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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-27-2010, 05:10 PM
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Just wanted to share my experience with those considering changing from another brand who may be interested in the K-5 and Pentax in general. :)
As a previous Nikon and Canon user, and also having time with Olympus E series, I thought it may be useful to share what I have experienced in trying very hard to adopt Pentax as my new SLR of choice. Just want to share facts without any emotions; I really have no set loyalty to any brand, and simply enjoy photography as I have since the good old days where I learned photography with a match-needle Canon FTBn and one or two prime lenses.
Background:
I've been using a Nikon D700 since the release back in 2008. Wonderful camera. Stunning IQ and it truly is the master of low light. I changed from a Canon 5D with many L's to experience the vasty superior AF and quality zooms Nikon offered. But with this change came the weight and bulk which I have grown tired of. Most of my photography is during travel capturing the places I visit for work which range from military outposts in the Middle-East to the islands in Asiana to arctic latitudes north of 70 degrees. The Nikon has served me well but the weight and bulk were slowly becoming reasons to leave the equipment behind. When the new Sony 16 megapixel sensor was announced, with excellent low light performance, I made the decision to migrate to this new "film" and buy into one of the bodies holding this sensor. Lenses had to be good; as an old school guy it is all about the lens and film or today it is the sensor. So after what I thought was adequate research, Pentax was the choice due to the following:
- K5 had the new Sony sensor in a small, rugged body
- K5 was weather resistant
- K5 had SR which I thought would be a big plus (all lenses would benefit)
- Pentax had small, compact primes with excellent characteristics
- Pentax had small zooms also weather sealed
- Zeiss and Voigtlander had Pentax lenses as options
- Pentax prices were reasonable considering the way things are these days
So I ordered a K5 along with a number of DA primes and DA* zooms.
Why not the new D7000? As being a Nikon user I expect folks may wonder why not stay in the same system, and I struggled over this. Ultimately, the reasons for changing were 1. I had little invested in Nikon (already sold off my Nikkors at a good profit because of the yen jump); 2. the small size of the Pentax primes were attractive; and 3. the SR and true weather sealing features sounded like advantages over the D7000. I wasn't concerned over the price delta between the two bodies, and really wanted to reduce size and weight which was the reason to change.
K5 Experience:
I've already posted my first experience which was receiving a body with a large cluster (not just one) of hot pixels near the left of center in the image. Although masked out for photos, the cluster was totally visible under video so this was exchanged for another body. Wasn't really too concerned as this is to be expected - hot pixels - in every digital camera. It's more a question of how many and where they are located. Near the center was bad. New body was fine for pixels; very clean with no hot ones in video or photographs. But here is when throubles start...
AF Issues:
Yes, it seems to be a real problem with the K5 and V1.01 firmware. The K5 has trouble autofocusing in low light levels. At first I thought it was the DA* lenses I had purchased as both would heavily (I mean really severely) front focus in low light indoor shots. It was perplexing as at the time in late November there wasn't much on the net from others saying they had this problem as well. Day photos were tack sharp, and the clue to low light being a factor wasn't easy to spot at first. Tried using the AF adjust but this would only make it worse at the opposite end of the zoom range, and then would totally be off under well lit conditions. So both lenses went back for exchange (these were the 16-50mm and the 50-135mm). The replacement 16-50 came back and of course had the same focus issue, but also had another problem which I posted which was a very bad horizontal shift when changing zoom direction. The shift was about 5% of the frame. The replacement 50-135 also continued to heavily front focus indoors where the light level was lower, or incandescent as some are theorizing. Both went back and I stuck with the DA primes.
DA Primes:
Fabulous! Absolutely wonderful - I would compete these against the best from Canon or Nikon. Very, very small and lightweight yet the results are truly impressive. I ordered the DA15, 21, 40 & 70, and all produced excellent contrast and sharpness. With the small number of lens elements I have to believe the T-stop values are quite high, and that they are actually faster than comparible lenses using more complex designs. But they are worthless if there is no body to use them with. And all had focus issues - working fine outdoors in decent lighting and varying degrees of front focus when shooting indoors. Disappointing to say the least as my hope of having a small, compact and lightweight 'system' started to become only just a hope. Also purchased some lower cost DA zooms and they too exhibited this front focus issue.
The infamous stain - the final factor:
Really didn't think there was an issue here but was proven wrong by my camera. Here is what it produces full frame at 1/125 and f/22:
Nice big black cluster in the near center of the frame. :( It shows clearly in any shot from around F5.6 up. That sucked...
And a close up (ignore the dust spot to left - the stain is to the right with halos and total group is about 8 spots):
So, this is where the story ends. The K5 is going back. The lenses are going back. I spoke with Pentax USA today and they confirmed this stain is a known problem and they also confirmed the low light AF issue. The words from their CS person was something to the effect of knowing there was a crisis or major problem with the K5. The CS person also said there is no known fix for the stain issue as in any no known good batches here in the US. And this was the deciding factor for my saga. I asked for a reference to a "good" serial number or batch for a camera and would be happy to take/replace my K5 for a known fixed one. But they stated as of today, December 27th, there is no known solution to the problem. So back it goes...
Really sucks as the prime DA lenses were fantastic and I had really hoped the rumors of a "good batch" had been real. I also would have held on knowing that Pentax was working on an AF fix but the tech could only say it is known issue and nothing else. Guess I needed to hear confidence which I didn't. So I will wait it out and see what happens over the next few months. Hope Pentax figures it out. If they do, I will be able to experience the DA's to their fullest! If not then I will be on another camera's website enjoying their product. Pentax has to make some tough business decisions as this is what it is all about - they're not making cameras to make us "happy" - they want to make money like any respectible company. And as of today I would say they blew it by releasing a product before its time probably due to the pressure of Q4 and Christmas sales. I've been there and I live it - the business side of things...
Thanks for reading. Hope this is helpful and again, no bias, no fanboyism, no trolling, no care for any brand. I just want to enjoy the latest in photography with a system that fits MY needs.
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