Pentax takes on Canon 7D, Nikon D300s with K-5

When Pentax briefed me on the K-5, its latest midrange dSLR--midrange for the market as a whole, but at the top of Pentax's food chain--its PR spokeswoman downplayed the announcement. "It's just an updated version of the K-7" was the gist of her pitch.

Then the team began to detail the changes: a beefed-up autofocus system, a switch to a Sony CMOS sensor with on-chip noise reduction, an increase of 2fps in continuous shooting, 1080p video capture. I pointed out that these were nontrivial changes, and that just because the body was fundamentally the same as the K-7--same weather sealing and magnesium-alloy build--didn't mean that people wouldn't recognize the importance of the enhancements.

It's not the replacement for the K-7 that many were expecting, instead filling out Pentax's lineup a price class up. Here's the company's current dSLR line:

There are obvious differences between the K-5 and K-7, which is important given the big price gap between them. The tweaks to the AF sensor include new optical components designed to reduce the affects of temperature extremes and increased transparency to allow more light to hit the AF sensor (for presumably faster, more accurate operation).

I think there are clear wins for Pentaxians looking for a step up in speed and video capabilities over the K-7. I think it's less clear for people who are considering the K-5 vs. its same-priced competitors. Here's a comparison:

One of Pentax's strengths tends to be offering better-than-usual performance, features, and build quality than similarly priced models. In this class, however, the K-5 just offers parity with Canon and Nikon (though all leave the Olympus E-5 looking a bit forlorn). It does have in-body image stabilization, and Pentax's WR lenses provide weather-resistance at cheaper prices than Canon and Nikon's pro-level models, which combine the weatherproofing with pro-level glass. On the other hand, Pentax lags in a few ways that matter in some quarters; for example, shutter durability and possibly an oddly slow maximum flash sync speed (I'm assuming it's unchanged from the K-7). It's also unclear what the manual controls will be for shooting video, though Pentax tends to lag a little here as well.

Overall, the K-5 looks like an intriguing addition to Pentax's lineup, though much waits to be ascertained in testing. I hope to see one sooner rather than later.