A photo friend told me this is from the official press text and I trust him:
video modes are:
- 640 x 416
- 1280 x 720 @ 30 fps
- 1536 x 1024
"beautiful movie clips"
"High-quality still image recording at 720p 30fps"
No word on limited or unlimited recording length. The text suggests that the other modes are 30fps as well. But it could be an "intended misinterpretation". No word if exposure controls or contrast AF are availabe while shooting a video.
And yes, the press text confirms contrast AF and face recognition contrast AF in LV mode.
My personal verdict:
The press text does not indicate that the hardware specs with respect to video have been upgraded from a K20D. Every feature from the press text could be brought to the K20D with a firmware upgrade.
Maybe, there is a hardware upgrade. We will have to await first hands-on tester reports to know. The press text doesn't answer this question.
Without a hardware upgrade I am able to tell that the 1536 x 1024 mode will be a gimmick (upscaled from 768 x 1024 internal). But true 720p will be nice if implemented correctly (no bad subsamping color aberration artifacts as with K20D). But even a nice 720p mode doesn't make the K-7 a DSLR video shooters first choice ...
--- EXCEPT FOR ONE POINT ---
The K-7 may not do any video compression at all, just JPG. If there is no time limit, this may be a VERY interesting feature for DSLR videographers which then have full control over compression quality.
Side note: Assuming one 1280x720 frame is 1 MB (30 MB/s!), then a 4 GB SDHC card would hold 2 min 13 sec before the card would have to be flipped.
Of course, the lack of compression, level of control and quality of implementation of the 720p mode may make the K-7 stand out. But we won't know before June.
Last edited by falconeye; 05-12-2009 at 05:48 AM.
Reason: added comment about compression