Advice Sought: Upgrade K7 to K5?

I am about to receive a new K7 as a replacement for a faulty K7 that replaced a faulty K20 (!)

I figure that if I sold this on new then the cost to upgrade to a K5 after selling off kit lenses would be around £300. The main temptation for me is the higher ISO performance of the K5.

Do K5 owners consider a K5 to be £300 better than a new K7?

Without a doubt!

I haven’t regretted trading up my K-7 for a K-5 (cost me about £600). Done mostly for the high ISO performance and better AF, but I’m sure as I get to use it more I will find other improvements.

I don’t think there are any downsides to up grading so I guess it comes down to if you feel its value for money. I don’t know which will drop faster – the cost of a K-5 or the resale value of a K-7 (even a new one) but I suspect there could be many used K-7s coming on to the market soon.

Personally not interested in the high ISO issues for now having only purchased the K7 earlier in the year doing landscapes. As a newcomer to photography I reckon I need to focus on trying to become a better photograher rather than hanker after the latest and greatest. The K5 looks the ticket though from the reviews I've read but I'll stick it out for now

Well, if you don't have the need you certainly have no reason to upgrade. Wise decision.

But, if you're doing action photography in low light conditions (lets say dog agility with indoor lighting) and you need to compete for sales against someone who can take quality photos at 1/500sec or higher when you can only take photos at 1/30sec... then you will find the high ISO capability worthwhile.

Have to admit, the K5 is getting into niche market areas.... certainly not a requirement nor an improvement for a lot of what many photographers do. i.e. used the K5 for a Xmas portrait session last night. I actually find the 16MP image to be almost unwieldy in Photoshop and way more than sufficient for "small prints" of 8x10 (A4) or smaller. Definitely no need for low ISO or 7fps! Heck, the strobes only recharge once or twice per second.