K7D

<p>By the way, many of the nikon people are not nearly as nice as most Pentax folks...Hate to say that, but that seems to be the case so far.</p>

<p>Javier if anyone was to get a D700 it had to be you. I mean, you had a 70-200mm 2.8 VR sitting in your closet. If having the combo doesn't give you joy you'd probably brake even selling both used on fredmiranda or here. That VR went up several hundred bucks on feb1st along with alot of nikon's better glass.</p>

<p>At least you get to check out whats up with biggie viewfinder, 6 frames per second, and other bells & whistles you may at somepoint care about. For me, I really enjoy the ultrawide perspective and their 14-24mm 2.8 is the Reigning King so I kinda had to add it once the price increases were announced. I could have adapted it for $250 instead but I've always been curious about nikon cameras. I gotta say the build quality on D700 is exceptional compared to my 5D.</p>

<p>I'm quite content owning D700, 5D & K20D. I don't know if I'll streamline my system after next 2 &1/2 years have passed once all outstanding factory warranties have expired on the cameras.</p>

<p>Lindy, ''YOU'' where the reason behind the purchase. What you said about the lens made sense to me. Of note..Something else Pentax needs to figure out what to do is the quiet shutter...It is really nice...Also the high ISO performance is amazing to me though I know this is a full frame deal.. Normally I call it a day when it gets to about 7:00pm or so, but with the D700 i was getting crystal clear images at ISO800 as if they where ISO 200 or so. This meant I was able to shoot for an extra hour and a half.</p>

<p><geek_alert></p>

<blockquote>

<p>This meant I was able to shoot for an extra hour and a half.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's like 1 extra stop of shooting time! :-D<br>

</geek_alert></p>

<p>Allrighty then:</p>

<p>Welcome to the Darkside ;^)</p>

<p>High ISO is pretty sweet too huh? I love the feel of the body, but since I shoot alot of verticals with 14mm or so I picked up the grip and second battery too.</p>

<p>Way back when I handled D700 big brother: D3, the nikon rep told me the FBI among other gov't agencies were buying up hundreds of D3 for night time surveilance/color photography. They found it SUPERIOR to their much more expensive and dedicated nighttime black & white systems. D3 & D700 use exact same sensor so be bold and shoot that 70-200mm 2.8 VR at 12,800iso & 25,600iso at night, in darkness. Nikon has my canon 5D beat at insanely high iso too. But I still dig my eos system and like you I'm lov'n the K20D.</p>

<p>Enjoy the Ride & incase you haven't seen D700 brochure its available for download here:</p>

<p><a href="http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/brochure/index.htm">http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/brochure/index.htm</a></p>

<p> </p>

<p>people have differing needs when it comes to a VF. My better AF film model VFs are superior to even that on my K20D, but the VF on my K200D is still very good, and goog enough for my use. VF brightness and clarity are important for me, however, because I don't usually want to take the time, or have time to resort to using the LCD for selective focus needs. That is the way I am, and yet for me, I have found the Pentax DSLR VFs to be good enough.</p>

<p>The K7D apparently promises to feature an improved VF.</p>

<p>The native amount of noise a 12mp FF camera must deal with is approximately the same as that of a 6mp APS DSLR. Further difference depends on in-camera processing. Smoothing out noise in-camera has thus far always compromised sharpness of detail to some extent. The in-camera optional NR of the K200D and K20D have been quite effective in dealing with moderate noise when set on "Weak" with hardly any loss of detail, because it is not overly agressive. I hope the K7D continues, and improves, this user-control philosophy.</p>

<p>But there is little doubt that a good software program can control noise best.</p>

<p>I have concluded that each format brings an advantage to the table. FF, or MF for that matter, has the greatest advantage in normal to wide angle. APS digital shines best in the tele range. As the writer of the recent article in Pop Photo put it, if you shoot a 200mm shot with FF, then crop it down to match what you'd get with the APS shot using the same lens or FL, you'd wind up with around 5mp. So you'd be better off taking that 200mm lens on a 6mp APS body, where you get the same degree of noise and yet more pixels. This is assuming there is not overly agressive NR in the circuit to gum up those pixels! The only other way is to put a substantially longer lens on the FF model, far heavier and more expensive. But then you could also put that longer lens on the APS body.</p>

<p>The 14-24mm f/2.8 should be great on the D700, and the 70-200mm provides the versatility FF is capable of, but better yet on the D300!!</p>

<p>That 70-200mm f/2.8 VR should be great also on a D80 body, or even a 6mp D40 for usng a compact body. Those two compact models have a reputation for good JPEGs.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>"This could very well be a photo of an early mock-up."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No. It is a fake badly made in Photoshop and it has nothing to do with the K7.<br>

(this is about the last image in this thread)</p>

<p>Lindy, From what I understand the D700 goes to 8fps with the grip. Have you found this to be so?</p>

<p>Javier, I do not think mine does 8fps. I think I have to buy the more expensive batteries to get the 8fps. I haven't tried but I kinda recall reading the batteries I own are not spec'd for 8fps. Instead of $40 ish per nikon battery I think I need the $100+ nikon ones. I'm not sure if my charger charges the expensive ones. The D3 comes with the pricey batteries, pricey charger, built in grip. But for me I slid into D700 due to price and I couldn't make sense out of buying at the time $4099 D3. </p>

<p>I'll look into it and let you know what I find out. As it is I haven't needed 6fps so I'm not up on this (yet) I really got the grip just for eazy-breezy verticals.</p>

<p>In truth, I can't see any reason why I even need faster than the 4fps i get with the K20D and Grip, but I will be buying the Grip for the D700 and I was curious.</p>

<p>Javier, I could be wrong about the 6fps vs 8 fps grip speed with my cheaper nikon batteries. I didn't get a chance to look it up but heres a detailed link that helped sell me on adding a D700 to my cameras kit:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.bythom.com/nikond700review.htm">http://www.bythom.com/nikond700review.htm</a></p>

<p>Hmmmm.... So is this pic real...?</p>

<p><img src="http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/2462/k71.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>It may be... As these are the same too....</p><div></div>

<p>And another....</p><div></div>

<p>Yet another....</p><div></div>

<p>Bummer, It does not look like K-7 has articulated viewscreen. I figured with video coming in all dslrs and success of G1 screen they'd include the swivel screen.</p>

<p>Have you guys got a credible K-7 launch price yet? or is it still in a range? Heck i haven't seen a credible launch price for 60-250mm SDM. Wasn't that supposed to be launched a few days ago?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.pentaximaging.com/camera-lenses/smc_PENTAX_DA_Star_60-250mm_F4_ED_(IF)_SDM/">http://www.pentaximaging.com/camera-lenses/smc_PENTAX_DA_Star_60-250mm_F4_ED_(IF)_SDM/</a></p>

<p>Maybe if we stitch all these photos together we'll get a complete camera LOL!</p>

<p>Thanks for the aditions, Duane.</p>

<p>Someone in flickr actually did collate few pictures together in<br>

<a href="

from ryeclifton's photostream<br>

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3314/3485645560_2443fb1668.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Thanks Hin, that's a cool collage.</p>

<p>I found this shot on <a href="http://pentaxdslrs.blogspot.com/">Yvon's blog</a> :</p>

<p><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EO9piAKCkcU/SfkDgLbT5AI/AAAAAAAAEc0/Xgmj-ZdSLNo/s400/K-III-www.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="157" /></p>

<p>If that's an AF assist lamp next to the shutter release, I'm going to jump for joy :-)</p>

<p>Other than that, I just want to say that it's pretty ballsy of Pentax to write <em>enjoy waiting</em> on the photo. Did they finally create a marketing department?</p>

<p>Not that anybody's checking this thread anymore, but...</p>

<p><img src="http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/ss27/vitalsax/k7b.jpg?t=1241129964" alt="" width="386" height="217" /></p>

<p>Mis, is that the K7 with grip?</p>

<p>Javier, I don't think it is, because the buttons are in different places and the left side is too big. The flash also seems to stick out too much. Is it one of the *ist D series of cameras?</p>

<p>That lens looks good!</p>

<p>Miserere...you're wrong when you say...</p>

<p><em><strong>"Not that anybody's checking this thread anymore, but..."</strong> </em></p>

<p>I do...... and several times every day.... can't simply stop looking...</p>