Pentax Q7 Review

User Interface

The Pentax Q7 employs the same basic user interface used on other recent Pentax models.  This latest iteration of the UI, though, has gotten a significant facelift which makes it even more user-friendly, for the most part.

On this page we'll give you a detailed walkthrough of the Q7's interface, and we'll also point out differences between it and the original Q interface where appropriate.  There are also a few new quirks that we'd like to mention.

Live View

The live view display lies at the heart of the Q7's interface, as this is what you'll be looking at most of the time while using the camera.  Compared to many other cameras, the live view display offers plenty of customization.  You can choose to use 1 of 4 grids, view a live histogram, get the camera to tell you what areas are overexposed, and even ensure that your horizon is straight using the electronic level.

Using the info button you can also choose to disable all the information display so that all you see is the image and nothing more.

The Q7 support focus peaking in live view (except when recording videos) and magnification when focusing manually.  These features will be discussed in more detail on the AF page.

As a supplement to live view the Q7 has a status screen, which is accessed by pressing the Info button once.  This screen allows you to quickly change key shooting settings on the fly, and it really comes in handy during everyday use.

Pentax Q7 status screen

The status screen is discussed in more detail on the next page.

4-Way Pad

While in live view, the 4-way pad is used to access the flash, white balance, drive mode, and ISO sub-menus, as shown below.  Having dedicated buttons for these features, like the status screen, is very handy.

In addition to choosing from a number of white balance presets or setting the color temperature manually, each preset can be adjusted to your liking by pressing the exposure compensation button while in the white balance sub-menu:

White balance preset adjustment

We find this degree of customization to be quite impressive for a camera this small.  Simply put, the Q7 retains most DSLR-grade menu features but in a smaller form factor.

Main Menu

The Q7's main menu uses a simple tabbed layout broken up into 5 main sections: shooting, movie, playback, settings, and custom function.  Compared to the menu of the Q and Q10, the Q7's menu is slightly easier to read and browse, as a bit of padding has been added below each individual option.

Refer to the screenshots below for an overview of the type of options the Q7 offers.  Note that many of the options found on the first 4 menu screens are also adjustable via the status screen.

Playback Mode

In playback mode, the Q7 offers 5 different views for displaying images: standard information, detailed information, histogram, RGB histogram, and no information.

Pop-up menu allowing you to choose which information to display alongside the image

In order to cycle through these views, one must press the Info button and then use the directional buttons to select the desired view from the pup-up menu that is shown.  This is a bit tedious; on previous Pentax models, the Info button simply cycled through the screens without displaying the intermediate menu.  This annoying change was also recently rolled out on the K-50, Pentax's new weather-sealed DSLR for 2013.

While browsing photos, you can view individual files as well as a thumbnail or folder view.  You can also zoom in on a photo using the rear control wheel on the camera.  The directional buttons are used for cycling through photos.

The Q7 includes a number of retouch options in playback mode; the retouch menu is accessed by pressing the down button when viewing a photo.  Among other things, the retouch menu allows you to develop RAW files in-camera.  This menu also counter-intuitively lets you store cross processing effects (My1, My2, My3) as well as custom smart effects (User1, User2, User3), which will be based on the settings used to capture the photo currently selected.  Apart from this and the annoying information display sub-menu, we have no real complaints about the Q7's interface.

Read on for an overview of the Q7's shooting modes.