Hi All,
Sorry for the delayed review. I've been playing this camera (pre-production w/ a firmware of V0.3) for several days. What a great little camera! After playing this one, I just can't live w/ the K10D camera (thanks James who lent this one to me to play until I got the K-7
).
Here are some of my findings so far:
1. The camera is a beauty! It's small and classic, way better looking than any dSLR camera available on the market (to me at least). It is small, but feels very sturdy w/ its magnesium alloy shell over stainless steel chassis.
2. The shutter is so quiet, never had any camera which has a quieter shutter sound.
3. The shutter lag is so short, almost non exist, makes the camera even responsive.
4. 100% viewfinder makes composition much easier, what you see is what you get!
5. AF speed is quite a bit improved both under good light and low light, and the improvement for non-SDM lenses is even more obvious than SDM ones.
6. AF accuracy is improved too, especially under tungsten light.
7. Auto White Balance is improved, especially indoor under complicated light condition.
8. Shake reduction is even more effective.
9. 5.2 FPS might not be useful to guys like me, but I'm sure quite some guys would benefit.
10. The big 3" LCD is a big improvement over previous models, great for reviewing photos, live view or taking videos.
11. The LCD screen will rotate to any of the four directions automatically when you turn the camera, yes, even you turn it up side down. What a cool feature.
12. 77 multi segment metering makes matrix metering even accurate.
13. AWB under tungsten light has two level of adjustment: subtle or strong correction, to suits users preference.
14. The new battery lasts even longer than the K10D/K20D ones, can easily take 900 to 1k shots on one charge.
15. The green AF assist lamp is effective, makes AF possible under very low light.
16. HD Video is really cool, but since there is no AF at the moment, not so easy to use, yet.
17. The improved CMOS sensor still take great sharp photos w/ excellent colors.
18. The new WR kit lens is a great pleasure to use under light rain.
I might forget something. Will add in later. Are these good enough for upgrading from K20D to K-7? You bet
Here is the body comparison between K-7 and K10D:
You can see the K-7 is slightly smaller, but when you hold both, you'd feel the difference is quite big. K-7 just feels better balanced when held in hands.
The new D-LI90 battery vs the old D-LI50 battery, they are pretty much the same size, but have different profiles and contact pins. The new battery has higher capacity, lasts longer than the D-LI50 in my experience:
The new charger is quite a bit smaller than the old one, a good news for travelers I guess:
Under Tungsten light the AF accuracy is much improved. AWB is a lot improved too. Previous Pentax dSLR cameras all have some front focusing issues when used under Tungsten light, seems K-7 fixed this problem.
K10D + FA77 under Tungsten light:
K20D + FA77 under Tungsten light:
K-7 + FA77 under Tungsten light w/ subtle AWB correction:
K-7 + FA77 under Tungsten light w/ strong AWB correction:
Matrix metering is much improved: Shake reduction is even more effective, I can take reasonable good shot w/ a 250mm lens at 1/20s speed:
I feel very comfortable to use even a tele lens under low room light condition:
The new WR kit lens is really a plus for such a small K-7 camera:
This combo takes excellent photos w/ great colors. Here are some photos taken in light rain, w/o any post processing except resize and slight sharpening:
Some more photos by the kit lens:
And I really love the color produced by this new camera. Here is one taken w/ the FA*80-200:
Two more w/ a FA77:
Sorry I have to post a couple of bigger photos to show the potential of the new camera mounted w/ a lens like FA*80-200:
I've got a lot sample photos to show. But left them at home. Can't show them until tomorrow...
Last edited by Damn Brit; 06-08-2009 at 10:23 PM.