K-7 in the rain

The saturday after fetching my K-7 was a rainy day. I.e., a perfect day to go out and do some test shots! This allowed me to get aquainted to the K-7 more and also enjoy shooting in bad weather conditions.

The K-7 is not only sealed for the worst of weather conditions; but its kit lens(es) is/are too! Needless to say that the K-7 really liked to get wet and for the first time ever, I didn't have any bad emotions seeing it getting wet :)


First impressions:

As noted by many on the web already, it is a real pleasure to hold and handle the K-7. In comparison, the K20D feels older than the core technical data would suggest. It feels solid, almost unbreakable and seems to offer timeless value. Of course, no dSLR can offer this with progress in semiconductor physics being this fast. Nevertheless, the K-7 just feels "right" -- as a serious photographer's tool. I like its size. It is rather small for what it does (smallest APS-C semi-pro body in the industry, look up the technical specs) but does not feel small because of the excellent grip. I could carry it around just holding its grip, for hours ... With its steel magnesium alloy body, it definitely feels solid rather than hollow; giving a nice balance to most lenses.

The first observations jumping to mind are: It does focus fast, it does shoot fast, and it does it in stealth mode (all compared to, e.g., a Pentax K20D or K-m). The shutter and mirror slap are so quick, silent and damped that it one wants to press the shutter in burst mode just for the joy of it (and my girl friend likes it too). Also, the live view (LV) operations are now fast enough to actually be useful. The K-7 is a lot faster to operate though without LV. Of course, for most discrete usage, the constant mirror up during LV, combined with SDM or manual focus, is an added benefit. Unfortunately, the mirror will unlock after a while, in some way or another.

Also, on first inspection, the image quality is very good. With the excellent image quality of the K20D, this is no surprise. I cannot yet tell if it is better or worse, though.

In the next couple of blog postings, I will study a number of details, e.g.:

• Continous autofocus
• Autofocus
• Image resolution
• Noise (when final firmware is out)
• Experience with tethering, both USB and HDMI
• Video
• How to have fun with the camera

In general, I'll try to add to what has been posted already and not repost too much.

For a product description, go here:

• Pentax Imaging's K-7 page


• Pentaxforum's K-7 page


• DP Review's K-7 page

Some more photos in the rain ...
Note: all photos as shown here are post processed. The gallery contains the original images, too.

Black drops

Red drops

Better stay dry

Very green

Unexpected flower

Peace

Please, visit the gallery page to access full size sample images. All original images have been taken with the camera's factory settings, in DNG raw format, and been converted to JPG in Lightroom with standard settings. You may download and print the original files but please note that the photos carry my copyright.

This blog post's gallery page