I'm a K5 owner! Need some recommendations

[Chowm4]

After reading K5 reviews for some weeks now, I finally went to OP today & bought the K5 body. OP's price is lowest (1695), but its 18-135mm lens has a black spot in it, so I had to go to SLRR to buy the lens. If not becos of OP's price, I would have gone to SLRR to buy everything. In terms of svc, OP is lousy. They didn't even say thank you after I paid for the camera. Ok, enough complaining. Haven't tried the camera becos battery is still charging (3.5 hrs now).

Want to ask K5 owners:
1. What class of SD cards do you use? Is class 4 enough for fast burst & the AVI video?
2. What screen protectors do you recommend? SLRR ran out of the glass type.
Thanks in advance.

 

[le petit prince]

And I'm envious.

Using a K-7, so it's pretty much the same built-wise.
1) I use class 4 and 2 and both seem fast enough for video. Hardly ever use burst, so no idea.
2) Not using one, as I think it's not needed. The glass seems tough enough.

 

[Supersimon27]

Hi there , welcome to K-5

Me using class 4 Kingston too . No problem so far .

for the screen protector , I bought the GSS screen from SLRR . If you dun mind plastic , U can try sgcamera for their hercules Series . It come with 2 protector instead of 1 (top and main LCD) while GSS only come with Main LCD

For my case , I actually know that OP price is $12 cheaper (during my time) then SLRR . But I still prefer to go SLRR to buy my stuff as I'm always comfortable to be serve by Ray .

OP wise , sometime I got good service from them , however when they are busy , sometime they don't have time for me . Not that bad , but I still prefer SLRR

 

[detritus]

i'm using a class 10 card ;p but thats really cos i had one lying ard... class 4 seems ok for general use.

i'm using the gss glass protector now. i've used the acmaxx protector before for my k-x. its very good also.

 

[scorpioh]

I use a class 6 sandisk extreme 3. Sometimes its not just the class but the overall reliability of the cards and I guess brand names like sandisk are usually better- may be psychological. I am using those plastic protector which comes in two pieces - for the screen and top panel. The one I still liked most is Martin fields but they only made it for the good old k10d. The most important thing about screen protectors is the fit. Most i have tried are out - shorter or longer...

 

[CorneliusK]

I've had two 8gb class 4 kingston cards fail on me before, not a pleasant experience.

The buffer clears somewhat faster with my Sandisk Extreme III class 10 card as compared to a regular Kingston class 4 - a rough estimate is that it can write about 1.5 shots per second, whereas the Kingston takes slightly more than a second per shot.

Its a heck of a lot more expensive than a regular SD card though.

 

[teruranse]

congratulates on getting k5

i used class 6 sdhc without any problem on the cam but only one on the pc as my laptop couldnt read the card initially.

i would also recommend hercules series though personally i think the size is a little bit smaller than the gss cos when i cover the lcd the word "pentax" got cut into half. haha

 

[Chowm4]

Thank you all for your feedback.

I have another important question: regardless of the class of SD card I used, there is a processing time of about 3-4 secs after every shot, when the screen turns blank with an hourglass in the middle. I've never seen that long processing in Canon, Sony, or Nikon DSLRs, not even in my PnS, G11 & S95. I can't find any explanation in the manual. Can someone pls educate me? I'm quite perturbed by it becos I expect K5 to process images faster than other entry level DSLRs. Thanks.

 

[darrrrrrrrrr]

The K-5 doesn't display images in playback mode until the buffer is cleared to the SD card. After shooting a big burst you might end up waiting about half a minute staring at the hourglass before the image is displayed. I think Pentax does need to fix this issue by letting us look at the first few shots as the later ones are being transferred. Regarding your issue of single shots, I think there's no way to avoid it other than turning of highlight & shadow correction and the distortion and CA correction to reduce the processing time.

 

[CorneliusK]

This is unfortunately the price you pay for the very good but also very large RAW output file of the K-5. Its one of the few weak points of this camera - the slowness to generate a preview image.

 

[Chowm4]

The K-5 doesn't display images in playback mode until the buffer is cleared to the SD card. After shooting a big burst you might end up waiting about half a minute staring at the hourglass before the image is displayed. I think Pentax does need to fix this issue by letting us look at the first few shots as the later ones are being transferred. Regarding your issue of single shots, I think there's no way to avoid it other than turning of highlight & shadow correction and the distortion and CA correction to reduce the processing time.

I don't shoot a lot of continuous burst, so I can live with it, but the single shot processing is really annoying. :angry: I read about it in one review, but didn't expect the processing to be that long! Wonder how do Canikon do it.

So if I turn off all the corrections (highlight, shadow, distortion, CA, etc) to speed up processing, can I still make the corrections in postprocessing with Pentax Utility? Thanks.

 

[CorneliusK]

In my experience, highlight and shadow correction do not cause much delay, its distortion and CA correction that takes very long. I am not familiar with Pentax Utility but its a breeze to do corrections in Lightroom 3.3, as long as the lens being used is in the supported list (which includes virtually all the currently available lenses except for a few odd exceptions)

 

[Chowm4]

In my experience, highlight and shadow correction do not cause much delay, its distortion and CA correction that takes very long. I am not familiar with Pentax Utility but its a breeze to do corrections in Lightroom 3.3, as long as the lens being used is in the supported list (which includes virtually all the currently available lenses except for a few odd exceptions)

Thanks for pointing that out to me. I discovered to my relief that the 3-4 secs of image processing are due to the distortion & CA correction being turned on. (I kind of KS & turned on almost every function.) After I turned off the two corrections, there wasn't any delay at all. Phew. For a moment I thought I should have bought D7k instead. I think my DA 18-135mm lens shouldn't have too much distortion or CA. Ok, with that out of the way, I'm gonna explore the camera. Again, thanks for helping out.

 

[darrrrrrrrrr]

Thanks for pointing that out to me. I discovered to my relief that the 3-4 secs of image processing are due to the distortion & CA correction being turned on. (I kind of KS & turned on almost every function.) After I turned off the two corrections, there wasn't any delay at all. Phew. For a moment I thought I should have bought D7k instead. I think my DA 18-135mm lens shouldn't have too much distortion or CA. Ok, with that out of the way, I'm gonna explore the camera. Again, thanks for helping out.

Good to hear. Have you updated to the 1.03 firmware yet?

Also, if you are looking for spare batteries, the Divipower sold at Manly is apparently very long-lasting, even longer than the original. But the K-5's battery life is so good you might not need a spare

 

[teruranse]

firmware 1.03 or 1.02?

 

[darrrrrrrrrr]

firmware 1.03 or 1.02?

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/threads/863354-Firmware-Update-v-1.03-for-K-5

latest update with AF fix!

 

[CorneliusK]

I think my DA 18-135mm lens shouldn't have too much distortion or CA.

Superzooms like the DA 18-135 will typically have some distortion at the extreme ends. Generally not noticeable unless you are shooting straight lines. I don't think the DA 18-135 has much CA so you are in luck here. In any case, its easy to correct in post.

 

[edutilos-]

After reading K5 reviews for some weeks now, I finally went to OP today & bought the K5 body. OP's price is lowest (1695), but its 18-135mm lens has a black spot in it, so I had to go to SLRR to buy the lens. If not becos of OP's price, I would have gone to SLRR to buy everything. In terms of svc, OP is lousy. They didn't even say thank you after I paid for the camera. Ok, enough complaining. Haven't tried the camera becos battery is still charging (3.5 hrs now).

Want to ask K5 owners:
1. What class of SD cards do you use? Is class 4 enough for fast burst & the AVI video?
2. What screen protectors do you recommend? SLRR ran out of the glass type.
Thanks in advance.

I'm not a K-5 owner, but even if class 4 can maintain fast burst, file transfer speeds to computer will still be relatively slow. Besides, Sandisk Ultra II isn't that much more expensive.

For screen protectors, suggest you use GGS. Can get from OP.

 

[teruranse]

that fast. i just upgraded 1.02 this two ago now 1.03 liao haha.

 

[Chowm4]

Good to hear. Have you updated to the 1.03 firmware yet?
Also, if you are looking for spare batteries, the Divipower sold at Manly is apparently very long-lasting, even longer than the original. But the K-5's battery life is so good you might not need a spare

Thanks for the spare battery tip. SLRR sells 3rd party battery for K5 at $17, but I don't dare to use it. Will visit Manly when I'm in Chinatown area.

I don't know the firmware version of my new K5; no time to check yet. Say if the version is 1.01, can I still upgrade to 1.03 even if I don't have 1.02? Thanks.