Verdict

The Pentax K-7 is, without a doubt, the best DSLR that Pentax has ever produced. It’ll please existing Pentax users who may be looking for faster performance, better autofocus or even a fairly solid movie mode to add to the fray. Whilst the K10D has held strong for many users, the K20D only marginally brushed up upon this as an upgrade. As a result, many didn’t part with their cash so soon for effectively so little – but the K7 tidies this up once and for all and, should you be Pentax through and through, will see you reaching for the piggy bank.

There are a few downfalls however: The Pentax K-7 provides rather exceptional image quality in terms of noise, but completely unravels itself with consistent underexposure. Irritatingly, an exposure that looks excellent on the camera’s LCD will reveal itself to be quite a distance from that on your computer screen. That’s when Raw work becomes an essential – but that shouldn’t have to be the case.

Whilst the K7’s AF system is good, at least snappier than previous models, there’s stiff competition already out there from competitors. The long-standing Nikon D300, for example, has a 51-point AF system that sounds frightfully better – at least on paper. In actuality, having so many AF points can leave you spoilt for choice, or even getting caught out tracking the wrong subject, so Pentax truly isn’t a million miles behind in reality. The point is that, when looking to buy a camera, the figures so often stand out on paper that they can be a make or break for customers in the shop. And there’s nothing singularly immensely stand-out about the K-7 that really places it beyond other cameras on the market.

A huge benefit for the K-7 is its compatibility with older Pentax lenses. Sure there’re some noisy AF ones from years back, but there are other superb manual primes that still hold their weight, even on a body such as this. And with further investment in new digital-only DA optics, plus accessories such as the optional battery grip, it’s clear Pentax is pushing forward and looking to appeal not only to its existing audience, but further a field too. Whilst this is a strength, it can’t help but be a weakness too: with Nikon and Canon both holding such solid followings and providing a huge range of products and lenses, Pentax is undoubtedly the underdog. But that’s not to say the K-7 isn’t a good camera – it’s actually a great one. With a few more firmware tweaks to fix up exposure, AF in movie mode and some other niggles, it’s well on the way to being a superb piece of kit.