New Original K-7 Samples at Flickr, Firmware V0.35

Someone has uploaded some full size original pre-production K-7 samples at Flickr, the firmware version programmed is still 0.35:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tempete_de_pixel/sets/72157618888769445/

I have made some quick glances on some of the photos and my direct observations are as follows:-

First, look at this ISO 100 sample:-


(Click to download the *full size* original sample)

I find that the colours are good, exposure is good, details are good. As seen in the EXIF, a manual lens of 28mm was used (user entered focal for the SR and there is no aperture information). But however, if the picture is viewed in 100%, there are some little noise visible in the blue sky, even at the supposed to be finest setting of ISO 100.

Second, let's look at these two ISO 200 samples:-


(Click to download the *full size* original samples)

Both the outdoor shot and indoor shot are nice IMO. The same manual 28mm lens is used. Metering mode used is yet Centre-Weighted Average. The outdoor shot is a bit underexposed. You can regard this underexposure is normal and can be expected for this type of scene and especially considered that there was no exposure compensation applied. Btw, we cannot judge the exposure accuracy more exactly with manual lenses with stopped-down metering as there are always errors there anyway, still (see this quick experiment by Blende8 for some more details). With the sky underexposed, the noise are now even more visible for the blue.

Surprisingly, the indoor shot looks quite good. Noise are not very visible and nor the small grains look annoying even at dark regions. Well, I can see the lens in use has 10 aperture blades. What lens is this actually? :-)

Next, let's look at another ISO 400 sample, for the flower close-up shot:-


(Click to download the *full size* original sample)

The colour is very nice and well saturated (but yet still looks natural). The image details are good (just look at the in-focus core). Noise is okay for this mid-range ISO and they are not annoying neither (mostly are luminance noise with little chroma/colour noise).

Next, let's have a look at an ISO 800 shot:-


(Click to download the *full size* original sample)

I believe this shot was taken with the kit lens this time at 18mm, as now the aperture value has appeared. Whilst the image is somehow dark overall speaking, the noise control is good for this high ISO picture. Just look at the dark areas and you can again see the noise are acceptable, at least to me. The image sharpness is Okay (or you can call it so-so, possibly a lens issue as the details are still there). I haven't checked if Noise Reduction has been applied, though. Just go check with a Pentax Photo Browser yourself if you're really interested.

Finally, as for the white balance, most photos are okay, but sometimes I can see it is slightly off, just see this outdoor sample and I think it is just a bit blueish under the sun (and somehow overexposed too, particular for the sky):-


(Click to download the *full size* original sample)

Well, last but not least, I have heard from two reliable sources of mine that there will be a significant camera update to come on June 15 but they are not sure if it is just a firmware (software) update up to the version 1.0 or that a new production camera will be distributed (that means that it is also a hardware update if so). So, let's wait and see. Of course, I will let you know if there is something worth sharing and that I can tell.