K5 first impressions

thoughton · 2010-11-24T15:12:28+0000

Ordered yesterday, arrived today! Thanks SRS! Only played with it for 20 minutes, so far it looks simply awesome! My favourite bits so far (note I am upgrading from a K20D): 1. My Tamron 17-50 focuses much quicker. Possibly as much as twice as fast. (remember the K20D is already slower than a K7). Part of it seems to be that the screwdrive is more powerful, and partly it doesn't seem to need to fine-tune the focus at the end like the K20D did. Haven't tried any other lenses yet. I don't have any SDM lenses to test either. 2. It's smaller, about the same size as my old K100D Super. 3. The flash housing doesn't poke out the front so much, much easier to slide into a compartment of your bag, or a large pocket. 4. The shutter is a lot quieter. I never got on with the noisy K20D shutter. 5. EV compensation goes to -5 and +5. 6. Haven't tested the DR yet, but I'm expecting good things. 7. Video capable, I won't use this much, but it will be handy to not have to take my video camera 'just in case'. 8. Lock button on the model dial. I was forever pulling the K20D out of the bag and shooting away, only to discover pulling it out of the bag had rotated the dial to some other mode. 9. Live view that actually works! The zoom-in-and-focus thing is really cool too. 10 Bigger LCD screen, this is really noticeable when reviewing shots. 11. The sensor shake on startup is much quicker and quieter. It buzzes instead of the CLAK CLUNK i got on the K20D. 12. The SD card slot isn't nearly as bad as many people are saying! In fact it's really not very different to the K20D one, perhaps a millimeter or two less room between the card and the door, which makes removing the card a TINY bit more fiddly. Nothing major at all. 13. Faster processor. Zomming in and out on the LCD and panning around are all much more responsive. I haven't tried the high FPS yet, it's not something that really interests me. I suppose one day when my sons are doing school sports or something it might be useful. That's several years away though, one's 4 and one's 2 months :) I'll probably have the K3 by then!

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Plus Member davidtrout davidtrout

3312 posts
17 years
Durham,
England

Posted 28/11/2010 - 10:02 Link

thoughton wrote:
Still loving it! The shutter most of all. A lovely muffled deep-voiced 'PerChuuk' noise, compared to the K20D's high-pitched whiney 'ShurSnikt'.

The lack of shutter noise was the first thing I noticed. I thought at first the camera hadn't gone off. I must confess though I quite liked the satisfying clunk of the K10.
David

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Edited by davidtrout: 28/11/2010 - 10:03