Pentax K-5 16.3 MP Digital SLR with 18-55mm Lens and 3-Inch LCD (Black) -

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Michael McKee “mystic cowboy” (Port Townsend, WA United States) –

  

  

  

This is quite simple the best camera I’ve ever owned. It takes great photos and is very well built. I wasn’t going to upgrade yet. I’m the type to wait until a new electronics product has been out for a while and dropped in price, but the reports I’ve seen about this camera triggered my choice to take a chance.

The first thing I noticed is how petite the K-5 looks, though looks are deceiving. This baby is dense and weighs much more than you’d expect from the size. I’m sure that the magnesium body and extensive weather seals have a lot to do with that. This is one solid piece of kit. The camera has plenty of external controls, about what you’d expect from a body in this price range. I’ve shot with my sealed K20D in the Pacific Northwest rain a lot with no problems. My two shoots with the K-5 in the wet show it to be as least as good. Though Pentax has dropped the multiple exposure button. You can program the custom program button to duplicate that feature. As far a programming, the K-5 has the extensive customizability I came to love with my K20D. The feature list is extensive and way too long to go over in a short review.

And the photos! This camera has a huge dynamic range, over 14 stops! Even at ISO 800 it has the same exposure range of my K20D at 100 ISO. The tonality you can get from a print is beautiful. Another nice feature is the ability to choose 14 bit as opposed to 12 bit RAW files. It’s a small thing but brings the camera in line with Nikon’s offerings. I can’t comment on the many shooting modes and effects available. They only apply to JPEG images. I don’t understand why anyone would buy a camera this costly and capable and throw away so much potential image quality by shooting JPEG. That’s not to say that the JPEGs from the K-5 aren’t perfectly fine. They are. It’s just that RAW files from this camera hold so much more information than a JPEG can. And that information translates into a very real difference in what you can print if you take the time and care to. My experience seems to mirror the incredible sensor abilities that DXO Labs has published for the K-5.

One other huge advance is the focus speed. This is the fastest and most accurately focusing camera Pentax has ever built, easily in line with Canon and Nikon’s offerings in the price range. One small disappointment is that the fast focus and 7 fps capture rate makes the camera suitable for sports and wildlife photography, but the camera has a somewhat limited buffer. The 40 frames of JPEG is reasonable but the 15 image RAW buffer is a bit cramped. But then Pentax doesn’t make the long lenses for that kind of photography anyway. Though Sigma does make some with Pentax mounts. With the few ballgame or bird photos I take, I haven’t found the buffer limit to be a problem.

Looking at my histograms shows that the K-5 has a tendency to underexpose about a third of a stop. That’s really no problem as I’ve pulled usable photos out of totally black portions of the initial image, great reason to shoot RAW. Another is the great low ISO capability of the K-5. the quality of my 6400 ISO photos is slightly better than what I get with the K20D at 1600 ISO, easily 2 1/2-3 stops improvement depending on situation. And the camera focuses much faster in low light, too.

If I were a video shooter I might find a problem with the lack of autofocus in video mode. The newest Canon and Nikon cameras have that ability, though the autofocus is slow on both during video capture. That’s the nature of phase detection focusing that true DSLRs use in Live View or Video. The couple of videos I’ve shot look great. It’s enough for me. And the camera does allow for an external microphone.

P.S.
It was commented that this review is to impersonal and that I use terms that people don’t understand. To make this more clear:
14 stops of DR means in the real world is that my photos look better than any I’ve ever taken. Color gradations are smoother and more subtle. It means that I’m able to pull usable details out of parts of the image that I would have given up on before because they were too dark. It means that I can take single shots in situations where before I would have used HDR or exposure blending to pull in detail in both bright and dark areas of a scene. It means that I can the same tonal range at ISO 800 that I get with a K20D at ISO 100. It means that this is a terrific camera. I guess I’m a bit excited that a Pentax camera finally gets great press. I’m a bit tired of having equipment that I very much like ignored by most photographers.

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 Comments (12)

This is the camera that DxO Labs gave the following rating for:
“No need for suspense: this new 16.3 MP sensor is simply the best APS-C we have tested so far, sometimes able to compete even with very high-end full-frame cameras.

The overall score of the K5 puts it in the lead with 82 points — more than 9 points better than the D90 or the Alpha 55, and 16 points ahead of the Canon 7D or 60D. The K5 is literally the best APS-C performer for each segment, even in low ISO”.
See their website at
[...]

I am no professional. I had used a basic DSLR prior to this the k2000. So this review is based on someone upgrading from a beginner SLR to a more sophisticated one.

Pros:

Low light: This is a camera that takes great low light pictures, you can push the ISO up pretty high and still get great pictures. This was the biggest reason for me to upgrade. I had a hard time taking pictures of my kids in various performances with terrible lighting conditions. Obviously one needs a good lens. But with my old camera I had to throw too many away. This camera combined with the DA 50-135mm lens is one terrific package for such situations.

Weight/Size: this is the most compact camera at such a level that you will find.

Weather resistant: This is a weather resistant camera! Combine this with a weather resistant lens and you are all set.

Electronic Level: I thought this was a gimmick but after using it for a few days, I find it indispensable to take level photos.

User Selectable Focus points: these are standard in expensive cameras, nothing special if you have used such cameras before but for somone upgrading I quickly found out how convenient this was.

Shake reduction: Pentax unlike Nikon/Canon has shake reduction built into the camera, so any lens you put on it has shake reduction function.

Lenses: Pentax has small pancake lenses called limited lenses. Try these if you are new to Pentax. They are superb and great to walk around with without looking like a dork.

Cons: Expensive…

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 Comments (5)

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P. Seth (Chicago, IL) –

  

The k7 is awesome. Great features, customizability, build… perfect size, weather sealed, 100% viewfinder… k5 is all this with a significantly better sensor, arguably the only lacking aspect of the k7. Apparently there’s a new autofocus system too… so far so good.

After a great deal of research for my first DSLR, this was my choice over Canon/Nikon with Canon 7d as top contender… k5 won in most part for better a better ISO range. Very happy with my choice after using it for a few days, especially in low light. I’m able to get very good hand held shots in dimly lit indoors (1600-6400 ISO, 1/30-1/60th shutter, f3.5 on the kit lens or 2 on the 50mm FA)… in-body image stabilization comes in handy as well.

About me… a photography enthusiast, architect by profession and travel at every chance I get… learnt to shoot pictures on a Pentax spotmatic… switched to a Nikon n85 a few years before the film era begun fading. Thrilled with the k5… wish it was a little cheaper. 5 stars none the less… Have to add that I was initially concerned about the choice of pentax lenses but the more I looked, they have some decent options with the DA* and Limited lenses. Definitely give this camera a serious look (if not very concerned about low light, save the $ and get a k7)…

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