I saw all the rave reviews from both buyers and camera review sites on the K5 so I just had to have it. I recently sold my Nikon D90 and was in need of an upgrade.The ergonomics of the K5 are JUST great. It makes you want to pick it up and use it. The weight, the solid build, LCD, and all the buttons seem to be in the right place REALLY great. A sort of non issue, out of the box I had two hot pixels. Thanks though to the in camera pixel mapping a BIG advantage over the Nikon D7000, I had a perfect camera in seconds after just clicking pixel remap.
My problems with the K5 are I had way too many pictures where it focused behind what I wanted IT to focus on, OR focused REALLY on nothing. Despite the fact it LOOKED focused in either the viewfinder and or live view. I set it to one point certainly not multi. (I shot a lot of People shots) Unless I was very close to the subject(s) OR "if the subject didn't have a lot of things close by behind" like trees etc.,over and over the K5 had really focused behind my target.
I tend to shoot a lot in places of nature like Arboretums etc..so it's then when I noticed the most out of focus shots, when the background was sort of busy. If I was shooting a portrait shot, say by the Ocean, I always had PERFECT sharp focus as there was nothing CLOSE behind my subject like a tree obviously.
Another thing that bothered me on the K5 was it's OVERALL rendition of skin tones. I know certain settings are out of the box too saturated with too much contrast but most pictures no matter what I did, had unrealistic skin tones.
In raw I was usually able to get VERY good skin tone but I hated to ALWAYS have to manipulate nearly every picture I took in order to get realistic looking skin tones.
Fast Forward, I was getting frustrated with the focus and COLOR accuracy. I picked up a Nikon D7000 and without doing a whole review, without question the D7000 had way better accurate auto focus in most situations, and much better looking ACCURATE color, especially skin tones. (This was MY experience don't shoot the messenger :))
Long story short without a doubt I enjoyed the overall feel and customization level much more on the K5 vs the Nikon. Also high ISO goes to the K5. As to grain or Chroma noise my tests showed the K5 was the winner over the D7000 which was close.
However due to the focus and skin tone issues I sadly returned my K5 and will be keeping the D7000. There is no doubt the Pentax is a SUPER great camera. I suppose if you enjoy a ton of post processing it will reward you big time. The auto focus issue? I don't know..I missed far too many shots that should have been in focus..and that's probably the main reason I chose the D7000 over the Pentax.
This is just my opinion, and from what I've read the K5 usually comes up the winner. However due to the issues I listed at least in my case, the D7000 was the better camera for ME though not ergonomically. Also as far as the initial kit lenses go, if you buy these cameras with the kit lens..the K5'S lens will show MUCH more purple fringing, The D7000 wins again on the kit lens. Not an issue if you plan to buy some good glass as they say with your camera. All said though, the K5 is a great camera, but you may want to try a D7000 and see if it may not be the better camera in the REAL WORLD..Not dxo charts, shooting manikins in a studio, and all that sort of thing.
I know there are some die hard Pentax people out there I can see why, as Pentax seems riddled with QUALITY and is a bit DIFFERENT than the same old boring? Nikon/ Canons. I am actually the type who PREFERS to be different, (I have an X100 LOVE IT!! I won't even go there now). I WANTED to choose the K5 over the D7000 but my pictures wouldn't let me do that..JUST my eyes and opinion.
Review by Radio Man "yarns13"
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