Pentax K-5 - A Dark Horse With Great Specs

The Pentax K-5 is a serious camera with good specs and good features. It has some of the best specs in this group and it is a strong second or third in some of the other categories. It provides the best picture quality, the best high ISO performance, good low-light performance and good color depth (just .1 less than the leader). These are all key factors in choosing a camera at this level. It has a very respectable 7 frame per second burst rate, just one less than the best in this group. The weight at 748 g is quite reasonable and the price is right for a camera at this level. The autofocus is fast (quicker than Canon or Nikon) and the camera and associated lenses are weatherproofed for outdoor use (not the case with the other brands). Video recording has a couple of limitations. The files that are produced are very large (500mb per min) due to the compression algorithm. This puts a practical limit of just over 5 minutes per clip. There is also a 25 minute limit that is built in for video recording due to overheat protection. The actual quality of the video clips is quite good.

None of the cameras in this group is perfect. That is partly the result of rapid change and the fact that some of these cameras are now a year and a half old and their specs are just a little out of date. The Sony a850 was released in 2009. It is the most unique offering in this category and also the most expensive. It has a large Full-Frame sensor with 24.4 megapixel capability and great low-light capability. The picture quality is close to the leaders. If your need these capabilities, then the a850 may be a good choice. What you give up is the flexibility that you find in the other cameras, especially the K-5. The most obvious is the the lack of any video on the a850. It is really aimed at serious still-shot photographers. Very few of the newer cameras force you to make that choice. The burst rate on the a850 at 3 frames per second is below par for a camera at this level. You can upgrade to the even pricier a900 and get 7 frames per second but you are then paying an even greater premium compared to the other choices. Sony's newer cameras like the a580 (our pick as best Intermediate DSLR) offer a stronger combination of features at a much more competitive price. For now, Sony is appealing to a high end niche with the a850 and a900 but we expect that there will be changes, including video is future editions.

The Nikon D7000 and Canon 7D are both solid cameras with good features and seem to follow the same pattern found in the less expensive models. Canon promotes features and specific specs that it can market whereas Nikon is less flashy but provides consistent quality. Like its less expensive stable-mates such as the T2i and T3i, the Canon 7D offers 18 megapixel capability and true HD video. It also provides an 8 frame per second frame rate that is the highest in this group. That combination of features makes it unique in this group and makes the 7D a very appealing package. It is less successful when it comes to quality. Like the T2i and T3i, the 7D forces more megapixels into a sensor that is smaller than its competitors. The result is that it can't match the quality from the other three. For a serious photographer, this is a significant reason to consider one of the other choices.

The Nikon line of cameras is somewhat confusing as there are a number of models that seem to overlap in terms of features, specs and price. This is true to some degree for all of the manufacturers but Nikon seems to be the most confusing. They leave older models in the market even as they release newer models with better prices and some better specs. Model numbers don't help much in sorting out the order of the models. In this case, the Nikon D7000 has some overlap with the D700 (beyond just the naming). The D700 is older and more expensive but it has a Full Frame sensor and it is less noisy at high ISO. It doesn't provide video and a number of its specs are below those of the D7000. In general, the newer models are a better choice and for that reason we included the D7000 in this comparison. 

The Nikon D7000 is a solid camera with good specs and has the Nikon name behind it. Many people probably buy one for just for those reasons. All of it's image quality specs are good, it is relatively light and it is well- priced. It doesn't have the 18 megapixels, 30 fps video or 8 fps burst capability of the Canon and it is slightly behind the Pentax in the quality specs (except for low light where it is slightly ahead). None-the-less, it is still a good camera, especially if 30 fps video isn't a high priority.