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A K7 owner talking about their new K7 -- in email form :)

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Jack Simpson

Jack Simpson

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Yes, I do have my K-7, and it's fantastic!

I've been playing around with it for the last couple of days (will post images soon) and it seems to be an improvement in every single department even if you're coming from a K20D, and for me, coming from my two K10Ds, it's a quantum leap!

Here are my impressions so far.

What I like about it:
  • FAST autofocus! On both screw-mount and SDM, bright conditions or dark. And it's not just my verdict, my Nikon user friend had said the AF on my K10D was a bit slower than the one on her D200, but she was in awe of how fast the AF was on the K-7. The AF-Assist light is also a welcome addition.
  • High ISO noise is much better controlled than on my K10D, now I can actually use ISO 1600!
  • Metering is almost perfect, many times more accurate than the type found on my K10D.
  • Auto-Whitebalance is amazing, dead on for any situation, no more over-yellow tungsten lighting.
  • Dedicated buttons for ISO, white balance, drive mode and flash settings, are more than welcome!
  • How quiet the camera is! Makes rangefinders blush. The feel of the shutter mechanism is just amazing, you WANT to take more pics just to hear that well dampened and refined sound.
  • Viewfinder blackout by the mirror assembly is much much shorter and the moevement of the mirror is smoother, in comparison the K10/20D mirror assembly movement feels like recoil from a rifle!
  • How tough it feels, yet is light and small - in comparison the K10D feels "rubbery and soft"
  • Love the chunkier handgrip, the grip is actually bigger than the 10D's while the camera overall is smaller
  • Control wheels are so much better, they feel more accurate and effective than the ones on the 10/20D
  • Love the fact that exposure compensation now goes to + -5, instead of + -2!
  • The SD card door is great, much quicker to operate and saves room that would otherwise be taken up by yet another turn switch, I liked this style ever since I first encountered it on the K100D
  • Viewfinder is slight bit bigger and a bit brighter but mostly similar to 10/20D.
  • LCD screen is gorgeous! Reviewing images and movies on it is a joy.
  • Fantastic movie mode! But make sure you find a decent external mic.
  • Level indicator function has already come in handy, I really appreciate it, it was my pet peeve not getting the
horizon properly leveled, now I can!
  • The list will keep growing, as I try out more things.
What I'm still getting used to:
  • Control layout, thought different, is logical, so I will probably get used to it quickly.
What I haven't tried yet:
  • P-TTL Flash performance.
What I don't care about:
  • Live View... couldn't care less about it. Comes in handy when shooting video, and maybe for some awkward shooting angles, but that's it.
Don't pay attention to pixel peeping whiners, those people never take photos, all they do is complain about tiny subtleties of the hardware. Hope you get your K-7 very soon!

Cheers,

Jack_/
--
MY BLOG.... http://www.nakedmanonawire.blogspot.com

MY EMAIL ADDRESS IN IS MY 'VIEW PLAN'

It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one is doing :)
 
Congratulations Jack! Nice review...clear, concise and valuable! Maybe you will let me play with it a bit when I come for my visit with you. Have fun with your new camera mate!

Best regards
Leo
--

K20D: Pentax DA* 200mm f2.8, Pentax DA* 55mm f1.4,Pentax DA 35mmm f2.8 Limited, Sigma 17-70mm Zoom, Sigma EX DG f2.8 70mm Macro, Sigma 105mm f2.8 EX DG Macro
mitch
 
Thanks Jack for the great feedback. I am also looking to move up from the K10D and after all the initial negativity about high ISO noise, your experieces have convinced me to do so. There also seems to be a lot of good feedback coming through now from many others on this forum.
 
Thank you for the review, I'm looking forward to upgrading from my K10D to K7 as well! Can you comment on autofocus selection and exposure bracketing? Does it become instinctive after a while or do you wish to have those the way they were on the K10D? I use exposure bracketing and autofocus selection alot and was disappointed about the extra step(s) needed.

and I completely agree with your sentiment in your last statement.
 
I back up almost everything Jack has written, and I have also moved up from the K10, and I can back up Jack's list of improvements. I think that yes, ISO noise is more prevalent in the shadow areas, but I only noticed this when using a "fill light" slider on Adobe Camera Raw. The K10 is a little better in rendering shadows. On the other hand the K10 was a chronic underexposer compared to the K7. With the K7 I use -.7 or - 1 EV to avoid clipping highlights. I don't use over 1600 ISO, and I don't do street photography in the dark! It would be great to have better high ISO performance but all the other features of the K7 compensate for that.

Adam
Roland303 said:
Can you comment on autofocus selection and exposure bracketing? Does it become instinctive after a while or do you wish to have those the way they were on the K10D? I use exposure bracketing and autofocus selection a lot and was disappointed about the extra step(s) needed.
Click to expand...
I can comment. I have gotten used to pressing OK before pressing on of the four-way buttons, and you can still select focus while looking through the view finder. See this post by Peter Fang:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=32385158

Can say anything about bracketing as I haven't tried it out yet.

Adam

--
'Photography is nothing else than a writing of light' - Eduardo Cadava

http://adamaitken.blogspot.com
http://www.pbase.com/adam_aitken

PPG - http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/adamaitken
 
Jack,

Thanks for posting your thoughts on this camera. Where did you purchase it from Canada? I'm stuck out here in the East, and Henry's is a bit overpriced.

Thanks
Thomas
Jack Simpson said:
Yes, I do have my K-7, and it's fantastic!

I've been playing around with it for the last couple of days (will post images soon) and it seems to be an improvement in every single department even if you're coming from a K20D, and for me, coming from my two K10Ds, it's a quantum leap!

Here are my impressions so far.

What I like about it:
  • FAST autofocus! On both screw-mount and SDM, bright conditions or dark. And it's not just my verdict, my Nikon user friend had said the AF on my K10D was a bit slower than the one on her D200, but she was in awe of how fast the AF was on the K-7. The AF-Assist light is also a welcome addition.
  • High ISO noise is much better controlled than on my K10D, now I can actually use ISO 1600!
  • Metering is almost perfect, many times more accurate than the type found on my K10D.
  • Auto-Whitebalance is amazing, dead on for any situation, no more over-yellow tungsten lighting.
  • Dedicated buttons for ISO, white balance, drive mode and flash settings, are more than welcome!
  • How quiet the camera is! Makes rangefinders blush. The feel of the shutter mechanism is just amazing, you WANT to take more pics just to hear that well dampened and refined sound.
  • Viewfinder blackout by the mirror assembly is much much shorter and the moevement of the mirror is smoother, in comparison the K10/20D mirror assembly movement feels like recoil from a rifle!
  • How tough it feels, yet is light and small - in comparison the K10D feels "rubbery and soft"
  • Love the chunkier handgrip, the grip is actually bigger than the 10D's while the camera overall is smaller
  • Control wheels are so much better, they feel more accurate and effective than the ones on the 10/20D
  • Love the fact that exposure compensation now goes to + -5, instead of + -2!
  • The SD card door is great, much quicker to operate and saves room that would otherwise be taken up by yet another turn switch, I liked this style ever since I first encountered it on the K100D
  • Viewfinder is slight bit bigger and a bit brighter but mostly similar to 10/20D.
  • LCD screen is gorgeous! Reviewing images and movies on it is a joy.
  • Fantastic movie mode! But make sure you find a decent external mic.
  • Level indicator function has already come in handy, I really appreciate it, it was my pet peeve not getting the
horizon properly leveled, now I can!
  • The list will keep growing, as I try out more things.
What I'm still getting used to:
  • Control layout, thought different, is logical, so I will probably get used to it quickly.
What I haven't tried yet:
  • P-TTL Flash performance.
What I don't care about:
  • Live View... couldn't care less about it. Comes in handy when shooting video, and maybe for some awkward shooting angles, but that's it.
Don't pay attention to pixel peeping whiners, those people never take photos, all they do is complain about tiny subtleties of the hardware. Hope you get your K-7 very soon!

Cheers,

Jack_/
--
MY BLOG.... http://www.nakedmanonawire.blogspot.com

MY EMAIL ADDRESS IN IS MY 'VIEW PLAN'

It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one is doing :)
Click to expand...
 
thank you Jack, this is a sigh of relief after all the usual bashing from a few. Mentioning ISO 1600, I have seen comparison shots between the K20 and K7 from the other forum in all ISO's and I must say that the K7 shots are better looking, not much mind you, but still there.Since the K20 have already a good high ISO capability, the K7 output is an added bonus.The detail can be clearly seen. I will eventually get the K7 myself. Thanks for the thread.

cheer,

Rene
 
Hi Jack

So you obviously like the K-7 then! I'm toying with changing my K10D for a K-7 and you're doing a very good job of convincing me. It's extremely expensive here in the UK at the moment though so I may wait a little while...but not too long!

Regards

Nigel
--
Confused of Malvern
'The greatest fool can ask more than the wisest man can answer'
 
Someone has commented that the K-7 IQ is not remarkably better than the K20D. Of course, the K20D was great, so that's not saying much. There is a lot that I find about the K-7 that is helping me get more good pictures than previously (K10D, K20D, K2000).

Here is what I like:

I like the size and weight. I like the grip.
I like having the option of video even though it's not my #1 feature. I like the much improved AF.

I like having the digital filters that the K2000 has, including in-camera "developing"-it's just plain FUN.

I like the layout of the buttons, and I like what they have assigned buttons to.

The menu system is much quicker to navigate than the K20D (which I own) and pulls a lot of good ideas from the K2000 (which I've owned).

The metering is much better. I almost never used the auto-multi-segment option for the metering on my K20D but on the K-7 it works extremely well and I've been delighted with it. I like the quieter shutter sound.
My aging eyes very much like the new display size and brightness I like having a functional live-view system.

I like a pop-up flash that sits higher and does not throw as big a shadow (sometimes none) with lens hoods attached

I like that it seems the overall accuracy of exposure with flash is much better than the previous K's and is really good. I think my images look better.

I am not a real pro at post-processing, but I never was able to apply noise reduction and sharpening well; but the K-7 images, when they need it, seem to "clean up" easily and beautifully. The "noise" is more tame-able (?) I like the auto-focus assist lamp

All of these might not make the best image of the K-7 any better than the best image of the (amazing) K20D. But I think it makes my typical K-7 image better than my typical K20D image. I seem to get more "keepers" from the K-7, probably for the reasons noted above, all of which help me get the best out the camera more easily and more consistently.

A master photographer can get great images out of any working camera; but amateurs like me appreciate the assist that the K-7 provides.

--
----------
Lawson G. Stone
I don't make history, just memories.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/lawsonstone/
My 365 Photo Blog
http://www.stonesfence.net/StonesFence/Project_365/Project_365.html
 
I agree with just about all of Jack's impressions.

Overall the control layout is much more logical, though it takes a little getting used to. I'm surprised how much I like the dedicated ISO button.

I like the SD card door too. Others have griped about how difficult it is to remove the card. The card does take an extra second of grasping before I can pull it out, but the additional time and effort is less than it takes me to find and pull up the latch on the K10D.

My major complaint so far is focus point selection. If it would just stay in one mode or the other I could get used to always pressing OK to select focus point. But once you're in focus select mode, if you chimp or change lenses, it reverts back to the default mode. I only chimp a fraction of my shots, so I'm usually in focus select mode. The mode is indicated in the viewfinder, but as someone with ancient eyes who wears glasses, I often have a hard time reading the status row in the viewfinder to confirm which mode I'm in, so I have to guess (often wrong). Worst case is when I want to quickly move the focus 2 or more points to the left. I hit the left arrow button several times rapidly to move it. If I'm in the default mode, the first press brings up the WB menu, and the next couple of presses change the WB. By then I've realized I'm in the wrong mode - but now if I press OK to switch modes I've messed up WB. I must take my eye away from the viewfinder to press the Menu button to cancel the WB change (I don't use the Menu button enough to remember where it is by feel yet). THEN press OK and move the focus point. By then, the bird I wanted to focus on has long since flown away.

Despite my gripe with focus points, I consider it fairly minor. On the K10D, since the selection arrows are all on one big button, I frequently would hit the wrong direction. Moving the point 2 to the left often caused the focus point to take a roundabout journey up, down and right before finally making it 2 to the left, by which time the bird has long since flow away. So it may even out in the end. :D

--
Alan
http://blandcanyon.zenfolio.com
 
Alan,

Due to the complaints about the AF focus selection points, I contacted Ned Bunnell and asked him to alter it. It also drives me a bit crazy at times!

My suggestion is that when you have selected the "Focus Point Selection" on the focus switch, ie the switch above the LV button, where you can select either "Centre Focus Point" or "Manual Focus Point Select" or "Auto AF Focus Point", that the camera automatically defaults to using the 4 way controller for focus point selection. You would only press the "OK" button to then access the other menu items on the four way controller like "WB", "Timer" mode, "Flash" mode and "Custom Colour". When you have finished your selection in any of these menu's and press the "OK" button to finish, the camera would automatically revert back to "Focus Point Selection" if the focus switch is still in the "Focus Point Selection" mode.
Gordo said:
I agree with just about all of Jack's impressions.

Overall the control layout is much more logical, though it takes a little getting used to. I'm surprised how much I like the dedicated ISO button.

I like the SD card door too. Others have griped about how difficult it is to remove the card. The card does take an extra second of grasping before I can pull it out, but the additional time and effort is less than it takes me to find and pull up the latch on the K10D.

My major complaint so far is focus point selection. If it would just stay in one mode or the other I could get used to always pressing OK to select focus point. But once you're in focus select mode, if you chimp or change lenses, it reverts back to the default mode. I only chimp a fraction of my shots, so I'm usually in focus select mode. The mode is indicated in the viewfinder, but as someone with ancient eyes who wears glasses, I often have a hard time reading the status row in the viewfinder to confirm which mode I'm in, so I have to guess (often wrong). Worst case is when I want to quickly move the focus 2 or more points to the left. I hit the left arrow button several times rapidly to move it. If I'm in the default mode, the first press brings up the WB menu, and the next couple of presses change the WB. By then I've realized I'm in the wrong mode - but now if I press OK to switch modes I've messed up WB. I must take my eye away from the viewfinder to press the Menu button to cancel the WB change (I don't use the Menu button enough to remember where it is by feel yet). THEN press OK and move the focus point. By then, the bird I wanted to focus on has long since flown away.

Despite my gripe with focus points, I consider it fairly minor. On the K10D, since the selection arrows are all on one big button, I frequently would hit the wrong direction. Moving the point 2 to the left often caused the focus point to take a roundabout journey up, down and right before finally making it 2 to the left, by which time the bird has long since flow away. So it may even out in the end. :D

--
Alan
http://blandcanyon.zenfolio.com
Click to expand...
--
Lance B
http://www.pbase.com/lance_b

 
Lance B said:
Alan,

Due to the complaints about the AF focus selection points, I contacted Ned Bunnell and asked him to alter it. It also drives me a bit crazy at times!

My suggestion is that when you have selected the "Focus Point Selection" on the focus switch, ie the switch above the LV button, where you can select either "Centre Focus Point" or "Manual Focus Point Select" or "Auto AF Focus Point", that the camera automatically defaults to using the 4 way controller for focus point selection. You would only press the "OK" button to then access the other menu items on the four way controller like "WB", "Timer" mode, "Flash" mode and "Custom Colour". When you have finished your selection in any of these menu's and press the "OK" button to finish, the camera would automatically revert back to "Focus Point Selection" if the focus switch is still in the "Focus Point Selection" mode.
Click to expand...
That behavior would be perfect! I hope Ned is able to convince the engineers in Japan to include this in a firmware update.
--
Alan
http://blandcanyon.zenfolio.com
 
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