Bought a K7 today

Well i went to look at one as I had to handle one before I made a decision - local currys & LCE shops had Nikon D300s and canon 50d's which are nice but i really like the pentax features - so i had to travel 55 miles to find a pentax pro dealer with one in stock. I was worried about the size but its great - i bought it with the twin wr lens deal - i didnt intend to get the lenses but they actually feel really good and of course they are water resistant.

just charged up the battery and updated the firmware to version 1.02 and I have to say initial impressions are excellent - i love the burse rate which is impressive, the metering also appears to be spot, on as i have a mix of daylight and warm energy saving lights in our main room and it handled it very very well- the focus assist light is a useful addition and helps.

I have upgraded from my beloved K10d so now i have the difficult decision of wether to keep the K10 as a backup or move it on to someone who might use it more and i can use the money to spend towards some better lenses

Congrats!

Easy decision once you hold one!

Yes it is lovely - time for some fun tomorrow whatever the weather

Congratulations Will

I'm sure as you use it you will like it more and more

Very good choice, I love mine.
Claudio

Congrats Will.

I would keep the K10D, it wont fetch much second hand and it has a different type of sensor as the K7 which might come in handy.

I would lone to keep the K10 stefan & I will shed a tear when it goes but I have to be realistic and I am not at the level yet where i will need or use 2 bodies so it would just go to waste.

On another note i tried the burst/multiple capture mode on the K7 and its really impressive - i am still reading the instruction book and learning the menus etc but all good so far.

I'm currently thinking about trading in my K10D which I've had for about 2 year's now for the K7. Is there a huge amount of difference between the K10 and K7 in terms image quality and sharpness to justify this? I've found in the past the K10 struggles a bit with grain and white balance when taken shots in low lighting conditions and on high ISO setting, has the K7 sorted out these issues? Any advice would be appreciated, cheers.

High ISO is better on the K7 but ISO200 is the native ISO of that sensor meaning that ISO100 on the K10D is better but up to iso400 there is little difference between them.

White-balance is better on the K7 and so is focusing, it also has an AF assist light to help in low light.

David, welcome to the forum
Another benefit is of course the fairly big step is resolution which gives you quite a bit more latitude to crop images.

Stefan I thought it was the K-x that's native ISO is 200 rather than the K-7

Huw

No the Samsung sensor native iso is 200, that's why extended dynamic range limits you to that.

With RAW iamges, I find the K-7's noise (grain) is quite high at high and even medium ISO settings, but resolution, white balance and metering is improved, and you get numerous extra features to make using the camera more enjoyable.

I would agree with both of the above - the metering is much improved

Will,

I hope you are enjoying the K7. It is an awesome bit of kit. Hardly touch my K10d now. However keeping it as a back up & to shoot remotely behind the goal at football.

with regards to the white balance on the K7 I often shoot football in lighting that can change from quite bright to floodlit over the course of the game. just leaving the K7 on auto white balance copes with it very well.

Thanks for the advice I may well upgrade my K10 body to the K7 body in January. Today I part exchanged my 18-55mm kit lens that I got with the K10 for the Pentax 17-70mm lens. The Pentax dealer shop in Seaford was selling the lens for £399, I got £100 for my 18-55mm lens, so I got the new lens for £299 which is not bad considering Park Camera's are selling it for £479. http://www.parkcameras.com/9771/Pentax-17-70mm-SMC-DA-F4-AL-IF-SDM.html