Pentax K-7 Review

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 14.6 megapixel Excellent JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 9Mb.

During the review, the Pentax K-7 produced photos of very good quality. The built-in pop-up flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds and Bulb mode allowing you to capture enough light in all situations. The 14.6 megapixel JPEG images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting. Image stabilisation via the camera body is a feature that helps the Pentax K7 keep up with its competitors, and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The Digital Filters quickly produce special effects that would otherwise require you to spend a lot of time in the digital darkroom, although some of them are less useful than others. The D-Range options help make the most out of both the shadows and highlights in a high-contrast scene (and it works for both JPEG and RAW files), while the HDR mode greatly expands the dynamic range of a JPEG by combining three differently exposed images in-camera. The multi exposure mode combines between two and nine different JPEG or RAW images into a single photo. Noise is the main issue for the Pentax K-7, starting to appear at ISO 800 along with a noticeable colour shift, and becoming easily detectable at the faster settings of ISO 1600, 3200 and 6400 when viewing images at 100% magnification on screen (particularly in the RAW files).

Noise

There are 7 ISO settings available on the Pentax K-7. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and the RAW equivalent on the right:

JPEG	RAW
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Pentax K-7 has 4 different JPEG file quality settings available, with Excellent being the highest quality option, and it also supports RAW (Pentax's PEF format and Adobe DNG). Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

Excellent (9.6Mb) (100% Crop)	Best (5.7Mb) (100% Crop)
Better (3.4Mb) (100% Crop)	Good (1.6Mb) (100% Crop)
RAW (13.1Mb) (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash modes include Flash On, Flash On + Red-eye Reduction, Slow-speed Sync, Slow-speed Sync + Red-eye Reduction, Trailing Curtain Sync, and Wireless Mode. These shots of a white ceiling were taken at a distance of 1.5 metres.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (27mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (27mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (82mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (82mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On setting or the Red-eye Reduction option caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Pentax K-7 lets you dial in shutter speeds of up to 30 seconds and has a Bulb mode as well, which is very good news if you are seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 20 seconds, aperture of f/8 at ISO 100. We've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Shake Reduction

The Pentax K-7 has a Shake Reduction mechanism built into the camera body, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with Shake Reduction turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with Shake Reduction turned on, the images are sharper than when it's turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Shake Reduction Off (100% Crop)	Shake Reduction On (100% Crop)
1/15th / 27mm
1/8th / 82mm

D-Range

Similar to Nikon's D-lighting, Sony's DRO, and Olympus' Shadow Adjustment Technology, Pentax's D-Range allows you to correct the highlights (On or Off) and/or the shadows (3 different levels) before taking a JPEG or RAW image. Although this option is always at your disposal, remember that it is meant to be used in strong, contrasty lighting at base ISO. Below you can see a comparison between Off and both highlight and shadow correction set to on/full strength; the difference is mainly noticeable in the shadowed areas on the left and right sides of the photo.

Off	On

HDR Capture

The Pentax K-7's HDR Capture option (only available for JPEGs) takes three images with different exposures, and then records a single image that combines the properly exposed parts of each one, expanding its dynamic range. Here is an example which was shot with the three different modes (Off, Standard and Strong). It's important to always use a tripod to prevent camera shake from blurring the HDR image, and it doesn't work very well for moving subjects.

Off	Standard
Strong

Custom Image

Pentax's Custom Images, similar to Nikon's Picture Styles and Canon's Picture Controls, are preset combinations of different sharpness, contrast, saturation and colour tone settings. You can change the saturation, hue, high/low key, contrast and sharpness for each of the seven options”. They are shown below in the following series, which demonstrates the differences.

Bright	Natural
Portrait	Landscape
Vibrant	Muted
Monochrome

Digital Filters

The Pentax K-7 offers seven different Digital Filters, which allow you to quickly apply an artistic effect to a photo before taking it (JPEG images only). They are shown below in the following series, which demonstrates the differences. Note that applying the Digital Filters slows the camera down somewhat, as it has to process the image for a few seconds after it's taken.

Toy Camera	Retro
High Contrast	Exract Colour
Soft	Star Burst
Fisheye

Multi Exposure

The Pentax K-7 has a multi exposure mode that allows you to combine between two and nine different JPEG or RAW images into a single photo. Here are some examples:

Example 1	Example 2

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Entry tags

Pentax K-7, Pentax K7, pentax, k-7, k7, DSLR, digital SLR, 14 megapixel, 3 inch LCD, hd video, hd

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Pentax K-7 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.