K7 - Worth It?

Thanks for the replies everyone, I suspect its going to come down to funding more than anything, and if I were to afford a Pentax brand new it would have to be a K7, although if anything I suspect I'm going to have to pick something up a bit older.

[quote:3496ace15f="Offertonhatter"]It is a tough one to answer.
I did look at the K-7 before I got the K-5, due to the fact that although my K20D was getting on a bit (nearly 3 years old and over 30000 shots), would the K-7 give me much more than my K20D (apart from better AF and shutter)
The reality, for me, was that, although the K-7 was a major improvement over the K20D when it came to AF, shutter, build, metering etc, the reality was that as it used the same sensor as the K20D, and at the end of the day, the IQ would be the same.

however, as you have come from an A700, you may find that the performance is a big improvement.

It all comes down to two things really.
1. Do you really need 7FPS. ie Do you do a lot of nature or sports?
2. Do you need excellent low light performance. ie, the ability to take photos at extreme low light such as very dim with the kit lens (ie F3.5-F5.6) and hand held, or you take a lot of interior shots handheld.

If the answer to both is no, then the K-7 will be the camera for you.
However if either is yes, then seriously consider the K-5 as it's IQ is in another league, especially taking these into consideration".

Hope this helps.

While I don't wish to hijack this thread I will stay ot as much as I can while maybe helping the op as well, You say "it's IQ is in another league, especially taking these into consideration",
I have a K7 and very pleased with it, Does the K5 have better IQ at low iso, also forget less noise at high iso for now but does the image loose much IQ at high iso due to a drop in DR ect,
I do think the upgrade from K7 To K5 may benifit myself, but it's been hard trying to find an answer to my low iso question.

Dave.

The K-5 (imo) is no better at low ISO than the K-7.

16.3Mp. Slant and tilt level indicator. In camera hand held HDR. How low an ISO are you talking about? Even at 400 the K-5 is better.

But I agree the K-7 is a worthy camera and I will keep using mine as well as the K-5 to save changing from wide to long lenses.

Does the k-7 not have a slant and tilt level indicator then? Not that it's a crucial feature by any means! I just thought the k-7 also has it.

Side to side slant but not forward tilt. Also on the K-5 you can programme the RAW button to switch this on and off.

Thanks for the replies guys, but lets look at like for like and say both are at iso 200 does the K5 have better IQ than the K7, from the images I have looked at (tons) there does not seem anything in it as Mike P pointed out,
Monobod, yes those improvements would help so i'm going for it. I really do like the looks of some of the HDR shots I have seen.

Dave

Also depends under what circumstances you want it to look "better".

Are we talking about 100% compulsive pixel-peeping, or are we talking about viewing images that are fit to the screen/printed off at sizes most of us can afford?

Differences (especially at lower ISOs by which I mean perhaps 800 or lower) are likely to be minimal unless images are viewed at very large sizes.

In my case, I do a lot of Club competition work and print at A3. The additional pixels help me to crop images and still print at a high enough resolution (300ppi optimum or 240dpi) to give a stunning print.

If one is competing with reduced digital images of 1400x1050 pixels, then I agree not much in it for either camera. In fact the larger files from the K-5 could mean bigger or more memory cards are needed an more time spent downloading.

At ISO 200, I agree there is nothing in it. It is for those occasions when you want to take a night shot and you do not have a tripod that the K-5 really shines.

I just got a used K-7 to replace my venerable K100D.
Fantastic camera. I couldn't justify spending the equivalent of a decent second hand car on a K-5.
The K-5 better iso performane would be nice and I do think my K-7 has a bit of shutter shake but still very happy with it.
Really appreciate the huge resolution increase over 6MP. There is noise, but boy is it fine

Pete

No problem Dave. I was only going from personal experience when comparing my K20D (which is the same sensor as the K-7, in spite of Pentax say) and my K-5.
At low ISO there is not much in it really, we are talking about only 2MP difference, which when printing is not much IQ difference in reality. However at high ISO the K-5 it is something else entirely. So far, when I push the K-5 to High ISO's it easily out performs the K20D by two to three stops.
In fact today I did some portrait shots at ISO320, and they are better than the K20D at a similar ISO, not by much, but there is an improvement.

However, both the K-7 and the K-5 will out perform the Alpha that the OP had, mainly due to the fact that tech has moved on. But, and it is minor, it is whether the OP can afford the K-5. If he can, then that is the camera to go for. If not, then the K-7 will be a very worthy alternative.

However users going from the K-7 to K-5 is a different matter.

I suppose it comes down to step changes.

K100D(and eqv) to K10D - Big difference
K10D to K20D - Small changes involving ISO and IQ
K20D to K-7 - No IQ change, but build/fps/shutter changes
K-7 to K-5 - again quite small, but ISO and FPS

But step over a model and the differences become more apparant
K10D - K-7 IQ, ISO, build, shutter, AF, etc
K20D - K-5 - Again ISO, IQ, build, shutter, AF, etc

Hope this helps.

Well if I'm going to buy a new Pentax its going to be the K7, I really can't afford the £400 odd premium for the K5 and I imagine the K7 would be a better all round than the fairly elderly A700 I did have, if I was going second hand I have been watching some Pentax K20 and Samsung GX20's which again either in classifieds or dealers seem to be between £300 - £400, now I did handle the K20 and was impressed with the size & handling but I seem to remember the K7 is smaller, is this correct?

I thought you were going back to Sony (again) ?

We aren't going to have another 7 page thread are we .. you did all this last year and bought a A700 in the end..

I'm really weighing up what I want to buy, new or old, there aren't any of the new Sony's that I would actually buy and at the time the K7 was around £1000 when I was looking or I'd have snapped it up in an instant, I'm just looking for answers on Pentax and sadly as aside from yourself there aren't a lot of Pentax users who frequent "other forums" to ask.

Choosing a new camera to upgrade to can be a bit painful. Why don't you just buy a second hand one, for under 500 quid you won't lose much/any money on resale if you decide to go the whole hog and get the K-5 (or whatever)...