Pentax KP Silver Body 24.32 Ultra-Compact Weatherproof DSLR with 3" LCD, (Silver)

Comment

Update Feb 2018 - Added a couple shots of a scrub jay and black squirrel in thicket. Scrub jay was cropped to 60% or original. Squirrel in thicket was cropped an amazing 80% and still looks this good at iso 640 Update November 24 2017. My business travel takes me many places across 2017 and the KP has been flawless. I have added a few shots from Iceland , France and Poland and some HDR images. This is the most versatile camera I have ever had and my 5 star recommendation stands maybe it should even get a 6th star. Is it durable yes. In Iceland I got confused with to many things to carry and I dropped it to the floor a couple feet. No damage or issues. Update May 3rd. Since I wrote the below late March, I have had more time with the KP and I also added the DBG-7 vertical grip. Adding the grip has made this the most comfortable camera to hold vertically, of all the Pentax cameras. The dial placement is perfect. Pentax D-BG7 Battery Grip for KP I would highly recommend it. The camera continues to perform flawlessly. The Depth of Field Bracketing is an exceptional feature for macro work One ease of use feature that has been of great value has been the "info" display selections. I rarely have to go into the menu anymore to change things. I included a floral picture below shot at ISO 65,000 in "Radiant" setting. It is intriguing and the high ISO may allow for some unique creativity. Love the HDR abilities of this camera. I am a true Pentaxian, having bought the following D series Pentax bodies; ist D, K10, K20, K7, K5 (bought secondhand) , K5iis, K3ii and now the KP. Why the KP. Well my 1 year old K3ii was stolen during a business trip 4 weeks ago and I really enjoyed that camera. The KP just came out and I am glad I now own the KP. Great features. Built in Wifi that that works well with the iPhone Ricoh app. The deployable screen (now you get real low shots without laying in the mud) and the new knobs; I was a bit wary, but within a day I realized the easy utility of the additional top knob and I do not miss the LCD screen that has been their prior. Easy things that I have done now include HDR images and Pixel shift. I do not miss the K3ii GPS as I rarely ever used it and its nice to again have a pop up flash. Regarding SD card. My backup body is now my 4 year old K5iis and I got along fine with just one SD card, but I did enjoy the K3iis ability to have 2 slots and put RAWs on one card and Jpegs on the other. Ergonomically, I have big hands and am using the largest provided grip with the KP. I have vertical grips on all my Pentax and I will add that for the KP as soon as it is available as it will improve the hold. One item that I used routinely in my other Ks was the DOFP (Depth of field preview) which was on the on /off dial. Not so on the KP. You need to use one of the 3 customization FX buttons. I have replaced the RAW button as my DOFP button. That works very well for macro .As for improved ISO Here is reality. This camera allows you to shoot at ISO 25,600 at a noise and resolution quality I had at ISO 4000 w my K5iis. THE IMAGE QUALITY is SUPERB. This camera is at least 2 full ISO stops better than the K3ii and 3 full ISO stops better than the K5iis. Last usability point. The KP autofocus is superior to the K3ii. I tracked a dog today at full gallop and every shot in a sequence was dead on sharp. Never used to happen with K5iis or K3ii. I think the KP is a better action camera even down one FPS from the K-3ii. Here are my only notes that you should know that are not negatives just reality. Regarding the ISO 819,000 buzz. It is useless or maybe only for a grainy artistic style B&W. Those of us you were used to the battery horsepower of the larger D-LI90 of the earlier K5, K3 will see that the D-LI109 battery in the KP is half the life. Buy an additional battery right away. All the images attached were taken by me and were shot with either Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro, Pentax 300mm F4 Tamron 70-200 F2.8, Tamron 17-50

Show more

Comment

Reviews are very subjective, and what may be important to some are inconsequential to others, so I will only comment on what makes this camera a five star item to me: fantastic photos; durability; ease of use; fairly priced; nice size. I have used other brand cameras so do have a base of comparison. Pentax is constantly criticized for its AF system, but I find the KP is more than acceptable and very accurate, especially with the newer DC and PLM motorized lenses. I like to take my time when photographing and never do rapid frame shooting, so speed is of no interest to me. No 4K video? I dont care. Poor ergonomics and/or grip? I dont use cameras one-handed so its form factor suits me just fine. Pricey? Have you noticed the prices on new cameras from other brands in the same category? This is not a beginner model. Poor battery life? It may not last as long as older dslrs like my K-5, but it lasts longer than many popular mirrorless cameras. I know, because I have a few of them, too. To be fair, I like my Fuji too, but I like the KP more. I take a lot of indoor photos in very dim light lighting without flash, and of the cameras I own, the KP has the best high ISO quality. I must mention the SR on this camera is a definite advantage over non-stabilized systems. Its too bad that Pentax doesnt get more marketing attention. They make fine cameras, not just electronic gadgets.

Show more

Comment

Picture quality has been fantastic with image stabilization thats been rock solid. Loving the 3 wheel control - so nice to have one wheel be for iso, another wheel for shutter speed, and another for aperture - the exposure triangle is so much easier to optimize. This has a large optical viewfinder, which I prefer - things in a computer screen often look a bit different than the real world so thats why I dont like electronic viewfinders as much. I bought this to be a lighter weight and smaller camera and it fits the bill. Im actually surprised at how light and small this thing is! Looking forward to seeing how the weight savings impact my hikes and travel. Autofocus has been great, the dynamic range of this 24 megapixel Sony sensor is amazing - I can lift exposure 2.5 stops without concern of too much noise. This pre-ceremony shot was taken at 100mm, iso200, 1/160th, f3.5 - since it was backlit, I lifted exposure in lightroom 2.3 stops and the detail is still fantastic. Get a couple extra batteries, especially if you like to use live view a lot. With the tilting screen, I find myself using live view much more often when holding the camera at very low or high angles (another reason why 5 axis stabilization is so important - these ways of holding the camera are much less stable than the typical way). Live view AF is actually pretty fast and very accurate. One thing that I didnt know about - if you shoot in RAW+ and you set the camera to a black and white mode (or any other digital filter mode like cross process etc), the camera will capture a jpg using the digital filter settings and the RAW will stay the same as if you werent using any digital filters! Love this... Very glad I bought this camera and looking forward to creating some great images.

Show more

Comment

Since Pentax hasnt come out with a Replacement yet for the Flagship K-3II this KP is it ! Your giving up 2 card slots for 1 , No IR port at all , smaller battery , No GPS , Slightly smaller screen. However you are gaining better 5 axis SR , Semi-Articulating screen , on board Flash, much lighter weight , and slightly improved Resolution , all in a much smaller package. The KP is a very capable package. I know because I sold my well used K-3II and upgraded to this KP. I have 2 of them now and love them !

Show more

Comment

My Pentax KP Use Case(s) Back in 2012 I owned a Pentax K-5 along with the FA 43LTD, the 15 LTD and the 60-250* and loved using it, but got G.A.S. and sold my Pentax kit to finance the Sony RX1. After about four years of mostly using mirrorless cameras (starting with the original Fuji X100 but including the Sony RX1, Fuji X-Pro1, the Ricoh GR and the Fuji X100T) I purchased a Pentax K-S2 bundle from Costco (the one with the 18-55 and 55-200 combo) in Fall of 2015. I was immediately back in love with SLRs, even if the K-S2 was a humbler SLR offering than I had used in the past (which has included the Canon 7D and 5D Mk II and L Glass). As I grew with the K-S2 I picked up the 20-40 to replace the kit lens and a Zeiss 50 1.4 that was amazing. Fell on some hard times last year so I had to sell the Zeiss and my Fuji X100T), but life got back to normal around New Year’s and I was looking to upgrade my K-S2. I looked at both the K-70 and K-3ii, but felt both fell short of what I wanted. I loved the idea of the K-70, but felt the AF system was not a big upgrade for me, while the K-3ii’s sensor seemed to have very mixed reviews. When the K-P was announced I was immediately intrigued. After a few weeks of research, I ordered the KP the day it was released and I have been using it heavily since that time (about 4000 actuations). My use case for the KP was mostly two-fold. First and foremost, to chase after my three-year-old daughter and give her lots of memories to look back upon. Second was to get back to doing more Portraiture with models for art work and commercial work. I also intend to update my landscape portfolio later in the year once I can travel. Ergonomics/Handling The gimmick if you will of the KP was the three included grips, and I quickly favored the largest grip, even though I have small hands. The battery grip was not immediately available for purchase, and so for the first 2-3 months of use, I did feel it was not always comfortable. However, I have been using the battery grip for about 6 weeks or so and I love it, it is not going to come off. Not only does it give that extra battery, but it makes the camera much more balanced with my lenses, especially the Sigma 50-150 and the Sigma 10-20. The Vertical shutter release is a feature I have missed. I find the general layout of controls to be very intuitive coming from the K-S2. It really all clicked for me though once I started customizing the buttons. One thing Pentax always frustrated me with is that I often mixed up whether the 4-way controller for changing focus points was set to AF point change, or ISO/Flash/WB/Drive control and over the years I have missed shots because I was hitting buttons that were sending me into menus instead of changing the focus points. This mostly happened when changing ISO settings. So, what I have done is assign ISO to Fn 2 and pretty much leave the 4-way controller always on AF point selection. That has sped up my workflow considerably and made life less confusing. The only real gripe I have is the LV button is hard to get to. Second would be if there was a 4-way controller on the battery grip to make it easier to change AF points while holding it vertically. Customizability/Personal Settings of Note The only other settings I have messed with at length is the AF-C settings, which I have set to: focus priority at times in the past, but now leave to the auto setting when in AF-C mode. I leave the metering at full mostly, unless I have strong backlighting, then I set it to match the AF point selection. I also do have it set for horizon correction as well. Image Quality (Raw) Image quality is hand’s down the best of any camera I have used. I am not saying it is the best in the current offerings, but I can find no complaints about image quality of my Raw files. I shoot DNG and regularly use up to ISO 1600 and feel any noise or grain is minimal up to 1600. I have tested and posted to this forum examples at higher ISO’s, but I don’t get into low light photography myself. Autofocus Autofocus is the best of any Pentax camera I have owned and probably on par with the Canon 70D I used back in 2014. I don’t notice much change in AF reliability or speed between lenses, but I have not used the KP in conjunction with the 55-300PLM lens that is out. AF-S is quick enough for most situations, and as I have posted previously on here, I find AF-C to be reliable for chasing my daughter around. I don’t shoot sports, and I haven’t had the chance to shoot wildlife with it yet, but I imagine anything using the center focus point will be better than any other Pentax SLR to date. Just in the past few days I went in and had to tweak the settings for two of my lenses to -8 for the Sigma 50-150, and -5 for the FA 43, and that has made a big difference. Lenses I have used with the Pentax KP · HD/DA 20-40 LTD · HD/DA 40 LTD · HD/DA 70 LTD · FA 43 LTD · Sigma EX 50-150 2.8 · Sigma EX 10-20 3.5 Flash/Strobist hot-take As I have posted, I did pick up two Yongnuo YN585EX P-TTL flash guns to do studio portraiture with. Using the main flash as a wireless transmitter I have had great results in studio and really enjoy doing strobist work again, which previously I always thought was a weakness of the Pentax SLR and flash line. My Final Thoughts I had a strong gut feeling that I was going to like the KP the moment I saw it, it seems the perfect blend of the things I considered good about the K-70, while taking a similar AF system from the K-3 line and the promise of better sensor than any current APS-C offerings from Pentax. So far, I am in love with using this camera. I cannot recall a time when I have shot as much as I have this spring. I find the KP reliable and flexible and just a joy to use. I have nothing negative to critique about this camera. I just get it, and it fits my needs remarkably well. I think the work I am doing with it speaks volumes.

Show more

Comment

I was on the fence about buying a new camera as I believe good photos are 95% photographer and 5% equipment. But WOW this thing is great! I stepped up from a K20 that I have used for 10 years (completely problem free). While you can take great photos with many cameras this just takes photography to the next level. It feels nice, a little small, wish it were a little wider. It is the most consistent camera I have used. It’s like they literally thought of everything, so much to explore. The viewfinder is bigger and brighter than its predecessors allowing me to finally be successful with my collection on vintage lenses I have been collecting since I was a kid. The colors are great, the resolution is amazing. I feel much better about low light photos than I ever have before. The battery life seems okay, got a few extras, seems like I use 2 over the course of my shooting, especially if I use live view (which is so much more mature than my K20). Overall I am really happy that I pulled the trigger, it is like going from an old dependable Chevy pickup to a Cadillac. With more bells and whistles than I will ever be able to use!

Show more

Comment

I purchased the KP as an upgrade from my Pentax K-r and boy does it deliver! Im especially impressed with its low light capabilities. In addition it just feels good in the hand and is easy to use. The pictures below used the Pentax 100mm macro, Sigma 10-20mm and the Sigma 18-125mm. I love it!

Show more

Comment

Pentax must be the most underrated camera company on the globe. I have to assume it is just poor marketing, because their cameras are far superior to what you can get from Canon or Nikon in this price range. The images in my opinion (with good glass) are so much more appealing than the competition. Tried a mirrorless for a while (Sony) and while the speed of snapping a pic was nice, the novelty wore off. Back to Pentax, and I couldnt be happier. Excellent camera. Best Ive owned.

Show more

Comment

Still getting used to the camera, however it seems to be great. All of my lens that I used on my K7 work well., Abit heavier, although many more options incorporated in this model. I have been happy with all of the Pentax products for decades.

Show more

Comment

This is a really good camera, enough pixels to enlarge photos to the max. Only real problem was the lack of really professional quality Prime Lens for this Camera. Picked up a sigma f 2.8 which is very good, but would rather have more primes in the 1.2 - 1.4 range. Other than lack of lens this camera works fine - will purchase more prime lens if and when they are available.

Show more