Pentax K-5 Digital Camera First Impressions Review

Conclusion

The K-5 will cost $1599.99 for the body alone, or $1749 for the camera and an 18-55mm zoom lens when it is released in October. That seems a little expensive, especially with the announcement of cameras like the Nikon D7000 that capture similar resolutions, but which cost a little less. But the K-5 does have a few things going for it: it feels more solidly built than many SLRs, so it should survive a trip into the wilds without problems. It also seems to have speedier AF than other cameras, although we will have to wait and see how that holds up in different conditions and with different lenses. It also boasts a wider ISO range than others, topping out at a low light busting 51200 ISO. But again, we will have to wait and see how noisy the images at these high ISO levels are: having a high ISO is no use if the images are too noisy to use. So, it remains to be seen if these features are worth the extra cost of the camera. We'll look forward to getting a review model in to try out and find out.