This camera has noise levels ALMOST on par with the D600 and in body shake reduction, great image quality and it only gets a SILVER award mostly because of video focus?

I agree with what has been said, there needs to be a seperate VIDEO category.
Personally I dont care about making movies, and i bet most here do not.

This camera is currently the bargain of the century here in the UK. The price has dropped down to £319 with the £50 cash back promotion running. I am buying as soon as I have some cash, hello Pentax you got yourself a new customer. I am sure you will make back the money on the limited pancakes I will undoubtedly buy.

It is nice to see that user feedback here has led to many error corrections (thanks Lars).

However, if small typos like "viewo" are fixed, could someone please add "two control dials" to the "Pros" list and mention "focus peaking" somewhere?

Come on, guys, you are reviewers, aren't you?

Copy/paste: "Unlike many of its competitors, the K-5 does not allow you to take any still images during video recording."

I've never seen a DSLR with Two control dials at this price point, if that's a first in the industry at this price, I'm wondering why that's not even pointed out in the pro's column of the conclusion.

Just the same Pentax pulled an ace on this feature. Quite a fine move.

Fine review, thanks.

This is one of best cameras this year.
We SHOULD buy one.

Me? I don't have bucks, sorry.

There is an important element which is hard to find in the test reviews, and I think it might be important to know: the shutter lag. For people taking action shots this will be a valuable information, since some cameras, otherwise impressive in specs, take simply too long to execute.

After reading that review, i suppose that DPreview will give a terrible note to Leica cameras which don't support videos !

Downrating a photographic tool because of video performances, that's just silly.

Pentax K30 = brave and well chosen feature set
For a product to be great for a specific customer class the designers must make tough choices. I you avoid them you either end up with something too big and expensive or useful for a too little customer base. I always felt that Pentax Gestalt is about the best value for money with the best usability packed into the smallest package. The K30 holds very true to this unique Pentax Gestalt. This might explain the polarized postings below. If you shot with a Pentax for some time, you know why you love it. If you are used to the Canikon Gestalt, you might make a comparison on paper which does not give the right picture. Pentax cameras and ( some of their ) lenses are designed to bring joy to the photographer without breaking his back and bank. It is a pitty dpreview only got it half. If they do not get it, who will? Photographers shopping for a DSLR system have a right to know what a Pentax system can ( and can not ) do for them.

Top of APS-C DSLR class in noise characteristic but short of Fujifilm X series for overall APS-C noise characteristic.

Kinda a weird series of cameras. More flair than Canon, Nikon & SONY and offers some unique selling points but overall not as refined as the big players and some questionable MSRP.

THe list is the range of dslr that doesn't cost more than 700$ ....

I pick in amazon bodies only:

Pentax K30 659$
Nikon D3200 597$
Sony SLT-A57 699$
Canon T4i 739$

The K-30 have in this list:

The best image quality in raw.! ( apart Nikon D3200 for a little )
The best low ligth quality!
The best vewfinder / screen rating!
The best Ergonomics & handling ! ( apart canon T4i for a little )
The best performance ! ( apart sony 's for a little)
Same focus acuracy for all this cams

The only one that have weather/dust/cold proofing!

What a good photographer will ask to a cam? yet , it's going to figth with the 1000$ bodies!!!!!!

And , because this cam doesn't have good video, it receive only 78% ????
Hey, come on, DPreview, go back to earth and give me professionals reviews please!
Is the name DP review synonim of Digital Photography??????

Looks like a nice camera.
On the other hand Pentax are again applying NR to raw files. And it seems even more aggressively than before.
There is a lack of fine detail in the high ISO raw shots/comparison page. How did DPR miss this or not mention this limitation?

Not sure if I understand the scoring regarding video.
When you compare the video scoring with:
1. K-x
The k-x actually scored better even though the K-30 looks miles better???
2. k-5
The k-5 scored almost double that of the k-30. Again, apart from external mic and HDMI the K-30 looks significantly better than k-5.

I have read that manual video controls are better than many of the latest competition. What am I missing?

To say that Pentax does not have lens comparable to Nikons or Canons is not saying the truth . Pentax has very good lens in it's stable . Apart from this I would like to say that right now DSLR cameras , even the low cost ones are very far ahead in image quality then what we use to get three or four years ago .

That being as it is to say that this brand or that brand has better image quality is nonsense . What we should be looking at when we by a DSLR camera , even a low cost one is Manufacturers customer service and it's line of lens and flashes and the availability of them in the area where you live .

I am not so concerned with "Exceptionally low shadow noise in RAW files at low ISOs". Instead I would be more concerned if there are any cameras in this category that don't have "Exceptionally low shadow noise in RAW files at low ISOs".

The K-30 may be a very good camera (leaving the reliability issue of Pentax DSLRs aside), but it only makes up one half of the image quality equation, with the other half being the lens in front of the sensor. Unfortunately the Pentax DSLRs suffer from a lot of cheap lenses with poor optical qualities, or very expensive lenses with acceptable, but not exceptional optical qualities.
For example, the Pentax SMC 16-50mm f/2.8 lens is over $1400 at reputable dealers like B&H photo, but this lens only gets 3 stars out of 5 (or 60%), for optical quality from the Photozone lens review. For value and the ultimate in optical lens quality, Nikon is a much better choice for lenses than Pentax, which makes a Nikon DSLR the better choice for a camera.

I think this is harsh on Pentax. They've worked hard on a well priced budget DSLR that even by DPR's own admission is pretty hard to fault for stills shooters.

It deserves Gold on this basis alone.

pentax makes great cameras, they need to make good lenses. At the moment they have only a few. Second, I would still make optical IS on some lenses, as it is way better than in-body IS.

Its a solid camera. Ergonomics are nice with the extremely deep grip, live view is very useable too; AF speeds are on par with the K-01.

If anything this camera is a K-01, with DSLR bits on top.

Wow, a review! I was beginning to fear this site was being run by D-preview instead of DP-review!

Great camera, very very much so for the money. If I started with a system now it would be this.
Hands down best value out there. When it comes to video, I thought this was a photography site, right ?

The first thing I read on reviews is the Conclusion... such as Pros - Cons... and Good for or Not so good for...

Well, the only one damn thing "Not so good for" to put on the K-30 is: Video shooters.

In other words, the K-30 is good for every occasions, except shooting (serious) videos. Do we buy DSLR cameras for shooting videos?

How can the scoring in build quality from

Pentax k-30,Nikon D5100,
Olympus OM-D E-M5,Canon EOS rebel T2i 550D,
Canon EOS 600D T3i,Canon eos 650D T4i,
Sony SLT-A77,Sony Alpha DSLR-A550,Samsung NX210

Be the same??????

How can it be that the best low end DSLR ( one of the best image quality, and the only one with weather /dust/cold proofing) at that price ( time when the review comes out) of 650$ be so badly reviewed?

Dpreview from 5-7 years ago was I thing professional....

I own the Nikon D5100 which uses the same sensor and goes for almost nothing nowadays, and yet this tempts me. Larger viewfinder, YouTube mode controls don't get in the way, it can run on AA batteries if the lithium fails (granted, I've never had that problem). Still, I'm happy with my D5100 overall & changing systems is something one should never do lightly (even if I only have the 50mm 1.8 G & 18-105mm VR) & the D5100-D7000 are due for updating.

But if the D5100-D7000 replacements get that relatively crappy D3200 sensor, that would be disappointing. Posters have suggested the updated bodies won't have the same sensor as the D3200--I hope not. The reviews for this sensor are far more glowing, & I have that now in my D5100 anyway.

And yes--WHO CARES that it doesn't have a dedicated YOUTUBE button? I don't do video in DSLRs anyway, & I don't believe in it. I'm GLAD it doesn't have such a button, that alone almost makes me want to buy it just to throw my support behind that decision.

haven't read the review yet, but ... waw, that's nice of you guys there at dpreview and ... thx :-)

Trying the studio test applet shows the K-30 besting the K-5 with ease at most ISOs and most settings (not surprised).

The studio comparison applet has its faults, as further changing the cameras included in the test, to include the D3200, makes it evident that the D3200 is wrongly focused - things in the foreground is far sharper with the D3200 than those in the background, but it is also the only camera focused like that (at least the only out of about 10 we swapped between).

So it needs very little to get the wrong impression of a camera included in the studio test.

-----------------

Ashwins is right saying the percentage rating is a bit childish, as every user has his own priorities.

I dumped my Pentax gear after having had issues both with manufacturing quality, and the response from those in the know at Pentax, that certainly didn't go all the way to correct the faults they knew of - for instance the focusing motor issue in certain lenses, like the lovely DA50-135.

I quite liked the DR section of the review, disspelling the myth DR is about highlight tonal curves of the JPEG output. DR of the sensor is fully determined by the SNR. All the rest is about curve tweaking done either by the in-camera development subsystem (also errorneously called "the JPEG engine"), or a computer development software.

The fact that tonal response curves vary so much even between technologically similar image sensors is mostly due to the firmware differencies.

All right, is this Digital *Photography* Review website, or Digital *Video* Review website? Isn't it about time DPR finally makes some clear decision towards evaluating those two separately?

And leave right to some companies still more interested in photography than in video to make great *photography* cameras, in which case lack of extra video features should not be taken as 'cons'.

As Apple CEO Tim Cooks said, making a great product means making some hard decisions. Every good designer knows that. I see part of reason DPR exists is to educate too, and not to dumb down either great products, great sacrifices needed to achieve such great products, nor dumb down their potential users.

To me the whole rating system is kind of childish... especially the percentage value..

The rating system how, for example, PhotographyBLOG rates the cameras makes much more sense (1 to 5 stars in half stops), because the real "rating" really depends upon the features that are important for a particular user—and that varies.

"This and the fact that the K-30 is the first DSLR we have seen in quite a long time that does come with a dedicated movie button make it clear that ambitious movie makers are not really the K-30's target audience."
You meant "that doesn't come with a dedicated movie button" :)

There should be two final ratings - one for the stills, one for the movie capabilities. The K-30 would have gotten a gold award if it would have been regarded as what it is, an excellent stills DSLR.

This is why manufacturers have to implement video features at all despite the camera could probably be a better stills camera for the money if the video stuff whould have been left out. You need to have the features because of the final rating which is what most readers remember in the end.

We have finally reached the point I feared this hole video stuff would lead to: "Coffeemachine of brand A makes better coffee than the machine of brand B, but brand B machine makes milk foam also so it is the better machine".

Pentaxforums has already done K-5IIs review. Here it takes 1/2 year to review any pentax product. Why?

I'm not an expert on Pentax DSLRs but I still recall previously that their RAW files immediately include noise reduction and praising the K-30 with good noise performance would mislead some people.

Very good review.
Maybe embedding videos that show certain features like AF speed would be nice.

Regarding the cam :
The weather sealing could be more emphasized since it's one of the best if not the best. That might be a strong selling point for certain kinds of applications.

Great Review, now please take review of Fuji X-E1 on the board :)

Very good high ISO image quality and good detail up to high sensitivities. Nice camera.

I wonder if it might make sense to have completely separate silver/gold awards for video and for still photography? They're really very different use cases, and I know there's a trend towards converged devices, but it's a shame that a camera which really focuses on being a great camera gets dinged in the awards because it's not a camcorder.

Good for you DPr, at last you get it out, congratulation.
Now, general value of the K-30(78%) must be at least 2 points over the Canon T41(78%). The Pentax it´s a jump foward on DSLRs range offer, but the Canon just a little step foward, if not it means nothing too different from the T2i.