K-5 'is it ok?' check-list

One final (hopefully :blush thing on the "does this thing work or not" subject, which might hopefully also be useful to other potential K-5 purchasers.

At risk of annoying our friend Chris, if I took a laptop and an SD card into SRS (not on a Saturday afternoon, obviously)...

... what should I check on my shiny new K-5 and 18-135 to save me the annoyance of a return trip?

Sensor stain, electronic level... possibly the low light AF...

Anything else?

Sensor stain
Low light af in tungsten light
electronic level
hair trigger shutter button
unresponsive front selection wheel
camera freezing .. only way to rectify it take out battery.


Hmmm ... want to buy mine, I'm putting a deposit on the Sony A77.

Cor blinkin' blimey, guv - it's a thought.

Not sure I fancy being that close to the bleeding edge - in particular I'm not ready for an EVF.

Can I have first refusal on some of your lenses? The Bigma, to start with

Also with the K5, i thought only the Kr was effected (and Kx)

Friend of mine has the A55 ... EVF is horrible, the A77 is supposedly much much better. Silly reason but that little orange a on the front just really puts me off. I do think that once the A77 is released Canon and Nikon will be the ones playing catchup for the first time.

Have to hand it to Sony, they really are pushing things forward faster than they would have without them.


Also on K-5 (and K-7). On my first K-5 the wheel missed every second click.

the a77 will be interesting, but sony like pentax lack long lenses.
like the fact they have started using a decent size top lcd.
http://www.photographyblog.com/news/transparent_sony_a77_hands-on/

and another problem with the k5 seems to be some suffer from the sensor being a dust magnet.

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem.
Sometimes the preview and histogram of a shot I've just
taken disappears before I have chance to look at it.
I can't remember what it's set too but on most shots
I have time to check the histogram. Probably happens
about once every 50 single shots. I never use bursts.

Sony have the 70-400mm .. that would do me nicely.

As for the K-5 being a dust magnet, have seen that reported 2 or 3 times at the most whereas all the rest in the list have been reported on several occasions.

that is true mike, the 70-400mm is suppose to be pritty good. but it will be interesting to see how the evf is also the af speed, and i dont like the fact you have more chance of dust in pics.

Yup, the EVF is going to be the make or break of the A77 (and NEX 7).
Should have branded it Minolta though.

I think Sony also have a decent 500mm AF Mirror Lens as well.
Some of the old Minolta lenses were better than everyone
else's. Especially the 135mm with very nice bokeh now
branded Sony.

I think the K-5 is going to be make or break with me and Pentax. I'm not sure I'd go to Sony - my total ignorance of other brands notwithstanding, the D7000 is the way I'd incline to, if jumping ship became a realistic proposition.

What would I do without in-body SR, though?

the d7000 is as you probably know the same sensor as the k5, but not quiet as well built or weather sealed, but has a better af system.
as for the sr it is handy but you would manage, just dont try a d7000 and you will be ok.

TBH on the longer lenses I prefer in lens sr, makes framing that much easier.

Davex.

Had several Pentax DSLR's, in fact three of them and just bought a K10D for my daughters friend as she wanted a reasonably priced good quality camera.
Had to sell all my camera gear as needed some cash urgently for uninsured building repairs and recently had the money to buy again

After much deliberation and handling of cameras it came down to three from different makers and to cut a long story short went for a Canon 7D
Just too many potential problems with the K-5 especially the sensor stain business, that put me off the Nikon D7000 too (not keen on the handling of Nikon's either which came into it)

Just thought it might be an idea to get the views of a sort of neutral buyer although my first choice would have been the Pentax going on previous ownership
Shows that this sort of problem can be harmful and having read of other niggles like the level not working I can see others feeling the same

Yes I know other cameras have teething troubles or faults such as the Canon AF problems, but felt uneasy buying into something that still seems to be causing troubles