All very nice shots, I love the second and fourth in particular. The first would have been a winner for me if only the tree didn't cut the edge of the frame. It's still a good shot, but I think it would have been great with all of the tree in view.

Regards
David

Many thanks Andrew, I took advantage of the fact that we were on a cruise with unlimited luggage and I could leave any kit I wasn't using in the cabin. I also wanted to put the K-01 though its paces!

Thanks Dr. O, the manual lenses were taken specifically to use with the K-01 - this camera excels with manual focus. Regarding the 16-45 and 17-70, I use the 17-70 as a general walkabout lens but actually prefer the 16-45 for landscape shots.

Thanks again to all for the comments, I'll post some more images when I've had the time to process a few more!

Regards
David

For me and many others, the AF performance is critically important, especially when the light is poor and this is where the K-5 is at its most unreliable from a focussing point of view.

If this is not important to you and good high ISO performance is the deciding factor, there is no point waiting for a MkII body, you may as well have a Mk1 for a cheaper price.

Regards
David

Thanks again for the comments, this time to Phillip, Algi, Alan, Stan and Smeggy.

Smeggy's comment in particular about the sunset shot in BW/Colour really raised a big smile! I'm not sure if I would describe this particular shot as a 'colour-pop' as it is approx. 1/3 full colour and 2/3 BW, but I know what Smeggy means and I also knew this would horrify some people

I also noted Smeggy's reference back to the old 'K-5 vs K-5IIs' discussions All I would say is that these versions are only 1000px longest edge and that when processing the many shots I took on hols from all three cameras, those from the IIs are consistently the cleanest, sharpest and easiest to process. All three cameras are capable of stunning shots, but more come from the IIs, whatever the reasons may be.

Regards
David

That one has the same screen as mine so I would give it a thumbs up for the visuals. The processor is slower (i5 vs i7), it has less RAM (6gb vs 8gb) and a smaller hard drive (750gb vs 1tb), but I don't think any of these will be a significant detriment for processing images.

These machines are very well made (aluminium, not plastic) and mine has performed faultlessly so far. Just one tip, if you buy one, uninstall the 'Asus Splendid Video' bloatware that comes pre-installed. It enables a default monitor profile which ruins the colour balance in Photoshop and this profile re-loads every time the PC is started, which gets rather annoying. The only way I could stop it was to remove this unnecessary software.

Regards
David

It's not AF speed that is dramatically quicker between the K-5 and the K-5II, although the Mk2 is a little quicker. The real game-changer is the AF accuracy which blows that on the K-5 mk1 to pieces.

I can always trust my K-5II to nail focus with every AF lens I own, in all lighting conditions. With the Mk1 it misses at least 50% of the time and also hunts quite a bit in the process. When it is on, the shots are great, but too many are wasted. Nigel has already said that he uses his camera for lots of different shooting situations, so AF accuracy is probably quite important.

Regards
David

Perhaps, but barely used K-5's are becoming very affordable now. There's no doubt it's a big step up from the K-7, particularly in low light, but I do tend to agree that the K-5II variants are worth saving for as they are so much better than the mk1.

Regards
David

I wouldn't even consider it - I've seen inside a K-x and that was scarily complex; I can imagine the K-5 would be even more so and the chances of getting it back together properly would be slim.

Regards
David

Only seen a couple very briefly on breakfast TV this morning and I was a bit underwhelmed to say the least. I didn't like the way the light fell (very strong backlighting) and they looked very amateur to me.

However, this may be what the family wanted?

Regards
David

Hi Samantha, lots of Pentax users here in Sheffield (I'm from Killamarsh). We do organise days out sometimes, so look out on the Forum and it would be great for you to come along.

You have some really stunning shots on your Flickr stream, very imaginative, some quite weird, but all very high quality. Are you going to post some of your images on the Gallery? It would be great to see them on here.

Best wishes
David