an assertion on the K-7's high ISO performance. Can you provide us with some photos of you own as proof?
As a K-7 user I've really had no big issues in this area and certainly nothing that a careful use of NR software can't fix.

As a former K10D and K20D user, the K-7 is just a lot better.

[Reportage]

The K20D is a very good camera...in fact too good which is why Pentax may be neglecting to give it the firmware updates it needs.

kinda ridiculous when the most entry level Kx has more updates.

To me...if the K20D gets its updates, its like owning the 1D for a very very small price. And if needed, its 21fps burst mode has more then often given me pics that i can use.

[Class A]

What is it about Pentax's design that prohibits faster frame rates?

The bottleneck is the sensor. The K20D's sensor only got two read-out channels and you just cannot get the data off the sensor any quicker.

The K-7's sensor has four channels and that allows a higher frame rate (including decent video).

Note that the updates to the sensor also had a slight effect on the sensor's noise but I understand that it only very slightly increased, to a negligible extent in practical terms.

It is not easy to compare noise performance even when using RAW files. The K20D apparently applies higher NR even to RAW files (something Canikon have been accused of but only Pentax could be found guilty of doing so). If this is your thing, you can read all about it at DPR (watch for the excellent posts by GordonBGood).

In practical terms, however, only pixel peepers will worry about the noise differences between K20D and K-7. Once some PP has been done, I'm convinced, you wouldn't be able to tell which camera took an image.

I hope that Pentax will make a camera the size of the K20D but with the build quality and the features of the K-7 soon. EDIT: I initially wrote that I found less space on the K-7's grip compared to the K100D's grip. I was wrong. Still, I think slightly larger than the K-7 would suit me.

Everything else about the K-7 is just way better than the K20D, AFAIC. One thing that would really bother me about the K20D -- even if I could have it for a bargain -- is the screwed up AF under Tungsten lighting. The K-7 is the first Pentax DSLR to put that right and that feature alone is a big selling point for me. And then we haven't talked about the other 99 bells and whistles that have been added in comparison to the K20D.

[JohnBee]

I honestly don't know how you can come up with such an assertion on the K-7's high ISO performance. Can you provide us with some photos of you own as proof?
As a K-7 user I've really had no big issues in this area and certainly nothing that a careful use of NR software can't fix.

As a former K10D and K20D user, the K-7 is just a lot better.

That issue has been beaten to death and back more times than we could ever count and so I see no sense in opening yet another can of worms on such an overdone topic. The K20D has long been known(by those who cared) to have one stop over the K7 in terms of noise.

And of course you could shoot the K7 at ISO3200 with NR reduction.
Just don't expect it to match or exceed the K20 under the same conditions
As stated in my previous comment, we get full size prints up to ISO4000 with our K20D's which is something the K7 doesn't do either with or without NR and PP(trust me, we tried).

On the issue of ownership, I really don't understand what all the fuss is about. I mean... its not like Pentax doesn't manufacture lesser camera's with better performances. We own several K20 and then saw and shot the entry level Kx only to find it ran circles around them. So goes advancements I guess.

However... Pentax really didn't gain any favors in delivering an upgrade termed flagship with an inferior noise performance to its predecessor. Which really sucked for the rest of us K20 owners because many of us really wanted to upgrade.

Here's to hoping they will implement the Kx sensor in the K7 body soon.

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

The K20D has long been known(by those who cared) to have one stop over the K7 in terms of noise.

It's too bad that available samples don't support such claims:

K20D@1600 on imaging-resource
K-7@1600 on imaging resource

I don't see any significant difference in those samples, which isn't that surprising given that these cameras share pretty much the same sensor.