Latest Updates: Pentax K-7 Reviews RSS

  • 2009 Digital SLR Group Test

    12:33 pm on August 19, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , , , Pentax K-7 Reviews, Sony A700 Reviews

    If you’re still agonizing over which mid-range DSLR to purchase, perhaps ePHOTOzine’s 2009 DSLR Group Review Report might help.

    The article compares 5 DSLR bodies: Canon EOS 50D vs Nikon D300 vs Olympus E-30 vs Pentax K-7 vs Sony A700.

    The A700 emerged as the overall winner, with the following verdict:

    The Sony Alpha A700 wins because of the specification being so similar to the other models, it gives good noise performance, has great color rendition and a good dynamic range that seems to work even when dynamic range compensation is switched off.

    A useful summary of pros and cons of each camera is given at the end of the review.

    Group DSLR Test at ePHOTOzine - Summary of Pros and Cons

     

  • Pentax K-7 Review in Amateur Photographer Magazine: Paraphrased

    10:03 am on August 10, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , , Nikon D300S Reviews, Pentax K-7 Reviews

    Paul Graber posted excerpts from the K-7 review (which was written by Angela Nicholson):

    … she likes the camera quite a lot, finding it “extremely comfortable to hold and use”. She likes IQ and detail resolution, and unique-to-Pentax features such as built-in level adjustment. Live View now fully rounded and of genuine use. During review process, she adds latest firmware and notes improvements. But she finds a few niggling problems:-
    * AF improved, but still behind Nikon and Canon
    * Viewfinder not that comfortable to use and a bit gloomy
    * Menu system less flexible than competitors

    Also, the Canon 50D and Nikon D300 / D300S might be preferred by sports photographers for the Autofocus speed, but “… landscape, still-life and macro photographers could well prefer K-7.”

     

  • NeoCamera.com Reviews The Pentax K-7

    4:22 pm on July 28, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews

    In their full review of the Pentax K7, the following conclusion was reached:

    The Pentax K-7 is a DSLR with an incredible feature-set, no other camera does everything this one does. Its wealth of features, many of them unique or uncommon, helps users take better pictures. The combination of automatic horizon correction, 100% viewfinder and built-in stabilization gives relief to the photographer, letting him compose and frame with greater ease.

    Image quality is very good with generally low noise and high details. Color accuracy and white-balance are impressive and extremely flexible, as are image parameters for detailed control over the way images are captured. The K-7 is also a fast and responsive camera.

     

  • 7:48 am on July 25, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews

    Pentax K-7 Review: Image Quality – Duplo:

    I am through the editing of the acceptable part of 1000 frames, I will need to see the prints before being making my final judgment, but based on what have gone through editing, IQ is excellent for what I need it to do, save for a few things that I will get to.

    Base ISO is generally excellent, ISO 200-400 decent and ISO 800 is there if I absolutely need it as a last resort, but definitely not good. Anything above is a no go for the work I do, luckily it bought it for use at low ISO and as a travel camera and thus I can live with the limitations.

    DR (Dynamic Range) is lacking in general, not overly so, but high contrast is unfortunately not something I can avoid shooting, which is why I see the limitation, a little noisy at base ISO too in certain situations, but overall the lack of DR is the one issue I can find across the board and it gets worse fast as you raise the ISO.

    Colour accuracy and tonality is generally in the good to acceptable range at low ISO, at higher ISO or in shadow areas it is a little lacking, but for its class it is very good.

    I still think that it will deliver excellent prints at base ISO and all the way up to ISO 200-400, but as we leave base ISO I will need to work a little more to get what I want from it.

     

  • 7:30 am on July 25, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews, Pentax K-7 Tips

    Sensor Shake Reduction On The Pentax K-7: Too Slow To Kick In? – Duplo:

    Well, this is really a mixed bag and perhaps the one place where Pentax has a bug to fix, the SR simply is too slow to kick in, that we now notice is something that speaks as a compliment to the improvement to the AF system, but that really is no excuse.

    The solution so far, is to disengage the AF from the shutter and use the AF button for that instead.

    That allows me to warm up or keep the SR spooled and have it ready when I hit the AF button and press the shutter all the way.

    Slightly different way to work and take a little getting used to, but it solves the issue and that is what matters.

     

  • 7:27 am on July 25, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews

    Pentax K-7 Review: Ergonomics and Handling – Duplo:

    I called it build to pro standard and the Ergonomics follow suit, by far the body from Pentax that suits me best, I never liked the K10/20D body without grip, however I love the K-7 without it and as it is meant to be my compact system, then it is definitely good news.

    It seems like so many details have been refined, button layout, the slant of the e-dials, it all comes together nearly perfect.

    I can handle this camera all day and it still feels right and comfortable at the end of the day. I dare saying, that it feels as good in my hand as the D3 and that is quite a compliment.

    The handling is definitely great too, in some ways it is a little too consumer friendly, but once some of these features, like the info screen and other stuff has been switch off in the menu it starts to handle near perfect.

    [...]

    The viewfinder is an improvement too, so nice to finally get what you see and just that.
    It is a much more responsive body too, mirror blackout and shutter delay feels much better, the shutter feels and sounds better than any previous Pentax body I have handled, still a touch wimpy sounding, but almost there.

     

  • 7:20 am on July 25, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews

    Pentax K-7 Review: Build Quality – Duplo:

    Finally A Pentax body that is build and feels like a pro body, now you may argue that so is the K10/20D, but while sturdy bodies, the K-7 takes the construction quality to a for pentax new level. While it does not entirely match the solid feel of the Nikon D3, then I do think that has more to do with weight than actual build. The K-7 feels extremely solid. I would not hesitate bringing it anywhere and that says a lot.

    And I have tested it. I shot a heli take off from the moraine next to the huge Icefiord glacier. The helicopter sent a piece of rock flying, that rock took the DA21 right through the lens hood, and literally shattered the protective filter and knocked me off my feet.

    The DA21, K-7 and a fairly black and blue me, came out just fine. I am just glad that I had a camera in front of my face when that rock struck me  It sure is a very tough little camera and no do not ask why I chose to shoot a heli take off with a wide angle lens.

     

  • 11:03 am on July 24, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , Pentax K-7 Reviews

    Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i / 500D vs Pentax K-7: Low-Light Video / Movie Recording – Mike Perlman:

    In low light, the Pentax K-7 did an admirable job of adjusting the Auto exposure, and we loved the ability to zoom in and out. However, noise levels were off the hook in extremely low light environments, but at least the Pentax K-7 provided a visible display. The Canon EOS 500D (Rebel T1i) could not even handle to low light whatsoever, so the Pentax K-7 took the edge there. We feel that the Pentax K-7’s HD video quality suffers from first-generation syndrome, but based on the quality of some of the camera’s top video clips, we can only expect great things in the future.

     

  • 10:47 am on July 24, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews,

    Pentax K-7 Review, Sample Photos and a Video Clip at InfoSyncWorld – Mike Perlman:

    Pentax is one of the top manufacturers when it comes to image quality on the intermediate/semi-pro level, and we knew we would be capturing a few magazine quality shots here and there. At ISO 100, we experienced microscopic levels of noise, if it even existed. The new processing succeeding in reducing noise slightly, and noise is a difficult thing to stave off, especially with a high-resolution sensor. Colors were stunning, and the level of control we had over hues and tones was nearly overwhelming. The Pentax K-7 also captured images with razor sharpness, though we had to adjust the sharpness level on a few images in order to dial back the intensity. We also rarely encountered any fringing, and we achieved some of our best shots at night with awesome exposures, courtesy of a slow shutter speed.

    At the end of the review are links to full-resolution sample images and one movie clip (view in HD on YouTube).

     

  • 7:08 pm on July 21, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , Pentax 50mm f/1.4 Samples, Pentax K-7 Reviews,

    Pentax K-7 High-ISO Portraits – Endless debates on the noise of the K-7 vs K20D will probably never end, but these photos are fantastic.

    Peter Jonkman says:

    Coming from a humble *ist DS, K10D and K20D I do not use ISO 1600 and 3200 that often, but I’m well aware of the fact that many here think that the noise of the K-7 is bad. I beg to differ. The noise may not be less than in the K20D, but it’s definitely less obtrusive and easier to clean up in the post-processing stage.

    Peter also shows an example of an ISO 3200 image after having run Noiseware noise reduction on it.

    Lenses used for the portraiture were the DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL Weather Resistant kit lens and the Pentax SMCP-FA 50mm f/1.4.

     

  • 4:50 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , Pentax 50-135mm Reviews, Pentax K-7 Reviews, , , Sigma Flash Macro Ring EM-140 DG Samples, Tamron 1.4x Teleconverter, Tamron 70-200mm Samples

    K-7 user opinion and photos by Dale108 – Highlights:

    1. The Pentax K-7 feels solid.
    2. Fast start-up times and responsive.
    3. AF is much faster than on the K20D. Focusing with the DA* 50-135mm lens was possible even in an almost dark room.
    4. Focus was fast and sure for wildlife photography using the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 and a Tamron 1.4x TC (teleconverter). See the woodpecker photo at full size.
    5. Illumination for the the two butterfly photos, at ISO 1600 (see full size) and ISO 3200 (see full size, or a 100% crop), was provided by a Sigma Flash Macro Ring EM-140 DG.
    6. RAW conversion was done in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW – the EXIF shows that Adobe Photoshop CS3 was used).
     

  • 4:08 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews,

    Pentax K-7 Handling and Feel – Initial Impressions by Wheatfield – Wheatfield compares the K7 to the K20D:

    It feels smaller than the K20, but at the same time, just as substantial. It does fit my hand better, and the vertical grip is more rounded on the front, making it more comfortable as well. There is more grip to grip, so to speak. There are a LOT more menu adjustments, but they’ve done away with the pagesand pages of depth, instead opting for a tabbed style of menu, with only one page of depth per tab.

     

  • 4:05 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews

    Can’t stop praising the K-7’s shutter – “Eagle” just loves the Pentax K-7’s “awesome” shutter action.

     

  • 4:01 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax DA 15mm Samples, Pentax K-7 Reviews,

    Initiating video mode on the K-7, and a sample clip, by Ben Coffey – Ben says:

    Steps to video is: click to Video mode, Focus, Click Shutter. I seen somewhere someone said the steps were too many because you have to press Liveview first, this is not the case.

    He’s shared the following 6-second Pentax K-7 footage (the Pentax DA 15mm f/4 Limited lens was used). You can download the WMV (Windows Media, 1280×720, 5.03MB) file if you register for free at Vimeo.

     

  • 3:51 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , Pentax 50-135mm Samples, Pentax K-7 Reviews, ,

    K-7 opinions and sample photos by Karen – Karen used the Pentax DA 18-55mm WR and Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 SDM lenses to photograph the images that she shared in this forum post.

    Her feedback on the K-7 is positive: Much quicker auto focus (even in low light) compared to the K20D, great exposure, quiet and smooth shutter and changing ISO is very quick via the use of a button.

     

  • 3:32 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax DA 16-45mm Samples, Pentax K-7 Reviews, ,

    K-7 HDR example images by Andrew Britten – Two re-sized JPEGs compare the use of the High Dynamic Range setting on the K-7 vs a normal image from the Pentax K10D.

    Lens used was the Pentax DA 16-45mm f/4, and Andrew added that the the K-7’s shutter sound is very impressive.

    Andrew posted another set of K-7 photos which show the differences between HDR at OFF, Setting 1 and Setting 2.

    Read Jack Howard’s article on the K-7’s HDR capabilities.

     

  • 2:14 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , Pentax K-7 Reviews

    Pentax K-7 RAW files and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? – According to Jimbob Productions, the PEF files from the K-7 can be processed in Lightroom 2.4.

    However, the current version of Lightroom cannot read the K-7’s EXIF data.

     

  • 2:12 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews,

    Pentax K-7 feedback by Jimbob Productions – Superb 100% viewfinder, doesn’t underexpose as much as older Pentax Digital SLR cameras (for instance, compared with the K20D in capturing pictures with bright skies), improved SR (shake reduction) and the electronic level is very useful.

     

  • 2:04 pm on July 6, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Pentax K-7 Reviews,

    Pentax K-7 – First impressions by John Cafarella – Compared to the K20D: Better autofocus (AF) and Automatic White Balance (AWB) in incandescent halogen lighting, less banding in dark areas at high ISO values, extremely refined design with short mirror blackout times.