Hands on a K7

[robert goldstein]

<p>The jury is still out on the K-7's IQ. From what I gather on the rumor sites, it may not be substantially better than the K20D's, which is plenty good, believe me, but not head and shoulders above the competition. The major question has to do with high ISO noise. It is absurd to think that this APS-C sensor will be able to match that of the D3/D700 in that regard.</p>

<p>Rob</p>

[miserere_mei]

<p>Somanna, you are a lucky man :-)</p>

<p>Thanks for the write up.</p>

[joe ogiba]

<p>I have the *ist DS2 and skipped the K10/K20 upgrade path and pre-ordered the K-7 the first hour it was on Pentax USA's store website. I will try some of my Pentax 6x7 lenses like my 135mm F4 macro and 165mm F2.8 with K-mount adapter along with my K-mount Sigma 15mm F2.8, 50mm F1.4 etc. </p>

[rose_duclos]

<p>God, I WANT ONE! ... when in July is it coming out? beginning or end? And, goodness, I need to begin saving now!<br>

Somanna, thanks for an excellent write-up. You're really bad for my CBA. But I appreciate it, anyway. :)</p>

[andrewg_ny]

<p>For the record, SF-series bodes also had built-in AF spotbeams. I think a drawback of these (and PZ-1p as well, I'd think) is that by building it into the popup flash and not having a user-selectable SB mode, you run into some of the same problems you have with the current strobed flash solution--hard to use the spotbeam without using flash because you'd need to focus, then close the flash before shooting. This K-7 solution seems much better.</p>

<p>As far as any initial shutter lag, I have a couple of thoughts though they're not exactly answers. One potential lag with these systems is SR-related; normally you'd want to half-press and wait a brief moment for the SR indicator to show. I don't think the camera locks up the shutter release for this though. The other is whether you're using AF.S or AF.C. When AF.S, I'd expect it to hang for a moment and not release until acheiving that (hopefully accurate) AF lock. If using AF.C, it's meant to be shutter priority and would normally fire even if it hadn't acheived lock yet. I haven't paid much attention to this in K10/20D though so am not sure how good it is in AF.C at firing the shutter if you just mash the button without half-press or lock first.</p>

[jtk]

<p>Moire can sometimes be seen in B&W prints of highly detailed "nature" subjects (eg in some tiny twigs in shots, K20d (and other APS cameras), that "really should" have been shot medium or large format.<br>

It'd be nice if K7 solved that. For me it's much more important than noise...which is no problem at all at 800. </p>

[mountainvisions]

<p>Adding to what Andrew said, I turn the SR off when shooting any action. 2 reasons...1) if the goal is stop action photography the SR probably isn't needed 2) while pentax claims otherwise, i notice lag with SR on that isn't there.</p>

<p>I might have a bad camera, or I might use it enough in these situations that I notice the milliseconds of lag.</p>

<p>FWIW, I've seen the IS on Canon L lenses taped off on pro sports photogs cameras. the explanation, so i don't accidentally turn it on, it slows the camera down. Maybe their SR/IS problem is perceived as well!</p>

<p> </p>

[teun_dijkstra]

<p>Hi,<br /> OP: "that back scroll wheel rests against your thumb" . Does it really rest against your thumb, or against your nose as well? Other Pentax bodies have narrow space between viewfinder and thumb wheel .</p>