The Pentax K-7 is built like a miniature tank and is packed with a host of useful features.

One of the most pleasant surprises in photo gear this year, at least for me, has been the reemergence of Pentax as a player in the semi-pro market. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've thought of Pentax as being in the same class as Nikon, Canon, or even Olympus when it comes to making pro-worthy advanced digital SLRs.

That changed for me with the release of the 14.2-megapixel Pentax K-7 DSLR in May. I got a chance to play with a pre-production version of the K-7 then and really liked what I saw. Now that I've had the opportunity to test out a final, production version of the camera, I'm even more stoked about the K-7.

If you're looking for a mid-range DSLR and don't yet have an allegiance to a particular brand—i.e., don't own a lot of proprietary lenses—the K-7 is a worthy contender to the Canon 50D, Nikon D300, and Olympus E-3. In fact, some of the advanced features in this compact yet sturdy camera eclipse what the competition has to offer. If the image quality from the K-7 is not quite on par to the 50D or, especially, when compared to the D300, it beats the pants off those two models when it comes to options. This camera is seriously loaded.


FEATURES FOR PROS

Like the Olympus E-3—a camera the new Pentax flagship DSLR looks like a junior version of—the K-7 is built with a stainless steel chassis surrounded by a magnesium alloy shell. It's tough and durable but still lightweight at 26.5 ounces with the battery and memory card, but without a lens.

The K-7 is weather resistant, dustproof, and coldproof (14 degrees F, -10 degrees C) and features an improved dust reduction system that uses supersonic vibration on the low pass filter to shake off specks. (This is one of the many improvements the K-7 makes on the K20D, the bigger and bulkier camera it's replacing.)

Most importantly, the K-7 feels like a serious camera. It's got good balance overall with a comfortable, notched handgrip and a logical layout of buttons and controls. All the function buttons are on the right side of the rear of the camera so you don't need to use more than one hand to change settings. I also like that the K-7, like its predecessor, employs a dedicated RAW button on the front left of the camera which makes it easy to switch between RAW and JPEG image shooting on the fly. I configured it to switch the camera into RAW+JPEG mode. (Incidentally, the K-7 lets you shoot your RAW images in either Pentax's .PEF format or Adobe's DNG. I wish all camera manufacturers offered this flexibility!)

The one stumble is the new locking mode dial on top of the camera. While I understand the thinking in this feature—pros may want to lock in their settings so they don't have to worry about accidentally changing the dial—the knurled knob on the K-7 is small, awkward, and very difficult to change quickly.

Where it caused the biggest problems was when I wanted to quickly change from shooting still images to shooting HD video with the camera's 720p, 30 frames per second movie mode. Unlike competing DSLRs which use a button to let you switch between still and video, on the K-7 you turn the mode dial to the movie camera icon and then press the shutter. While in theory this sounds simple, to turn the locking dial you have to press a button in the middle of it. That's a lot to do if you're in a hurry.

Otherwise though, the K-7 is a fast performer with a quiet, stealthy shutter. The new 11-point SAFOX VIII+ autofocus system has a lousy name but was fast, accurate, and spot-on in a range of lighting conditions. The system uses 9 cross sensors, 2 wide-angle sensors, and has a dedicated assist lamp to help target your subject while shooting in low light. I was impressed with how quickly the new system, which detects colors and wavelengths to lock in autofocus in difficult lighting such as tungsten, was able to find its target with very little to no "lens hunting." (Canon might want to look at this system whenever it decides to update the creaky autofocus on the 5D Mark II.) The K-7's new 77-segment metering system also did a good job of quickly and accurately accessing exposure even in tricky lighting.

Maximum shooting speed was brisk at just over 5 frames per second and the camera was able to keep up with the action in a pair of basketball games I shot. The K-7's 3-inch, 921,00-dot LCD screen is great for checking sharpness in playback, reviewing HD videos, or tracking the screen feed in Live View.

A feature that's unique to the K-7 is the camera's much-ballyhooed High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode which automatically blends three shots into one to capture more detail in high contrast scenes. Results weren't as good as what you can do in Photoshop, but it's a huge time-saver. The only hitch is that it takes the camera a few seconds to process the images and you can't use the K-7's built-in Shake Reduction. Either way, it's a handy feature that I'm sure makes Pentax's rivals green with envy.

I also liked the Electronic level function which uses Shake Reduction to shift the sensor to maintain even horizons. Pros will also like that the K-7 lets you embedded your copyright info right into the image without having to move it to a computer.


QUALITY CONTROL

As a still camera, the K-7's image quality is a marked improvement over its predecessor, when it comes to noise. The K-7 uses a new Samsung-manufactured 14.6-megapixel CMOS sensor with a 4-channel output that did a great job of keeping noise down up to ISO 800. The camera also fared well at ISO 1600 in mixed lighting and resisted the tendency I've seen lately in some cameras to overprocess the noise and smooth out detail. (This was a problem with the Olympus EP-1 which is also reviewed in this issue.) On the other hand, I was disappointed with images shot at ISO 3200 on this camera which were specked with luminance (light) noise and lacked the crispness of shots I've captured with the Canon 50D and Nikon D300. Still, the K-7 is a step in the right direction.

I shot with the camera using a Pentax DA* 55mm f/1.4 SDM; DA 55-300mm f/4-5.8ED; and 15mm f/4ED AL. The 55mm f/1.4 really shined for portraits, producing an incredibly shallow depth of field and excellent bokeh that made my subjects' faces pop. In good lighting at ISO 100-800, the camera produced sparkling images though it did have a tendency to oversaturate color in my JPEGs which is the one major consumer-oriented annoyance with this camera. Stick to shooting RAW and you should be ok.

As an HD video camera, I'd put it on par to the Nikon D90 though the K-7 has some added bonuses including the ability to control aperture and use the camera's mechanical Shake Reduction to stabilize jittery footage. (Like the D90, the K-7 suffers from "rolling shutter" during HD capture which creates a Jell-o like effect in your footage.) Also, do yourself a favor and plug a stereo mic into the K-7's mic jack for better sound.


THE BOTTOM LINE

The Pentax K-7 is one of most pleasant surprises of the year, offering impressive functionality with over half a dozen stand-out features including HDR recording; an electronic level function; a decent HD movie mode; copyright image embedding; and a tough, rugged but lightweight build. If the image quality from the K-7 is not quite as good as the Canon 50D or Nikon D300; it's certainly a vast improvement over Pentax's previous top-of-the-line model. The mid-level professional camera category has suddenly gotten a whole lot more interesting.

Pentax K-7

www.pentaximaging.com Pros: Great feature set with several significant imaging innovations; tough, rugged, and comfortable lightweight build; quick and reliable autofocus; HD video feature lets you use Shake Reduction and control aperture; time-saving HDR shooting mode. Cons: Images were noisy at ISO 3200; JPEGS look slightly oversaturated; wobbly Jell-O effect in HD recording. Pricing: $1,300 (body only)