RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: Poll: Will You Buy the K-5 Right Now?

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Poll: Will You Buy the K-5 Right Now?

The K-5 seems to have been discontinued and there have been various signs of Ricoh is planning to abort the DSLR lineup. E.g., both K-r and K-5 have been discontinued with low profile but no replacement model of any is given. Moreover, there has not even any plan or just a roadmap disclosed. Plus, the new Ricoh chief said in a recent interview that the mirror and all the mechanical parts are just evils which cause many problems and he does tend towards to make mirrorless instead of reflex, even for the FF and 645D, for what is being serious considered! :-o

Now, I understand why the new Pentax Ricoh head said that the PR planned to make every upcoming Pentax camera to be 100% coverage for the view-finding, even for entry level models. I have been really stupid enough for not being able to interpret the clear message that was contained and brought out. Well, if all the cameras will be mirrorless and they can only offer LiveView, will the viewfinding coverage be smaller than the full 100%?! :-o

Now for us old Pentax K-mount reflex users, at just the "low" price of $1000, would you opt to grab maybe the last Pentax DSLR body ("flagship" or not!) right now? And here is the poll. Of course, if you are already a K-5 owner, this poll may not be too meaningful to your true case. But still, you are welcome to opt! Okay, let's go! :-)

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John · 689 weeks ago

At the moment, you see Pentax-offers in the shops everywhere. Not just the k5 and kr, but also k-x- ans even k- m. It really seems as if Pentax is clearing out their stocks.
No it may seem not very nice to keep silent, sell all remaining stocks and then tell they decided to stop making slrs, on the other hand, if they would tell about their decision now, they wouldnt selll any remaining stock anymore.
I think it is clear that Pentx dslrs are finished

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Mage · 689 weeks ago

This depends on
1, whether you have a big investment in Pentax lenses, especially rare and expensive lenses,
2. whether you are old, i.e. a couple of K-5 will probably be enough for you until you will no longer be taking photos seriously,
3, whether you are the type of photographer who can benefit from the latest technology that other makers keep putting in their new models, e.g. as the latest in AF, exposure metering,
4. whether your work or hobby requires strong support and service from the maker, if not QC,
5. whether you are type who are sentimental about brands and can afford to throw good money after bad without too much hurt.

I am almost certain what your poll results will be, based on what I have seen about Pentax owners. They are very defensive, vocal and united and will almost always get the best poll results to show support for their brand, or to protect their investment. That however have not in the past change anything when Pentax gets worse and worse. Also, people who are going to switch won't be bothered with a poll or they would not post to complain because of some very nasty and insecure Pentax posters. So, I won't rely on a poll, to measure Pentax owner reactions rather, I would just watch the amount of lenses being put out for sale.
.

1 reply · active 689 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 689 weeks ago

Yes, no, yes, no and yes for me. And yes, I think I am still young! ;-) Besides, I really want better QC!

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kūkalis (tadas) · 689 weeks ago

Is the translation innacurate? As I understand SLR is clearly mentioned in the last sentence of Kitazawa. It is not about upcoming entry level camera in general, its particulalrly about upcoming entry-level SLR models.

1 reply · active 689 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 689 weeks ago

You me actually refer to the same interview and translation. So the answers of the interview are contradicting amongst themselves.

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WalKal · 689 weeks ago

Here in Sweden my camera dealer is Cyberphoto.se and on their site for DSLR's they (always) have a list of the 10 most sold cameras this lastest month.... Until these last weeks I have never seen any Pentax camera on this list ever.....But now it seems that people don't think the K-5 would be sold to a much lower price because it seems that Cyberphoto is selling a lot of the K-5 since today the K-5 (body only) is on 3rd place AND K-5 with the 18-55 lens is on 10th place...... Wonder if the rumor of K-5 being discontinued also might have anything to do with this ?

1 reply · active 689 weeks ago

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WalKal · 689 weeks ago

Today....monday 16th body only still on third place but K-5 with 18-55 up to 5th place....I never seen anything like it before....What's happening ?

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badsykes · 689 weeks ago

Today i got a new K-5 and i can say after i put the same sigma 17 70 2.8 - 4 I don't need to do any AF corrections like i did with K-x.The images are sharp :)
Also the camera have 1.01 firmware.The thing is i am now scarred to upgrade to 1.12 because of the battery problem and i am afraid that i cannot downgrade...Btw is there a method to downgrade the firmware on K-5..
I feel this camera is for me..It feels like home for me..I am glad that i upgraded now to the flagship .. :)
Now i need to sell the K-x kit...I promise to myself now that i will focus on photographic techniques instead of reading camera reviews and previews..No more tech geek :D

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Phil · 689 weeks ago

Pentax are clearing stock, but if they've had this many QC problems what's the point of caring.
Many users got fed up with their awful flash, AF problems, and poor QC.
I jumped ship a few months ago to Canon and I'm not looking back should have moved a lot sooner.
Pentax are just a bit player in the market and they will always be that.

I do miss some of my limited's mind they were nice lenses.

+2 Vote up Vote down

badsykes · 689 weeks ago

"Hi Guys

We can confirm that Japan has now ceased production of the PENTAX K-r. However, it will continue to be available to purchase in Europe until at least May.

Customers and users of the K-r can be assured that, as with all Pentax SLRS, future lens introductions will be compatible with the K-r body.

We can also confirm that rumours about the K-5 discontinuing are untrue."

source: http://www.facebook.com/pentaxuk

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glyph · 689 weeks ago

K5 has NOT been discontinued according to Pentax UK, in today's news guys, get on the stick and get with it.

"and there have been various signs of Ricoh is planning to abort the DSLR lineup". this has to be the most sophmoric comment you could make... based on what? Seeing how many many people eat up these groundless stupid and fear based rumors, I guess it's how you like to generate traffic to this site.

I can't believe that you made such a moronic comment.

1 reply · active 689 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 689 weeks ago

The new Pentax Ricoh Japanese head had shown his "personal thinking" in his last interview plus now the K-r has been officially confirmed to have been discontinued but without any foreseeable replacement. Read back that interview article (with the link provided above) to see if he made "moronic comment" by himself or should be anyone else instead!

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Rob · 689 weeks ago

I am about to pull the trigger on a K5. I had planned to get one sooner but money has been tighter than expected. The end result is I will likely manage to get a K-5 with the WR lens for what I had expected to pay for body only.

I am VERY concerned about Ricoh terminating K-series DSLRs. I have a large investment in Pentax glass and I really really dont want to switch. I would only consider Nikon because if I have to change, I want the Nikon CLS system for strobes.

Assuming I already have a K-5 before some cancelation event, I would likely try to get a k-r out of clearance. Between a K-5, k-r and my current K200D, I could probably last 3-5 years before needing to transition to a new system. Thats also enough time for Pentax to change their minds.

I hope Ricoh does not do this. It would seem sill for them to have spent all that money on Pentax just to kill of the most important part of the brand. And considering the recent release of the GPS module they would seem pretty two faced too.

Please Pentax, TALK TO US!!!!

2 replies · active 689 weeks ago

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badsykes · 689 weeks ago

Make sure the serial number of the K5 begins with 422 or 423..The camera is awesome..The only thing i miss is a split prism for MF...

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-serial-...

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Rob · 689 weeks ago

thanks!!!

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Nubi · 689 weeks ago

I will never ever buy K-5. If it was given to me for free, I will immediately sell it on ebay with no return policy.

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Slash · 689 weeks ago

K-r sucks for AF can't hit a thing in tungsten light. I had a K-5 too but that had AF problems not as bad as the K-r but the firmware update did not fix the issue it helped a bit I'll give them that.

What this means is Pentax are "ok" about selling bodies that have problems and couldn't give a damn about their users. I don't have a lot of time for Ricoh either GX-R is obsolete in the market and overpriced too. I'm getting out of Pentax because they just have lousy QC which is a shame as they have some cool ideas.

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Rob · 689 weeks ago

I think Pentax users tend to fall into the same trap Apple users did in the 90s - we magnify issues like QC because we are a smaller group. I doubt that Pentax QC is any worse or better than Canon or Nikon but the chances that one of the x% of buyers of "bad" units is online is much higher. Lets face it, if you are shooting Pentax, you are probably serious about photography. Pentax is not an "impulse" buy at Costco (anymore) or Target.

I have a good friend who has a Nikon D5000. It randomly shuts down due to an issue that required a complete recall of early models. It also EATS memory cards - as in breaks the plastic into bits. Sadly, she just stopped shooting and suffers in silence. Canon has some well documented AF issues in its VERY expensive top of the line systems. The makers of Pocket Wizard triggers were so concerned that customers thought PWs were blowing up their Canon strobes that they paid for independent testing that showed it was a Canon problem. THe difference is that those Nikon and Canon issues are background noise when you have millions of people with no issues.

Yes, Pentax needs to get better in both their QC and how they remediate the issues once identified. Are they outside of the norm in either respect? I dont know for sure but my gut says no.

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badsykes · 689 weeks ago

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-serial-...

I have a brand new K-5 with serial 422 and is fine.I also updated the firmware to 1.12..I shoot today around 176 and seems no battery problem..
The lens is a Sigma 17-70 2.8 - 4 .. The only problems with are sigma's ones because above 50mm it hunts sometimes even in good light but unfortunetly Pentax lenses are not so versatile on the cheap side..I may try tamron but i read it still sometimes hunts so is the AF problem on non-Pentax lenses seems pretty commom...

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badsykes · 689 weeks ago

I do think the lower price of the K-5 was just to reposition the camera on the market especially versus D7000..

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Slash · 689 weeks ago

So nothing to do with autofocus problems? I think they are clearing them out and will update both models very soon.

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Ron Hendriks · 688 weeks ago

I refreshed my K-5 (sold the old K-5 with 54.000 on the shutter) and bought a new one with the cashback running overhere in november. So I'm good to go with my two K-5's for this year.

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