On 10/31/2012 9:25 PM, Paul Sorenson wrote:
Well said, Larry. I passed up the K-7 in favor of the K-x because of
its low light capabilities and am absolutely ecstatic with the K-5.
Maybe I'm just too easy to please. Then again, I have a nearly 50 year
history with Pentax and can remember Kodachrome at ASA 12 and *High
Speed* Ektachrome at ASA 160. That makes getting a useable image at ISO
25000 pretty damn awesome.
All the mental masturbation about where Pentax is going doesn't mean a
lot when they're still giving us the tools to get the job done. The
time to fret about it and start considering which new brand to buy is
when they tools they give you don't do the job you need them to do. As
for the demise of Pentax, Twain's quote probably applies..."The reports
of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
Paul, I think that if you were to have to fix your camera or lens and
your local official service would report to you that they did not have a
part and your camera or lens hence are irrepairable, then you might
think otherwise.
Amazingly enough in terms of picture quality the little Ricoh GXR beats
my K-5 hands down:
1. It has significantly more accurate metering.
2. It has significantly more tolerance of overexposed areas, so that
when the scene I am photographing has areas list by Israeli bright sun
and dark shades, I don't have to expose so much to the left as I used to
do with K-5. I can even dial in some heavy plus exposure compensation on
purpose and get very editable images.
3. It has far better color fidelity and color separation. I can modify
one color and the rest won't be affected as much. Although I still am
not certain specifically here - whether it is the camera or it is the
new editing engine of Lightroom 4.x.
4. Here comes the innovation part. The optimization done between the
lens and the sensor in 50mm module is such that the fact that have 4
million lens pixels does not bother me to the slightest in terms of
resolution.
I don't remember who was it on the list who asked to send them K-5 files
with eye brows and eye lashes in them so that they could compare the
resolution. The resolution that I get from my camera might actually
satisfy that gentleman.
Obviously, I don't get a number of features that K-5 offers, both in
terms of usability (such as weather sealing) or picture taking (flash or
extreme sensor sensitivity), but suffices it so say my FA 31 has been
sold because 33/2.5 (the actual denomination of the 50 mm module lens)
is just as good except being slower, but somehow I don't see that as a
detriment any longer.
As for your mention of "mental masturbation". I have to say I think you
chose a term a bit too hard or harsh here. I don't pretend to know how
to run a company such as Pentax. However I can notice one serious
decline of quality control and another such decline in terms of
mechanical quality of the cheaper offerings. These are things that
unfortunately concern me if I am to keep being Pentax customer. And in
my understanding they are in line of direction of "mental masturbation"
as you had it called.
Boris
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