First, congrats LaurenOE for the great vids, sure the slider helps a lot for cinematographic-like sequences, it perfectly fits the subject you are filming, and gives life to those old buildings. (tehre seem to have small stutterings in some movements, are the movements like that or it's youtube encoding? do you use SR ( stab) when recording? )
About the original threafs question about K-5 vs 5D/7D, I have the chance to own a k-5 and have a 5D at work + lots of collegues using 7D for video purpose.
Here are the pro and cons:
pro:
-Mjpeg compression for pentax vs H264 for canon: the files are definitively bigger, but the quality is here, especially if you want to make post-production on your footage ( color correction, you can get stuff in the low level without too much compression artifacts), you could even try some green screen keying, should work better that h264.
honestly, for the pro, that's all , but so important. (no temporal compression in mjpeg also makes it less cpu consuming in editing softwares like premiere, all you need is a good mjpeg decompression codec, and good hard drives to keep the bandwidth, your cpu won't be hurt)
-k-5 doesn't seem to have problems with lights frequency ( which is the result of a con, shutter speed is auto)
-k-5 has built-in stabilization, functionnal in video, but some times movements are to hard to stabilize, and the result becomes crap, the counterpart of stab is what you see in the live view is a bit delayed, your actions sound to you like if you are drunk ( :) )
-the rolling shutter effects seem less visible on k-5
cons:
-on k-5 you can't adjust shutter speed (there is a trick to make it , but it sounds to me more of a legend that a real way of working, as it's not operable and reliable on real live recording context)
-on k-5 you can't adjust iso (same shit as shutter speed)
-you can only adjust aperture before you record, or let it auto (worst of all, cause it would change your DOF during the shot),
------>anyway you can lock the exposure to prevent the k-5 to try and autoadjust shutter/iso/aperture, globally the operating mode is to setup your shot, your aperture, light mesure mode (spot/global etc..), let the k-5 adjust iso and shutter, then lock exposure and start recording ( if you don't do that, exposure may change during recording, resulting to a camcorder-like looking footage)
If you have lenses with an aperure ring, you can use it when recording , k-5 will compensate exposure if you don't lock exposure, it's really fine with old prime lenses that all carry an aperture ring, a cheap 50M F2 becomes a killer lens for video, smooth focus ring, aperture ring, you'are set up.
-no 60fps mode, even in 720p
-1080p is only 25, not 24 or 30 for now ( i don't care, i'm in France, here it's 25 :) )
-no way of injecting custom color curves for video, but you can adjust the built-in ones ( on canon, you could build the color curve that applies to the sensor signal before it gets encoded, lots of people use some "log-like curves to prevent blacks and whites to be clipped, and compensate it in post-prod)
-file size is limited to 4GB, which makes short movies in fullHD mjpeg ( about 4/5 mins if i remember well), on canon there is not such limits and h264 offers a better size/duration rato
-SR ( stab), and the way sensor is carried n the box (center by electro magnetical system) is noisy, if you want to attach an external mic to the hotshoe (flash) mount, you'll have to buy a suspension system
same on both:
-no AF when recording (you can choose beetwen built in AF or contrast detection with zone setting on the live view, both work correctly , but real AF is better in low light, it just makes the mirror go down and up the time to focus)
->no one cares about that, real focusing on video is manual, and if you want smooth focusing, buy a follow focus gear :)
-no focus indication (some other brands -nikon?- have implemented a zebra functions that shows high details/contrast to help focusing) , it is sometimes hard to check fine focus on the built in screen , especially outside with small apertures
-no pixel remapping in video mode : you'll probably have hot/dead pixels and will have to live with it, 5D/7D also do, i don't think the remapping is possible real time in video( as they don't use all the sensor lines/rows in pentax, they could let us select which set of lines we use and see which has the least number of hot pixels, if i remember weel, in canon the image is the result of a mix of rows, so hot pixels are merged with correct one, nothing to do for them)
EDIT:Gimbal's trick works, remapping is possible in video, but it's a trick, a firmware could make it persistent
-sensor becomes very hot on both canon and pentax in video mode, and you will sometimes have to stop recording cause the heat sensor will stop it to protect it's sensor.
-32Khz mono audio recording ( mic input is stereo but still 32K) an external recorder is a good investment if you wan't real sound
As you can see, a lot of differences, but nothing that could'n be solved with new firmwares, i just wish pentax will understand how video mode is making the difference today for a lot of prosumers (you just have to see how much 5D/7D are used for indie/music videos /documentarys today)
In my opinion, the k-5 has better sensor with better dynamics ( even vs 5D really), better encoding for quality, it just lacks the basics features (iso/shutter setting) + 60fps 720p and 1080p 24fps + curve customization + a workaround to 4GB limitation ( back to back file recording), and it would jump a big big step vs canon.
Sorry the post is a bit long, but there is so much to tell about that beloved k-5 :)
also sorry for my bad english, I'm French
