CameraFly

Camera Reviews from Amazon.com

• September 6, 2010
  Great digital SLR for an advanced amateur

  

  I purchased the Pentax K-7 body last year to use with my existing Pentax compatible lenses (a Tamron 70-300 and a Pentax 18-55), and it has been a great camera. Lots of positives: The weather resistant body is rugged and feels solid in your hands, and is noticeably more compact than other digital SLRs. Despite the smaller size (which comes in handy when traveling or hiking), the whole camera feels much more substantial than the Nikon and Canon models in the same price range that I test drove. Good low-light sensitivity and shake reduction work together with great auto white balance to let me capture great interior shots with ambient light (or sometimes a flash with a diffuser bounced off the ceiling if it's really dark). Controls are laid out well and are intuitive to use, and it's a piece of cake to adjust f stop, exposure times and compensation settings while you're shooting. Daylight shooting is a breeze. Autofocus motor in the body and shake reduction built in to the body mean that lenses are cheaper. Having HD video capability at the ready has been awesome while traveling. Quite often I take it with just the 18-55 mm zoom lens, and leave all my other gear in the camera bag at home.
  
  Negatives: Autofocus sometimes searches for a moment in very low light, but does usually find focus after a second or two. The frame rate in burst mode shooting is decent, but not super fast. Pentax cameras and lenses are not as common as the Canon & Nikon, but with the body and two decent zooms, and possibly a hot shoe flash, you'd be all set. If you need to shoot at really high frame rates, capture 1000's of images per day, or need super high performance lenses and other gear, this may not be the camera for you. However, it's an overall great pick for an advanced amateur.

• August 30, 2010
  Well, I can't really keep this camera.... unfortunately

  

  I do have tender feelings for Pentax cameras. I used Pentax DSLRs for years, first k10, later k20 and now I have been trying K7. Sorry to say, but I'm going to return the camera for a refund. It feels awesome in hand (just like all Pentax bodies I used) it has an edge in advanced features, unfortunately, for my taste it is severely lacking in image quality. The image simply isn't sharp, even after calibration it is not. The kit lens, while feels TERRIFIC, with nice resistance, nothing sloppy about it, they can't get the job done. I never had issues with Pentax kit lens before in my life!
  The image isn't clean enough. I can see a junk in JPG images in dark areas even on ISO100. The noise coupled with out of focus images as you can imagine, doesn't translate into quality pictures. To say, the AF speed is SUPER FAST, it is as fast, in fact, as once "world fastest AF" Minolta Maxxum 7 was, that is very fast. May be the lens in my kit is defective, but overall it doesn't make a good impression. I really wanted to love it, but I can't stand the IQ. To correct the situation I would need much more expensive (and much heavier) lens, and I find myself in completely different ballpark, in over $1.5k area, where are so many compelling choices (with much greater choice of better and inexpensive zoom lenses).
  I don't want stepping into discussion of Pentax details preservation vs. Canon destructive noise reduction, but all things considered, and while the RAW images are equally good, Canon has WAY better Jpeg techniques and its out of camera jpegs are superior to these of Pentax.
  Another issue is the resin Pentax uses on the handle. First it is not very well clued, I feel like it moves under my fingers, and second, it attracts the dust like magnet! In fact the micropores in the resin on a grip and back (thumb), absorbs the dust and I can't get it out of there even with washing and brushing! It is very poor choice of material. It is very annoying to have a dust in the resin pores on the grip!
  In short, while made of magnesium allow, nicely sculpted, having cool features, etc, it is not up to a claim in image quality, and I can tell its Malaysian assemble quality is FAR FAR AWAY from real Japanese quality of assembly by similarly priced Canon and Nikon.
  I really can't care less for its movie modes, but why two of three of its modes, having some lunacy resolution? WHY? It makes it completely useless as you can't combine the footage with other sources in a timeline! If one has a pile of Pentax equipment accumulated during the years, it makes sense to get the camera. Why anybody else would bother, I can't tell.
  Well, I do have some Pentax equipment, some flashes, few lenses etc.all of which are going for sale. I will spend extra cash, but I want Japanese made camera body (especially considering it is Pentax's top model), with clean images and in-focus images.

• August 25, 2010
  I'm glad I chose the Pentax K-7 for a new camera

  

  I have several Nikon cameras and after reading some reviews of the Pentax K-7 decided to give Pentax a try. My first SLR camera was the Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic from the film days and really like the build quality and picture quality as well. I've taken 500 pictures with the new K-7 including some very impressive HDR photos and am well pleased with the quality of the camera and the pictures it takes. The Pentax 18-55mm zoom lens that comes with the kit is excellent. I couldn't be happier.