Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"The new hotshoe-mounted O-GPS1 module fixes that oversight by recording latitude, longitude, altitude, Coordinated Universal Time and shooting angle. Everyday snappers might find an extra hotshoe attachment cumbersome, but astro-photography enthusiasts could well be enticed by the device's interesting "ASTROTRACER" function."

Pentax might not be up there with Canon or Nikon, but it is certainly not for the lack of trying. This is yet another impressive use of the anti-shake sensor platform: using the sensor to compensate for short movements of celestial objects. This is the second unique use for sensor-based stabilisation; the first was Pentax's automatic levelling feature. Nice to see Pentax exploring other ways to utilise the technology. Available in July for about US$250.

"At first sight the K-5 is virtually indistinguishable from the K-7 (in some markets the K-7 will remain in the Pentax line alongside the K-5). Apart from an additional 'Fx' (which stands for 'flex') label on the customizable RAW button and a subtle redesign of the AF switch on its rear there are no readily significant differences between the K-5 and its predecessor the K-7. However, there is more novelty to be found under the hood - the K-5's most notable new component is a 16.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, which is probably closely related to the sensors inside the Nikon D7000 and Sony SLT-A55."

I know the Pentax K-5 has been covered before, but I thought I would post DPReview's review. You will be surprised by the score it garnered, but I wasn't. Pentax in the past few years has been building up a good lineup of DSLRs, and the K-5 - while a minor update - makes some compelling changes, like the new sensor that is makes a good account for itself. Plus the lenses. Once again, If you get a Pentax, I really do recommend that you save some money for the Limited lenses; they are really a special thing, and something Pentax users are lucky to have.

"The Pentax K-5 is a new semi-professional DSLR camera, based around the same body design as the older K-7 and the same 16.3 megapixel image sensor as found in the Nikon D7000 and Sony A55 cameras. Key new features include a greatly expanded ISO range of 80-51200, Full HD 1080p video at 25fps, 7fps continuous shooting, upgraded 11-point SAFOX IX+ AF system with wider coverage and faster speed, improved High Dynamic Range mode, and a bigger range of in-built digital filter effects."

The Pentax K-5 is an upgrade over the K-7, and while the improvements seem small on paper, it is the new sensor that has been grabbing attention; DxOMark's sensor ranking places it as the best APS-C-sized sensor. Of course, such ratings can be meaningless in real-world use, but the review (and sample photos) here ranks the camera pretty well. Just ignore the ISO 50k setting.

For those considering a Pentax, don't forget to take a look at their Limited lenses, both the DA and FA versions. They are well-made lenses and for me are Pentax's main selling point, and will go very nicely with a K-5.