K7 vs K5 ?

Thank you to all I now have a K5 in the post.. Due here on Tuesday ... Is it Tuesday yet????

I am pondering a K-5 myself and wondered how good the improved autofocus is, I have always been disappointed with the speed and accuracy of the autofocus on my K-7 especially when a Sea Eagle was hurtling towards me and the continuous focus decided at that point to focus on the distant hills even though I had it set to spot focus.

I have not got a K-7, but I can advise the AF performance of the K-5

But to start, I can let you know the AF comparisons of earlier models which may give you some insight.

My K10D was a lot faster than my *istDS.
My K20D is quite faster (not by much, but you do notice it) than my K10D
My K-5 is a lot faster than my K20D

Now taking into consideration my personal indicators, and that the K-7 will not hit its 5.2fps in AF-C mode - it will only do 3FPS in AF-C, and that the K-5 will do 7FPS in both AF-S and AF-C, could be a good indicator that the AF on the K-5 is better than the K-7. By how much? I don't know, but if the indicator of the comparison with my K20D, it will be a lot.

Still, the K-5 is not as fast as the D3 and EOS1D, but then again not much is a fast as these two.

Hope this helps.

Thanks that is quite an insight, how accurate is the autofocus when spot focusing indistinct objects?

Difficult to say really.

Why? well, both the K10D and K20D have hit 30,000 shots, and maybe due to their inherent design (mirror whack so to speak) the accuracy is intermittent now. However, up to 20,000 shots, both were excellent.
The DS is less than 20,000 and still excellent.
The K-5, now at 1,000 is spot on (as you expect for a camera a month old....)

I would say however, that due to the lack of vibration from the mirror in the K-5, it will not be a problem at all, at least until the shutter fails at over 150,000 shots so to speak.....

Thanks for that you have peeked my interest, I will probably be driving anyone who brings a K-5 to the Scottish PU meeting in April round the bend with questions.

Daniel & Fletcher8 have answered your question. I have a K-7 & I'm not replacing it for some years but if I was choosing between the 5 & the 7 it would be the K-5 without a doubt for all the reasons they have elucidated.