After shooting at arm’s length with compact cameras for many years I finally made the plunge and bought myself a DSLR recently.
Now I can shoot at eye level and hear the mechanical shutter clicking away very close to my ears, something which I had been longing for and a welcome change from the less than uplifting sound of electronic shutter in point and shoot cameras.
The purchase left a big hole in my pocket which I soon forgot because I really liked the camera.
It’s not a Canon or a Nikon, but a Pentax. A K-7 which has a 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor, HD video, 5.2 fps continuous shooting, magnesium alloy body, weather sealed (someone left his K-7 in the cold Alaskan rain for two hours and it still worked fine), 1/8000s shutter speed, new dust removal system, creative digital art filters… and many others.
Why Pentax? Well, for one thing, maybe it’s because of personal reason. My first SLR camera was a Pentax Spotmatic which I bought from a friend way back in late 1980’s. I had taken many film photographs with it, and even fell from a speeding motorcycle with the camera slung over my shoulder.
For another, it is really due to practical reasons. If I had bought a Nikon or a Canon with similar features, it would have cost me up to RM10,000. As it turned out, I “only” needed to spend RM7,500 for the body and a 18-250mm Pentax lens, a fast 4MB SDHC card, a lens protector as well as a LCD screen protector.
This picture is among the earliest ones I’ve taken with the K-7. There are several others which I posted on my photoblog but suffice to say I am satisfied with the image quality.
The K-7 is slightly noisier at ISO 1600 and above compared to its competitors, the Canon EOS 7D and Nikon D300s, but I really don’t mind because I shoot mostly in ISO 200.
What I like about Pentax K-7:
- Weather resistant body. You cannot dunk it in water by please feel free to shoot even in pouring rain.
- Superb image quality
- Solid feel
- Digital art filters and if tweaked properly, can mimic the effect of a lomo camera
- Dedicated RAW button
- In-body shake reduction so every lens attached to it is stabilised against camera shake
- Compatible with any — and I mean any — Pentax lens, even those produced in the film era
- In-camera barrel distortion correction
- HD video at 30fps
- Adjustable white balance to suit a photographer’s preference
What I do not mind about the K-7:
- 5.2 fps is slower than Canon 7D’s 8fps or Nikon D300s 7fps but it is fast enough for my purpose
- Noisier at higher ISO level but like I said, I seldom shoot at high ISO
- You can hear the sound of in-body focusing motor as you focus on a subject
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Jaxon,
Thanks for your article. That is one very nice, sharp and colourful photo you posted there. If this is typical of what I can get out of the K-7, then that will be what I will get even though I have been a Canon guy for a very long time (I still have my Canon Ftb, Ae1, AE1-program, F1, EF and EOS600 film cameras along with a whole bunch of prime and zoom lenses).
Thanks again.
Manny
Hi Manny,
Thanks for the kind words. Yes, this is the typical pictures you’d get from a K-7. The only thing with Pentax now is its uncertain future as a brand and as a business entity… not as solid as that of Nikon or Canon.
But the brand has its own appeal that I doubt it would go the Konica-Minolta way, hence the decision to buy the K-7. Am now scratching my head as to how am I going to build my lens collection.
BTW, your have an amazing collection of Canon cameras and lenses.