Both pretty good cams, DPreview has quite a lot of samples from K30.
Downside of any Pentax is native lens. Frankly except that WS on K5 and decent sensor, cant find reason to use it (well its photographers friendly as all Pentax I agree on that..).
I have no experience shooting them much, other than I got to handle them for 5 minutes last time at the camera shop.
The full weather sealing of the k30 really called my attention. When I grabbed it on my hand, it flt too plastic, it has a very "made in china" feel. The images on the LCD looked great though..
Hey joe. As you know, I just happened to pick a K-5 up about a week or so ago. I have to say, I love the quality and size of both the body and particularly the finder. Best viewfinder I have looked through outside of a FF DSLR (I believe the K30 shares the same finder). Still learning my way around it but I will say if you want an amazingly great MF lens for it, the Pentax A 50 1.7 is Phenomenal (and you of course retain auto aperture with the "A" lens line). Easily the best $80 I have ever spent on a lens. Here are two test shots from my first use with it:
Tariq Gibran wrote:
Hey joe. As you know, I just happened to pick a K-5 up about a week or so ago. I have to say, I love the quality and size of both the body and particularly the finder. Best viewfinder I have looked through outside of a FF DSLR (I believe the K30 shares the same finder). Still learning my way around it but I will say if you want an amazingly great MF lens for it, the Pentax A 50 1.7 is Phenomenal (and you of course retain auto aperture with the "A" lens line). Easily the best $80 I have ever spent on a lens. Here are two test shots from my first use with it:
Yeah, I don't really know what people mean when they say Pentax does not have many native lenses. Actually, I suspect there are more native lenses around then anyone else offers. Full native compatibility with the enormous number of manual focus A lenses from the early 80's then the F and FA AF lenses and finally the pretty outstanding DA primes available now. In fact, if you are into primes, there are some very unique offerings which you just don't see from the likes of Nikon, Canon or Sony.
what do you think of using 67 lenses on a k5, will the iq be good?
thanks
I have not even tested the K-5's high ISO ability. I will check it out for you. Frankly, I would be shocked if it gave a clean ISO 6400.
Pentax 67 lenses are going to be HUGE on the K5, particularly when you add the big adapter. IQ would depend on the specific lens but I think this would only make sense you area really looking for some very long telephoto stuff, perhaps at cheaper prices.
Ok, just a quick snap outside at 6400. I'm actually surprised it looks as good as it does. I also took some at 3200 and and the grain at 3200 looks like the highlight (sky) grain of the 6400, but even in the mid and shadow tones. I would have no issue using 3200 and could see using 6400 in a push.
Here is the overall ISO 6400 shot, processing in ACR. I added a little vibrancy/ saturation but did not adjust noise at all. http://www.gibranstudio.com/6400p.jpg
jamach wrote:
thanks for the iso 6400 tests, looks like luminance noise issues
am surprised it was not better, was the nr adjusted for that iso?
the lens sounds like a good performer
Thanks
It's a raw file straight processed in ACR at default noise settings. I'm sure if I spent time playing around with noise reduction settings/ techniques it could be better. High ISO is not something I shoot often except for lower IQ requirements. In fact, one of the things I like about the k-5 is that it offers a tiny bit more IQ compared to other APS 16MP cameras at low ISO since it goes down to ISO 80 natively. That's often where I leave it though I have found I like the green button feature on the back of the K-5 which allows one to jump right into auto ISO without having to deal with any menu's and so forth.
Mescalamba wrote:
All Pentax are using RAW NR. Thats why it looks like this.. Same sensor as in NEX-5N and dozen of others otherwise.
So when you disable NR in the shooting menu, there is still NR going on with the raws? In that particular shot, I did have NR set to Auto (varies with ISO) but I thought that only had an effect on the jpegs.
Tariq Gibran wrote:
So when you disable NR in the shooting menu, there is still NR going on with the raws? In that particular shot, I did have NR set to Auto (varies with ISO) but I thought that only had an effect on the jpegs.
It has pretty much "HW" NR. They are using some way to clean each color channel before the image is even stored.
Its supposed to work only from certain ISO, but from what I saw I think it works always, just from certain ISO (3200 in case of K-5) its more visible (or detectable). Actually I dont think its bad thing as RAWs from most Pentax cams are pretty good.. Quite a bit more clever NR than for example one from Sony, that in case of certain models actually made files a lot worse instead of making them better.
I think Pentax cams (especially K-5) are nice base for alt lens as its photographer and even alt friendly. If Im correct stabilisation works with any lens..
I've been using Pentax cameras since the K100D, through the K20D, K-x, K-r, K-7, K-5, and now the K-30. I can say with confidence that the K-30 is in some important ways the most complete and competitive dSLR they've ever released (especially at its price point/in its class), though the K20D and K-5 are also excellent cameras. I currently own the K-30 and the K-5, and it would be hard to choose a favorite from among those two. The K-30 has certain advantages (more reassuring AF performance, a slightly better UI, faster processing, overall more fluid operation, much better video options, more lightweight but still great build), while the K-5 has others (excellent grip, better external controls, very slightly better ergonomics, magnesium body, a few more bells & whistles for very technical shooting). Both share excellent ergonomics and image quality.
I imagine the upcoming K-3 will be a big step forward for the company and I can't wait to see what it offers.
