[paranoia23]

does the k5 has any advantages over the k30 in terms of video capabilities (beside for some ppl mjpeg) ?!

[silnabs]

I tested the K30 and the K-5 i can tell you that, the K-5 offer a better/sharp quality picture than the K30
Actually the K5 record in YUV 4:2:2 Uncompressed avi (similar as the MJPEG 2000) without any bitrate limitation
You can use many different color mode that don't have the K30 and try to have more precision on your picture... that is one of the best stuff of the K5
also don't forget that the K5 have a better dynamic range in video mode and capabilities picture than the K30

The K30 use a simple codec H.264 that every DSLR we know use (Nikon, etc...) is not that good if you have a bitrate limitation
also the pro is that the K30 have manual control in video mode when the K-5 don't have... it's a real shame that the K-5 don't have this possibility
but i talk with a manager of Pentax technical firmware support and apparently a new firmware is on the way to update the K-5 with this possibility

On my side i don't really like the K30... i feel the K-5 more stronger and more nice in use than the K30, i'm actually selling my K-5 because i still prefer to go back on a XDCAM/HandyCam...

Hope you make the right choice ...

I forget to say that have no mic input on the K30, the K-5 have one mic input that you can plug a external mic

[paranoia23]

what is the manual control of the k30 in video mode ?! arpeture ?! .. i would love to use manual arpeture control ^^

why is h.264 a simple codec ?! its more advanced (i and p frames) and therefore produced much smaller files ... also tested this on a k-x which is shooting 11 min on a 8gb card ?!

thanks for your impression!

[Anvh]

You also have aperture control with the K5 but not during filming unless you use a manual lens.
With the 5D mkII you could chose ISO, shutter and aperture, think the K30 is the same.

H.264 is a good codec for finished product, but mjpeg is better for processing (less compression = more information).

[silnabs]

Actually you can aperture control with the K-5 during filming you can't control iso/shutter but aperture yes
have also a tip to block the iso/shutter you want in manual mode and back to video mode that will keep the last setting you save on manual mode

[gofour3]

K5 & K30 video in the film section?

Phil

[paranoia23]

have also a tip to block the iso/shutter you want in manual mode and back to video mode that will keep the last setting you save on manual mode

does this also work with the k-x ?

[Adam]

does this also work with the k-x ?

I don't think the K-x let you control either of those, no.

[paranoia23]

like the k5?! thats why you should use this workaround .. or did i got it wrong ?!

[Nicolas_Rage]

I just registered so I can throw in my two cents on this topic. I felt it was time to upgrade from my K100D and was deciding between these two cameras, and for me video was a major consideration. When I first read about the K-30 I was psyched because it looked like Pentax might have finally got video right with this camera, but the more I looked into it the more it looked like a major downgrade in the video department.

My own research (reading reviews and my own subjective observation) corroborate silnabs'; the K-5 video has better sharpness, detail and dynamic range. This couple with less aggressive compression not only gives you better picture quality, but allows for a lot more tweaking in post without ruining the picture. The K-5 also has a mic-in port for an external mic (very important to me since I already own a Rode Videomic), and I believe the stabilization is actually useful for video, whereas on the K-30 it jitters constantly and the image is plagued with the jello vision effect.

Most importantly, I watched as much video taken by both cameras as I could. I'm most interested in taking video that has a very film-like appearance, and the K-5 achieves this. Even in videos where someone points the camera at random objects to just try it out, it often has a very nice film quality. I have yet to see a single video taken with the K-30 that did not look like it was taken with a consumer-grade camcorder (other than being able to achieve shallow depth of field).

The K-30, at least on paper, has a few advantages. Namely 1080p at 24 and 30fps, 720p at 60fps, more manual controls and smaller file sizes. But if you're sacrificing image quality to such a crazy extent, I don't see how it's really any kind of advantage.


So anyway, all that on top of the K-5 being of clearly superior build and generally agreed to be better for still photos, I went ahead and ordered it while I can still get it cheap. BuyDig.com has a good price, and they knocked off $25 with the code: BGSaveACool25

[FullertonImages]

The biggest difference to me is that the K-30 doesn't have a mic jack, which basically excludes it from any serious film making. Even when using a full separate second sound system, it's still very helpful to get decent audio into the camera to make the syncing up in post easier, and to function as a usable back up audio track. I'm pretty much never shoot video with the K-5 without it having an external mic plugged in. The K-30 is a great photo camera, and the video that comes out of it is very nice, and I'm sure many people would love it just fine. But the lack of mic jack, does limit it from certain applications.

[paranoia23]

hm ... at first the type of compression between the 2 is totally different ... the k5 doesnt use an inter-frame motion compensation which makes the files biggere ... even if the bitrate is the same (which i did not check).

the stabilization of the sensor is the same on both cameras

manual control of things like iso or arpeture is not a crazy extend

audio sample rate of the k5 is 32khz (which is not superior.. and putting a rode mic into the jack doesnt change that)

for me personally the 25fps only on k5 is an issue

(advantage of the k5 in stills ... where should that be beside the 14bit raw capability?)



dont get me wrong i dont wanna **** up ppl here with their k5 ... mindblowing apc cam at all (i only own a k-x with a broken mic ^^)
but for me its no big advantage for me because i the k-x has 24p and the k5 doesnt bring anything new .. for me!!
the thing is since i noticed the k30 has no focus peaking in video mode ... i wont buy that things either until there is a pentax cam which does that nasty trick

[Anvh]

The biggest difference to me is that the K-30 doesn't have a mic jack, which basically excludes it from any serious film making.

all serious film makers record audio external when shooting with DSLR...

[Nicolas_Rage]

For video, yes, the K-5 uses MJPEG compression which produces bigger files. This is because each frame is saved as an individual image with no frame interpolation compression (whatever it's called) applied. For quality, saving in this way is an advantage if you have plenty of data bandwidth but not so much processing hardware. With h.264 it's the opposite. You need much beefier processing to compress that data well and not come out looking like a Youtube video. And unfortunately, this is likely why the K-30 has much lower sharpness in it's video: Video - Pentax K-30 Digital Camera Review

24p would be nice to have on the K-5, but 25 is so close I doubt any person can see a difference, and it's able to follow the cinematic shutter speed rule more perfectly (24p should have 1/48 shutter speed, 25p 1/50). And if you don't like the 25p, converting it isn't a huge ordeal. There's not much you can do, however, with smeared details and blown out shadows and highlights. I do wish I could have 60p for slo-mo though.

For stabilization I haven't seen a direct comparison, but I've yet to see any video from the K-5 have the kind of jiggling displayed in this K-30 video:

You Tube

You Tube

And while the audio sampling rate is less than ideal, an external mic will pick up significantly clearer sound than an internal mic at any sampling rate.

Autofocus would be nice to have, but it's so bad on the K-30 that you would never use it while recording a film or anything meant to be watched and enjoyed. Also, the internal mic does a great job picking up the screeching of the motor as it hunts back and forth for it's subject:

You Tube

You Tube

For still photos the difference is less dramatic to me, but significant enough that I'd still prefer the K-5. Half the fun of photography is having a camera with a great control layout, and the K-5 wins with the top LCD, more buttons and better built body. I mostly do nature photography, and having a faster capture rate and deeper buffer helps get the perfect action shot, a quieter shutter helps to not disturb the subject, and ISO 80 with some extra bits in RAW helps take great, HDR photos of detailed landscapes.

[paranoia23]

Video - Pentax K-30 Digital Camera Review

this one is funny ... the video quality of the d5100 is nearly as good as the k5 .... but the d5100 uses the same codec as the k30 ... same thing with the rebel t3i in the chart ...so pointing the quality of the video sharpness on the codec is not right. (btw can u imagine how fast your sd card has to be to record 1080p 60 frames in mjpeg?! ... hell yea)