K5 - Live View functionality?

I have to admit to not normally taking too much interest in the new models but the more I've read about the K5 the more I'm thinking it's a "must have" upgrade. The improved DR, the improved noise handling & the better focusing particularly look significant.

I've not read much on Live View functionality though which I'd find particularly useful for tripod mounted shots. Has anyone used it much and could give me a bit of feedback on it. This may well be the decider that sees me putting the K20D up for sale !!

Thanks

Simon

Simon, I haven't used live view yet, but if you go to the "other" forum they have an article on K-5 live view functionality which may be of help to you.

One major plus from the K-5 is the level - you can get the camera level in three dimensions which is great on a tripod.

I think this explains everything link

Yep, used it a few times now for tripod mounted work and proving very useful. To put this into perspective, I rarely bothered using LV (and certainly not AF in LV) on the K20 or K-x.

What's more, aside from being fairly quick it really nails focus too: the following is a 100% crop from the low-quality embedded jpg in a raw file:

[IMG]http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/digitalCG/IMGP1052.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks for the info/links...compared to the K20D the Live View appears a massive leap forward, the video looks pretty good too looking at those Youtube clips.....looks my K20D is about to go in the classifieds !!

Simon

Maybe Apple should buy Pentax... add an ipod/ipad connector to the pentax "stormtrooper" kx ( and release a white or silver version of the kr as well)... then do liveview on the ipod/ipad touchscreen activated as well.

Off Topic:

Well for one I hope not. Only usable with Apple products, only able to process photos with exclusive and expensive software, and worst of all the object of desire of all those brainless Apple is God fans.

I'll be putting all my gear up for sale if there is so much as a hint of Jobs getting involved.

I empathize and feel your pain... but still... imagine an advanced optio or d-slr with a touch screen... three sliders... aperture, shutter and iso.... touch the slider on screen and swipe your finger to adjust... tap the appropriate shooting mode icon for fast settings... hit the green button icon... or the ae-l icon and slide all three sliders at once (you slide one, the toher two adjust automattically)... watch the image in live view react to your input in real time.... it'd be addictive....

No Thanks!!!... if it didn't go on fire all the buttons
would drop off or the lettering would rub off.... all the
colours would be wishy washee!!

I suppose it would be more trade for these ebay vendors:

link1

link2

I really really really hope that NEVER NEVER happens!!!

Live View is not a toy for me when we're talking video. It's something I want / need to be able to use when recording to confirm that focus sits 100% exactly where I want. The 7D does exactly this: press the magnify button and I get a 5x zoom. Even at f4 and 50mm, I can get the DoF EXACTLY where I want it.
I want this functionality in my own cam. Will I get it with a K5?

This is so frustrating. I'm seeing more and more that the 7D was made by people who care what happens and want to make the process as easy as possible. At the moment, for me, the K5 is fighting a losing battle, investment in lenses or no. There's the 7D's "setups" - custom colours and sharpnesses available at the press of a button with a scroll. This applies to video, too, so I can enter the company setup as a preset and just select. It will work. Then there's the RAW+JPEG which saves a 2MP JPEG with the raw. That's a seriously nice addition - and the best bit is that you can select what size and quality you want.

The price differential here is only around €100.

Bret

On the K-7 (and consequently the K-5) you just press the 'info' button to zoom in to the image. You have to keep pressing it to zoom in another increment, but there may well be a setting where you can leap to a 5x view, or whatever you want.

The view gets very pixellated as you zoom in but you can distinctly tell when focus is achieved. Very useful indeed.

excellent, that's what I wanted to hear. Thanks.

Bret

After a quick check, the zoom function in Live View doesn't seem to actually be available while recording on the K-7... Would be worth checking whether they have this on the K-5 though, or perhaps if it's a menu function I haven't enabled.

What would be really good would be a small magnified portion at the centre of the screen, so you can check focus and composition at the same time...

You can also change the size/quality of the jpeg to be saved in RAW+jpeg mode, just like the 7D. The customisable picture modes (which apply to video as well as stills) are there too. The K-7 and K-5 definitely have a lot of little touches which show that Pentax have really thought hard about making life easier for us, and giving us as much control as possible.

ha, that's even better. The 7D also won't zoom while recording, but I'm not that worried about that: I don't have to do follow-focus at the moment (though we really did work with focus today and definitely will again tomorrow) and that's where I see the HDMI output and / or focus pullers coming in... I've seen that HDMI out on the K7/k5 works.

Bret