K-7 now £799!!

No, its not the be all and end all but the fact still remains that only Pentax would only have a line up of 2 cameras and the one that costs half the price of the other has a better sensor.

Total madness imo.

... but it's a signficant argument in today's market.

K... 700? with full frame and real, usable ISO 12800 please. Like Canon can.

Bret - who only has 2 DA lenses...

All I'm saying is I know of people who are disappointed in it, fro various reasons, including noise, having bought one at a much higher price than it is now.
They have switched to Nikon, Sony or in one case to a Kx. The latter one had too many lenses to get rid of to make a change of brands worth while. The others sold their kit at a big loss. One had been a Pentaxian for 30 years, but felt they had lost their way and reluctantly went to Nikon.
He will not return to Pentax, and nor will the others.
Pentax can't afford to lose faithful users like that.

the end question is allways, will they be 100% satisfied with Nikon?

Every camera has its pro's and con's.

Recently I had the chance to play with an Canon EOS450 and I was shocked about the poor ergonomics and very dim viewfinder compared to the K20D.

Nikon ergonomics are better then Canon but I still prefer Pentax above Canon and Nikon. The older Sony offerings were an absolute disaster in terms of ergonomics.

I rather have a little more noise and a camera which handles perfectly then the other way around.

People rave on the AF speed of Canon/Nikon but that 450 I played with had a HSM sigma 18-250 attached to it and the AF was not that much quicker then my K20D with the 16-45.

I would still buy a Pentax if I was in the market for one today.

That is called evolution... Sensor technology advances so quickly that you can't really prevent this.
The only way to prevent this would be to artificially degrade the image on the lower end model...

You know - you really should ask the Photomonk why he steered me to the K-x for my first foray into DSLR territory.

We both had Kodak P&S [ at that time, and neither of us have now ] and he has DSLRs from errr ummm 2 different stables

I had been looking towards a Canon - and I've ended up with my gorgeous K-x on his recommendation.

epson does this... has a speed chip that slows printing on strip down models that use the same printheads but less features...

Pentax is just hitting the market with thier best shots, and who can blame them?

next year there will be something that puts 'em both to shame, and good for us if it's priced affordably!

If the k-x sensor is that much better than the k7

Why don't pentax offer a up grade (you the owner pay for p&p plus the difference of a sensor and pentax fit a new updated sensor)

I think if this is available more people may believe in the pentax brand.

and pentax up grade all new k7's with a prefix

James

I hope the 645d has no video (if i want video i will buy a video recorder(I don't see the appeal of a built in video)as you can only do one thing at a time.

Video question
do you have any control over iso dof ???

I bet the number of old Pentaxians leaving the brand is smaller than the number of newcomers being atracted by the good reviews of the K-x and K-7. And that's not even mentioning the number of old Pentaxians that are happy to stick with the brand.

The K-x is apparently better noisewise than the K-7, but that's because it takes advantage of technology that was not available at the time the K-7 was developped. Remember that it has lower resolution, too.

It probably isn't be compatible with the rest of the camera - physically and electronically.

and if I'm gonna drop six grand or more on a new system, I'll need both.

The appeal of built in video for me would be that I wouldn't have to buy and carry a video camera for video! The lenses that you can use is also appealing.

With the K-7 video, you can't control ISO, but can select the aperture. I guess it will be the same or better with the 645D if it does video. There's no video symbol on the mode dial in the leaked photos, by the way.

there are two unmarked buttons by the pentaprism....
liveview/dof preview could be one, and REC could be the other... with dual card slots there is no reason you can't do video and still capture simultaneously!
my sony's do it!
it is the hdmi output that has me getting my hopes up for video!

Well I still hope that it Pentax have more for the PMA than just a 645D and/or a full frame, though the rumour mill doesn't seem to suggest anything.

Probably nothing of interest until Photokina in September.