Dear Adam, i greatly enjoyed your K-30 review. This one is more like a presentation of a product. Skipping this aspect, pls note there are a few spelling errors in the review (i don't bash your hard work, i simply had had higher expectations from this review):
- in background, it should be written approach. As a couple of users said, the same battery from K-5 is NOT compatibile with K-5 ii. Have you checked it for yourself ? (if i'm not mistaking, on dpreview forums was this info).
- in general use, you state that the shutter is rated for 100,00 actuations, a tenth of what should be. Otherwise, 10,000 actuations is very low for a DSLR camera.
- in test charts, it should be written apertures.
As a non-user of a DSLR & a wannabe, who i have only heard of Nikon in this world of inter-changeable lens, i find the K5-ii to be very appealing, since i will use it for pictures. For videos, are video cameras which can record Full HD for longer periods of time than 20-30min, the actual limit on current DSLRs. As for weather resistant, i guess is NOT such a big hype to tout - the possibilities of shooting outdoors & get caught in the rain are quite small. Besides the fact that when it rains one can get only rain drops in bokeh style pictures - i guess. This, added with the fact that the impervious body is not at all well protected when one uses a non-WR glass on it, means this feature is mostly for marketing purposes. If one reads the web, one gets tales of Nikon DSLRs used at -10Celsius or in mild rain, so this is not the discovery of the wheel. I would also note that the in-body shake reduction system is not the next best thing, as what other users say. (same forum mentioned earlier, i suppose). Perhaps the approach of having the compensation system in the lens instead of the body has its advantages. This is a company decision which probably won't change ever, but it doesn't mean it should be used as a heavy marketing tool. Perhaps the competition takes good technical decisions also, besides having a good PR machine. My 0.02$.
In summary, instead of Nikon D7000 which pours oil into the sensor +35mm f1.8, one can buy a K30 + 18.105WR lens or K5-II +18.55WR lens. At least this latter two options are not prone to same problems.
Also you can add to your battery of tests one that should includ a dark, cold room -something resoning to a cave, that is.
As for me, i wish you would have tested the K5-II also against K-30, a product released this year. I understand the need of comparation with K-5 in order to sort things out for current Pentax users, but in the same time you should have thought at prospect buyers, and at an even rare kind, a Pentax future buyer. As is now the case, from what i've read here in there, K-5 II is a better option than K-30, but the latter comes in blue, which takes great shots, since the person in front of the camera is mesmerized.
As for the rest of unsatisfied with what Pentax added to this body, and since you -plural- are connasseurs, you're the next step after the pixel-peeper kind, you're the technology-peeper. It's good to have you around, but pls don't be too vocal. Pentax as an entity knows it's way & although is not sharing its vision with us than in the form of finite products, the company will continue to exist until it doesn't, if you get my drift. Pentax has an advantage of being the underdog - this gives the company the opportunity to act as it pleases, since it won't catch the first two players per volume of units sold, thus not competing only for the sake of competition; or putting it in other words, to release on an annual base new products just to have a busy product line, where one cannot distinguish one product from the other & the company itself would be having difficulties in promoting the right message to the customer. Pentax approach (sic!) has the user in the center of the universe, instead of profit. At least this is how i see things.
I would end this writing saying i disagree with your conclusion, that a 2-year old K5 is better than the new K5-ii. Only from the technological point of view, if product X is created now & product Y was created 2 years ago, plus X is slightly better than Y but in no case worst, then X should be the obvious choice, recte K5-ii. Since you would benefit also from the additional warranty, for example, which in the case of K5 is gone - just saying.