Pentax versus the Rest

Whilst I was at Duxford on Sunday I was in the crowdline rubbing shoulders with Canon and Nikon users obviously

The main thing I noticed was the speed of my K20D or lack of it when using continous shooting mode. Admittedly I was using RAW but compared to the speed of the other cameras it was very slow (it was embarrasing) and there was an element of doubt in my mind and jealousy but I was very pleased with my photos when I looked at them on Sunday evening.

Just wondered what others think about this function on the current DSLR range especially with the K20D? The K7 might well be quicker but then how much will that cost?

My old program A shot at 3 frames a second with the Winder II attached. I admit I don't use the FPS feature much, however, when I do it is fine for my shooting. The main complaint I have is, and I hope that the K-7 fully addresses this, is the tracking and locking capabilities of AF-C on my K10D.

Still, if it had started raining, you woudl have been the only one left shooting

You'll be after a K7 then.

Think of it this way, you were pleased with your images, the others will wear out their cameras faster and will have trashed lots more images than you.

When it did rain they put their cameras under their jackets and they were all staring at me as I left it uncovered and the weather proofing worked

That's one way of looking at it, my batteries lasted longer and I didn't get rid of that many images in fact.

I was shooting a friendly cricket match the other day, I thought the same thing.
I don't use continuous shooting a lot, so its not really an issue. However it would be expectable to have more than 3-3.5 fps in a camera of this level.

I don't think it would actually be a very high cost in itself. Changing camera certainly would be, but with a bigger viewfinder, video capabilities and metal body, 2 more fps should not be a significant chunk of the price premium.

It think the K-7 would satisfy me a lot, as I'm expecting better high ISO (slightly better than K20D), 5.2 fps, even better WS, faster (while accurate) AF. These are the important things for me.
The K-7 will still be a bit short for sports, but it might be enough to keep some people in the system or get a few converts (not established pros).

I do like it when that happens

Ah, yes better AF-C as well.

A bit worrying that things haven't exactly moved on much up to the K20D then.

Oh yes, many times among the crowd at airshows and same feelings like you Rob, but, I don't really do long series of photos, and I don't care that much about it (one exclusion below), I know there are people who can make a 20 shots out of one low-pass, but... I prefer to take a pic at the right time, not just trying to catch everything just to choose one pic, this leads to some missed situations, but I prefer the old-fashioned way . Other side of the problem is, even if K20D would be able to take a 6 pic a sec, AF-C wouldn't be fast enough to keep up, honestly when I shot airplanes, I have a habit of taking 2-3 photos in a row, just to pick up the one where AF was nearest to the spot.
It is not a grumbling about the Pentax AF, it is not something that would prevent one from taking a good pictures, people were able to take pics with manual focusing in the past, so why AF would have to be so crucial now .
In comparison to other similar level DSLR's, I would say K20D plus a very good lens has very good image quality, but it is slower, and sometimes it is harder to take a very fine pic with it when doing dynamic stuff (but not impossible), it will be frustrating when you miss a chance for good pic just because camera's AF was too slow to focus, it may be frustrating to the user when standing next to faster cameras (till recently the sound of "screwdriver" AF was embarrassing enough ), but at the end of the day what counts is how good the photos are.
K7 is faster, probably you would have to wait some months before the price would drop, however, with current prices increase hard to say how it will look like...
PS ah yes, and Pentax camera strap looks much better than C .

Rob, bit off the subject (sorry) but were you using your 60-250 at Duxford? How did it do, love to see some pictures

Back to the subject, there are positives and negatives in all cameras from all manufactures, that's the way it is. The all weather capability of the K20D and DA* lenses is certainly a positive in the situation you described at Duxford even if the FPS capability was a slight negative

To the new generation of photographers there is no old fashioned way .. blatting off loads of shots and picking the best is how its done these days. If Pentax wants to make a difference in its market share its things like this they are going to have to address.
It is also going to have to make the brand "cool" somehow because an increase in fps and AF speed is not going to be enough to convert the majority of Nikon and Canon users.

To the photographers that can remember "the old fashioned way" the name Pentax means something but to those that don't it means nothing but a camera maker playing catchup.

Sorry but that's how I see it anyway, especially after visiting other forums where there is more of a mixture.

IMO they should take the K-7, drop the price to some daft amount (say £500) and sell it as a loss leader to get people into the brand.

Saying all that I still think Pentax has the best IQ of any camera in (or well above) its class.

Do you think they were thinking "stupid pentax user, there cheap anyway"?

I always though that it was quality and not quantity that counted most.

And people kept their cameras for years! My first one serverd me well for 10 years, I only changed to get AF!

Mike, I know how it looks like these days, but can we define what kind od customers Hoya/Pentax is targeting at now?, I can't see a lot of chances to steal these fast shooting and looking for "cool" product people from C&N, there should be a chance to catch other people in.
Will see how Pentax is going to place itself for next years, it looks like they have started to do proper marketing now, look at all of these "leaks" or rather controlled leaks about K7, it works, people started to speak about it, wait for it, ... but what next , I hope they have an answer.

The mag-alloy body puts it's construction up there with the MZ-S which ticks the 'pro' spec box on that score. It should withstand a good bashing from those who treat them that way.