A video Pro's take on the K7

tacotim · 11-26-2009, 11:18 AM

I've been working as a documentary film maker and television cameraman/editor for the last 10 years. you can see my work at oidocumentary.com.
Photography has always been a hobby of mine, since i was a kid and I've been partial to pentax DSLRs, so when the k7 came out with it's video function I was intrigued. Now that I've tested it on a couple of mini productions I have a few thoughts I'd like to share.

First the good. The final image was OUTSTANDING! The MJPEG codec is a delight to work with and holds up to color correction VERY well. I'm very grateful pentax decided against the efficient but crappy for post work H264 codec that canon and others use. The pentax glass I used rendered beautiful bokeh and tack sharp images. The screen on the k7 made it very easy to focus. The ability to use a real Macro lens on a video camera with an aps-c sized chip was pure bliss for me.

The drawbacks: No manual control over the gain (iso) and shutter speed is pretty much inexcuseable. We were able to make do with the AE-lock, but we shouldn't have to. The exposure sometimes behaved unexpectedly, particularly with manual aperture lenses. The overheating sensor sometimes showed it's warning, so I was often turning the camera off to give it a rest. My only other complaint was not having a head phone jack to be able to monitor audio. We hooked up a wireless lav, tested it on another camera, then hooked it to the k7 and hoped that no problems would arise.

Links to the two videos we did with the camera are below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw4U39PN1zA

I wanted to add that the k7 will in no way replace our regular production cameras, but in the right conditions, it makes a really great tool.

-Tim

Last edited by tacotim; 11-26-2009 at 11:19 AM. Reason: adding info

Mystic · 11-26-2009, 12:44 PM

thanks for sharing,

I just bough K7, I've experimented with it, and thought it's cool, your videos show that it's able to do some quality footage, if you know how to use it.

Christopher M.W.T · 11-26-2009, 03:40 PM

Please email your local Pentax distributor mention the thread about Full Manual mode.

The more users that contact Pentax about this the better.

kenyee · 11-26-2009, 05:40 PM

Or email Pentax and Ned Bunnell your comments. I'm sure they'd like to hear from a pro videographer instead of us consumers ;-)

tacotim · 11-26-2009, 08:12 PM

yep, I've already sent emails to pentax folks expressing my recommendations. Hoping for some manual control in a future firmware.

-Tim

richtrav · 11-26-2009, 08:13 PM

Neat, glad they like it. Yes the quality with good light is right up there, if they don't provide manual control in the K-7 hopefully they will do so in the next model (it will pretty much be a must-have feature by 2010, along with 1080p I would think).

Just curious, did they use the default settings for the camera or make any adjustments to the image settings?

**Ash** · 11-26-2009, 08:19 PM

Well Tim - you've got creativity flowing in both your stills and movies with these videos.
Good hearing a critique from a video expert.

To me the movies are not quite as fluid as I'd like them to be, and some of the moving subjects seem to suffer from motion lag or some effect I don't know the name of that makes particular objects in the frame seem to loose smoothness when panning.

These are critiques on the results from the camera and not your technique at all...

**NaClH2O** · 11-26-2009, 08:40 PM

Thanks Tim for sharing. Most of the K-7 videos I've seen seem pretty amateurish compared to yours. Excellent work and it's good to know that the camera CAN do professional grade videos.

NaCl(I guess it can be a useful function after all)H2O

Andi Lo · 11-26-2009, 10:24 PM

If K-7 gets manual control and K-x doesnt (got forbid that it doesnt). Pentax can actually market this as a reason to buy K-7 over the K-x

kevinschoenmakers · 11-28-2009, 02:50 PM

You got some great footage out of the K-7. Lovely editing and music, too. I noticed you avoided too much movement, I guess the K-7 (and other dSLRs) are still lacking in that area. I guess this, and manual control, will be ironed out in successive installments though.

PNTXFTW12 · 12-04-2009, 05:39 PM

Originally posted by NaClH2O

NaCl(I guess it can be a useful function after all)H2O

Sorry to interrupt, but what's the point of this? I always see after all your posts and it just makes me go 'Huh?'

Anyways, great videos, they're both very natural looking, the use of the fish-eye is awesome.
Hopefully the next firmware update will adhere to the lack of manual control that most of us want.

osv · 12-04-2009, 06:53 PM

Originally posted by Ash

To me the movies are not quite as fluid as I'd like them to be, and some of the moving subjects seem to suffer from motion lag or some effect I don't know the name of that makes particular objects in the frame seem to loose smoothness when panning.

that was an astute observation... losing smoothness could be directly attributable to the bloated mjpeg codec that he was raving about, lol... mac people don't generally know how to handle h.264, and he certainly could have done a higher quality job with his youtube codec workflow.

the dolly shots stumbled too much, especially for a wide-angle lens, and the vimeo text was butt-ugly, but that was the best video work i've ever seen out of the pentax dslr.

it was textbook film-style shooting, every one of you should watch those clips over and over, until you figure out exactly how to duplicate his work... shallow dof to cover up the picture quality issues, and absolutely no zooming at all.

11-26-2009, 11:18 AM	#1
tacotim New Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Wasatch Front, Utah Posts: 12	A video Pro's take on the K7 I've been working as a documentary film maker and television cameraman/editor for the last 10 years. you can see my work at oidocumentary.com. Photography has always been a hobby of mine, since i was a kid and I've been partial to pentax DSLRs, so when the k7 came out with it's video function I was intrigued. Now that I've tested it on a couple of mini productions I have a few thoughts I'd like to share. First the good. The final image was OUTSTANDING! The MJPEG codec is a delight to work with and holds up to color correction VERY well. I'm very grateful pentax decided against the efficient but crappy for post work H264 codec that canon and others use. The pentax glass I used rendered beautiful bokeh and tack sharp images. The screen on the k7 made it very easy to focus. The ability to use a real Macro lens on a video camera with an aps-c sized chip was pure bliss for me. The drawbacks: No manual control over the gain (iso) and shutter speed is pretty much inexcuseable. We were able to make do with the AE-lock, but we shouldn't have to. The exposure sometimes behaved unexpectedly, particularly with manual aperture lenses. The overheating sensor sometimes showed it's warning, so I was often turning the camera off to give it a rest. My only other complaint was not having a head phone jack to be able to monitor audio. We hooked up a wireless lav, tested it on another camera, then hooked it to the k7 and hoped that no problems would arise. Links to the two videos we did with the camera are below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw4U39PN1zA I wanted to add that the k7 will in no way replace our regular production cameras, but in the right conditions, it makes a really great tool. -Tim Last edited by tacotim; 11-26-2009 at 11:19 AM. Reason: adding info

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11-26-2009, 12:44 PM	#2
Mystic Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Lithuania Photos: Gallery Posts: 490	thanks for sharing, I just bough K7, I've experimented with it, and thought it's cool, your videos show that it's able to do some quality footage, if you know how to use it.

11-26-2009, 03:40 PM	#3
Christopher M.W.T Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1,689	Please email your local Pentax distributor mention the thread about Full Manual mode. The more users that contact Pentax about this the better.

11-26-2009, 05:40 PM	#4
kenyee Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Boston, PRofMA Photos: Albums Posts: 3,026	Or email Pentax and Ned Bunnell your comments. I'm sure they'd like to hear from a pro videographer instead of us consumers ;-)

11-26-2009, 08:12 PM	#5
tacotim New Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Wasatch Front, Utah Posts: 12 Original Poster	yep, I've already sent emails to pentax folks expressing my recommendations. Hoping for some manual control in a future firmware. -Tim

11-26-2009, 08:13 PM	#6
richtrav Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: South Texas Posts: 82	Neat, glad they like it. Yes the quality with good light is right up there, if they don't provide manual control in the K-7 hopefully they will do so in the next model (it will pretty much be a must-have feature by 2010, along with 1080p I would think). Just curious, did they use the default settings for the camera or make any adjustments to the image settings?

11-26-2009, 08:19 PM	#7
Ash Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Toowoomba, Queensland Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 23,920	Well Tim - you've got creativity flowing in both your stills and movies with these videos. Good hearing a critique from a video expert. To me the movies are not quite as fluid as I'd like them to be, and some of the moving subjects seem to suffer from motion lag or some effect I don't know the name of that makes particular objects in the frame seem to loose smoothness when panning. These are critiques on the results from the camera and not your technique at all...

11-26-2009, 08:40 PM	#8
NaClH2O Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Bronx NY Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 5,631	Thanks Tim for sharing. Most of the K-7 videos I've seen seem pretty amateurish compared to yours. Excellent work and it's good to know that the camera CAN do professional grade videos. NaCl(I guess it can be a useful function after all)H2O

11-26-2009, 10:24 PM	#9
Andi Lo Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia Posts: 2,924	If K-7 gets manual control and K-x doesnt (got forbid that it doesnt). Pentax can actually market this as a reason to buy K-7 over the K-x

11-28-2009, 02:50 PM	#10
kevinschoenmakers Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Shanghai Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,509	You got some great footage out of the K-7. Lovely editing and music, too. I noticed you avoided too much movement, I guess the K-7 (and other dSLRs) are still lacking in that area. I guess this, and manual control, will be ironed out in successive installments though.

12-04-2009, 05:39 PM	#11
PNTXFTW12 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Vaughan, Ontario Photos: Gallery Posts: 269	Originally posted by NaClH2O NaCl(I guess it can be a useful function after all)H2O Sorry to interrupt, but what's the point of this? I always see after all your posts and it just makes me go 'Huh?' Anyways, great videos, they're both very natural looking, the use of the fish-eye is awesome. Hopefully the next firmware update will adhere to the lack of manual control that most of us want.

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12-04-2009, 06:53 PM	#12
osv Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: So Cal Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,080	Originally posted by Ash To me the movies are not quite as fluid as I'd like them to be, and some of the moving subjects seem to suffer from motion lag or some effect I don't know the name of that makes particular objects in the frame seem to loose smoothness when panning. that was an astute observation... losing smoothness could be directly attributable to the bloated mjpeg codec that he was raving about, lol... mac people don't generally know how to handle h.264, and he certainly could have done a higher quality job with his youtube codec workflow. the dolly shots stumbled too much, especially for a wide-angle lens, and the vimeo text was butt-ugly, but that was the best video work i've ever seen out of the pentax dslr. it was textbook film-style shooting, every one of you should watch those clips over and over, until you figure out exactly how to duplicate his work... shallow dof to cover up the picture quality issues, and absolutely no zooming at all.