Any pentax K5 users?

Lynton

Lynton

awkward customer
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Lynton (yes really!)
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Thinking of upgrading my K20D.

Any K5 users on here? Particularly interested in image quality at high ISO.

Thanks
 
Love my K5, image quality is (in my humble opinion) really good, here are some recent band shots (done as a favour for the band as not really my thing) (ISO 8000 and 10000)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidlaws2009/sets/72157626719940833/
Shot in RAW, basic stuff in Lightroom, tweak in Noiseware and BW conversion in PS NIK.
Hope these help your decision. If you want any other info just let me know. :thumbs:


Dave ....
 
If you bought the K20 for it's big chunky feel, as I did in part, then the K5 may not be for you. It's much smaller.
 
Dave.L said:
Love my K5, image quality is (in my humble opinion) really good, here are some recent band shots (done as a favour for the band as not really my thing) (ISO 8000 and 10000)
Click to expand...

Many thanks - looks good at ISO8-10K

srichards said:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/K5/K5A.HTM

Same sensor as the sony A580 I have so I'd expect it to be broadly similar ie pretty damn good :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the fantastic link and review Sue - mmm I want one! :love:

Oggy said:
If you bought the K20 for it's big chunky feel, as I did in part, then the K5 may not be for you. It's much smaller.
Click to expand...

good point. first thing I did with the K20D though was bung a grip on it, because hey the bigger the camera, the more professional you appear to others..... :lol::lol: (£220 for a grip though! :eek::eek:)



All thanks for the help. I can see a trip to Warehouse express coming along!
 
I wasn't happy with the size tbh but stuck a grip on and its fine. If its purely for the size then a cheap £40 Chinese job will do. Take the grip off, slap on a 40mm pancake and you have a great little street camera.

ISO 3200

560mm handheld.


Sparrow on feeder - testing 100-300mm sigma with 2x TC by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


Squirrel by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr

Have even used ISO 6400 when someone wanted a picture of a lens.


Vivitar Series 1 105mm 1:1 f2.5 Macro ( Kiron ) by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr
 
I ummed about the K5 when I got the Sony. Sony was half the price so that kind of swung it.
 
@Mike - tried PM'ing you since I know you from Pentaxuser....... however it appears cannot PM you on here... :shrug:


Do you have any at "silly ISO" - i.e. Maxed out on normal or expanded?
 
Lynton said:
@Mike - tried PM'ing you since I know you from Pentaxuser....... however it appears cannot PM you on here... :shrug:


Do you have any at "silly ISO" - i.e. Maxed out on normal or expanded?
Click to expand...

They probably don't want 2 Pentax owners getting together .. it's never happened before and we may end up taking over the forum :lol:

Not had the need to go over ISO6400 but have played about a bit and would only use 51200 on something I wouldn't get any other way or maybe a gritty B&W shot.

If I want to see what a camera is capable of I usually go to Flickr .. type in K-5 and 51200 / 25600 for loads of examples.
 
cheers for the tip........

12800 looks fine at those resolutions and the link provided by Suz suggests good printing sizes at each ISO stop.

Damien is luring me towards canon though.......... however personally my head says too many £ to swap everything over now!

£770 for a body or a shedload of £ to replace
 
If you want better high iso capability with canon you'd have to go full frame basically as even the 7d is more noisy and has less dynamic range than the pentax. You'd also lose out on in body IS which to me is a no brainer....

If you had to switch to either enemy I'd go Nikon as you get to keep the high quality low noise sensors...D7000 is down to £770 in a lot of places too.
 
Having thought about a swap last year (and having a 7D on trial for a week) I have to say I prefer the K-5 in all but AF speed. The K-5 is much better than the K20D here but still no match for the 7D. In every other respect the Pentax was better (IMO).

Depends what you want I suppose .. I am going to buy myself a Canon body eventually because I recently got the MP-E65 lens and twin flash for macro but it will probably be a FF body as the K-5 does everything I want from a crop.


Other people will no doubt have different opinions and It's also important to remember that the value of investments can go down as well as up.
 
I just got one recently, so far i am really enjoying it.
 
yep the in body IS is winning the K5 / 7D war at the moment.......

plus the cost to change the entire bag.......

Even though the canonists are saying "come join us" I can't help but feel a large % of the cost of a 7D goes towards advertising......

whereas the "smaller" brands it goes more to R&D.


will have a word with WEx, I am sure I can get their demo K5 for a few hours to play and compare.
 
Hate to spoil the party but has no one had issues with af under tungsten light? I got rid of my k7 because it was totally unacceptable even after it's supposed calibration and lens calibrated too. I would love to get the k5 but the notion of focus issues make me weary
 
I upgraded my K20D to the K5 around 2 months ago and having just returned from holiday where I did lots of indoor photography I have to say that high iso on the K5 is very impressive, certainly far better than the K20D and as many of the reviews mention up there with the best of them.

I gave serious thought to upgrading my K20D as I was very happy with the results but now that I own the K5 I can only say I wish I had upgraded earlier.

Simon
 
cheers guys.........

out of interest do you use the inbuilt electronic spirit levels at all, or all a bit gimicky?
 
srichards said:
Buy the K5! Just press the buy now button :)
Click to expand...

I would do gladly however , been in stock all day, and now on backorder.....


Which one of you "very nice people" beat me to it... i want it and i want it TOMORROW!
 
srichards said:
That is what comes of dithering!
Click to expand...

Yes but don't forget I still need to disguise it as a K20d for a few weeks,, :thinking:


And I am sure if I walk in there tomorrow with 39 x £20 notes they'll soon find one! (only 3 miles from work! - and the bank manager has been calling asking how I propose to invest a not unconsdierable sum....... mmmm cameras.........mmmmmm lenses...."
 
Lynton said:
Yes but don't forget I still need to disguise it as a K20d for a few weeks,, :thinking:


And I am sure if I walk in there tomorrow with 39 x £20 notes they'll soon find one! (only 3 miles from work! - and the bank manager has been calling asking how I propose to invest a not unconsdierable sum....... mmmm cameras.........mmmmmm lenses...."
Click to expand...

Put the strap from the K20d on it and it will hardly be noticeable :thumbs:
 
Lynton said:
cheers guys.........

out of interest do you use the inbuilt electronic spirit levels at all, or all a bit gimicky?
Click to expand...


Used it a few times when doing church interiors, pretty accurate, and just another "tool" to use in my opinion, not something you would use every day I agree, but certainly handy.

Go on, grow some gentlemens vegatables and just get one ...... and be proud of it. :thumbs:



Dave ....
 
I use the level but having checked it it's not 100% accurate - I have to remember that it's level when displaying 3 bars to the left of centre, unfortunately it's not possible to calibrate in-camera so far, still useful though especially when setup via the front RAW button

Simon
 
Dave.L said:
Go on, grow some gentlemens vegatables and just get one ...... and be proud of it. :thumbs:



Dave ....
Click to expand...


I have grown some, however Wex are out of stock. :(
 
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