My K5 just arrived! First Impressions!

I just received my K-5 at 10 am this morning - bought from Pentaxuser top man Malfis (Malcolm)
Having used the K-x for all my photos over the last few years I cant tell you how overwhelmed I am by this camera!

What ive noticed so far is...

Much better focusing (even on my Siggy 150 500)
Beautifully laid out controls
fantastic clarity in the screen
AND significant Imaqe Quality over the KX

Now for a little question.

How do I tell its got the latest updates etc?

QC

Turn the camera on while holding in the menu button. screen will display the current revision of your camera.

Congrats on the new cam, you will enjoy for sure. Hold the menu button in as you power on the camera, the software version no. will appear on the rear screen. You can download the latest version here, it is 1.14 follow the instructions closely in the manual.

Thanks folks I'll be sure to do that.

What about that shutter!? The kx was really noisy but this thing is barely a whisper.

Its going to be a great asset when snapping birds

Its 1.2

What does the 1.4 give you?

I cant believe how good the images are at ISO 800. Its generally the setting I will use when shooting birds handheld etc so thats great to see. I cant wait to try it out.


One embarassing question though...

I cant find the metering I can see it under the dial. Do you have to turn the dial to set it correctly. Its not budging and dont want to break it!

QC

The metering dial turns separately from the mode dial. There is a lug extending out underneath the mode dial. To move the mode dial you need to push the button down on top whilst turning the dial to chosen position. The metering dial should move without touching the button on top of the mode dial.

Hope this is the answer you were after.

Have fun.

Cheers Renster

No worries!

The latest K-5 firmware is 1.14.

Make sure you have at least 1.03 as that version introduced tweaks/fixes for the low light AF later version introduced software for the expensive GPS accessory and other bits. so you might as well just install 1.14 and be upto date.

Is this a dangerous thing to do?

Ive been testing the camera out over the last 24 hours and it works like a dream. Can someone tell me how to do it exactly?

Run many an update:

Fully change a battery, while said battery is charging, download the latest firmware (usually an exe file), run to unpack the BIN file. Copy the BIN file to the root of an SD card that has been formatted in the camera.

Insert the fully charged battery (check camera turns on OK, then turn it off!), insert the SD card with the BIN file on it. Press the Menu button and hold down, then turn the camera on - follow the instruction on teh LCD. When the process is complete, turn the camera off and then on again and format the card in camera to remove the BIN file.

Job done!

Alistair, if you still need more than David (beakynet) has given above, when you Run the .exe file downloaded from Pentax on your computer, it will self-extract two new files - the firmware update file and a readme file. The latter contains the detailed instructions for updating your camera - just follow them carefully.

Philip

Thank you lads for the information. I will be sure to read both your posts very carefully this evening and try it out.

AGAIN

I cannot believe how good the RAW image quality is good with this camera.

When you shoot wildlife you need the best ISO quality because of low light etc.

Below is my first bird encounter with the camera - a female Greenfinch collecting nest material.

This is at ISO800 and its cropped nearly 75%




A wonderful camera and I cant wait to marry it with a DA* 300 the next time funds allow.

QC