Originally posted by BigMackCam "Sadly that isn't the case"... generally, or for
you? (see what I did there?
). I can only speak from personal experience. I get a huge... HUGE... benefit from SR on my stills photography that I find to be really very significant indeed - yes, there are limits, and in some cases you will still get blurred images - but any feature is only
so powerful. All the reviews seem to confirm my findings, too, more or less. Maybe our shooting conditions and settings are very different. Maybe if you posted an open question on the forum asking who finds the SR on stills photography genuinely useful, you'd get a representative view rather than just my own. What I'm stating is only my personal opinion from my own experience.
I don't doubt that it helps most people, and yes, it does help, but it's not a mind blowing change. It's more subtle for me. I got more keepers with my *istDS with 6 MP vs the K-5 with 16 MP, despite having SR (yes, the added resolution makes it hard).
Quote: I don't think Ricoh has an attitude towards video, just a prioritisation based on what it feels is most important to its core customer base. And I'm sure with every product it releases, there's acknowledgement that a certain subset of potential buyers will wish for more in certain areas. This is not an attitude (that would suggest an active negativity towards video) - it's just a set of business decisions, really nothing more than that. If you look at it your way, you'd almost feel discriminated against... if you look at it my way, you might merely be a little disappointed
I didn't mean attitude as in they dislike it, it's more like... they think of it in a certain way... that people who use video on their Pentax DSLRs just want to take casual cat videos and stuff, whereas my opinion is that that's gross misuse of a camera (yes, I did take cat videos too...). Is it possible, yes, but that's like using a 645Z for selfies. It can be done of course, but it's kind of missing the point. For that, get a camcorder (or to stay in the selfie analogy... a point and shoot or smartphone). DSLRs are most suitable for more serious/ambitioned filmmaking, not super casual stuff that needs convenience. Shooting video with a DSLR isn't convenient. It requires practice and skill and some understanding of the technology involved. A mode (like PASM) where they don't hold any punches and give the user more control, even if it's confusing, has downsides etc. would be very much appreciated. As you said before, everything has downsides. A camera that is great for one thing may not be so good for another thing. A feature that is great for one thing may have certain disadvantages that the user should be aware of. That is true for pretty much everything in a DSLR. Auto mode gets decent pictures all the time, but you don't have full control. M means full control, but you can screw up. JPEG is convenient, but you can't do much to the photo in post. Raw takes up lots of space, and is less convenient, but you can do so much more with it. For video, Pentax wants to protect users from themselves, but in doing so they severely limit the device. I think it's even a bit insulting to believe that their users don't understand what the effects of SR are, and that they can't deal with the noise. It may be true for some, but that's what the manual is there for. That's what you can use pop-ups for. SR will never be 100% silent (it is very much so on the K-5, but I suppose their bar is very high...?). Sony and Olympus offer SR during video, and I don't see much complaining...
Quote: People on video forums get excited by a Pentax camera release? Why??!
Seriously, though, it must be obvious by now to the digital photography and video community that video has not been, and still isn't, a priority for Pentax DSLR products. Video enthusiasts can wish, we can all wish, for better video capability, but the majority of Pentax users are simply more interested in stills photography - and, whilst I appreciate that the K-1 doesn't hit the mark for you on stills either, there is a large community of Pentax fans that is really excited based on the specs and feature list of the K-1 - with its various limitations understood.
Because they don't know about the (probably unnecessary) limitations. They think... the price is good. Hardware is similar to the D810 IIRC, so that's good. A flippy screen on a pro-level FF DSLR!!! That's a first, and super useful for video. Shake reduction... useful for video (and surely that feature must be activated, right?). Some know that Pentax makes/made great primes for manual focusing. Yeah, 1080p at 30 fps is a bit of a let down, but if all the other things are true, then the camera is a bit of a dream come true. Not suitable for all tasks, but a nice tool in the bag.