Switching it on is reassuringly solid. The switch needs a bit more of a shove into position and clicks into place a lot more definitely. This is a much more tactile camera. The same is true for all the switches and the mode selection dial which has a much more sensible locking button to stop you catching the thing on your jacket and missing a shot.
The menus are so much more easy to access on the massive screen and rather than being a cluttered and confusing mess the info screen is a rich source of information on what settings your camera is using at the moment. The menu tree is infinitely more navigable with no more endless vertical scrolling and peering at tiny, blocky fonts. The multi-functionality of the 4-way switch is a bit of a surprise at first but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
The actual use of the camera is more or less identical to the K10 with the two wheels setting shutter or aperture or both. A new ISO button that then slaves a wheel while depressed is a welcome short cut away from menu-death. Other more familiar buttons are ergonomically placed. All the modes (except movie) are also exactly the same but it wasn't broken... All seems familiar; and then you press the shutter release. The shutter is like a whisper. There's almost no mirror slap at all and it makes the K10 sound like the trapdoor to Hades. Shutter lag is miniscule and your view is clear again in no time at all. As for if you engage rapid fire, well at last it's usefully rapid. This means you've every chance of catching the action and not scaring your subject. It's almost as quiet as a focal plane shutter on a rangefinder.
Here's an early pic using the Sigma 50-500 in the back garden. The light was OK but heading towards sunset so I was shooting at ISO 400. Shutter speed was 1/400 at f6.3. Now for the interesting bit - this was hand-held! Image stabilisation definitely works on this camera, there's no doubt. Shot in RAW but with no exposure compensation. There's a bit of sharpening and contrast control, but why shoot in RAW if you didn't want to do that, you might as well shoot JPEG and leave the camera to do your dirty work.
I'll bombard later posts with pictures after I've had a chance to have a proper play with it in the park tomorrow.
AF is much more assertive, direct, fast and accurate. I did a lot of test shots hunting sparrows at a distance in foliage and it locked onto the subject using spot focussing as well as you could possibly expect in very low contrast lighting. As for the blackbird in the posted shot it locked on like lightning and actually was sharp. Nothing worth posting because the sparrow was barely larger in the viewfinder than the centre circle but it was sharp.
Metering seems very up to the job. In the blackbird shot I used spot metering due to the backlighting and a desire to see how it coped. Pattern metering also seems to work well on first impressions but there's not a lot just around my house that's worth photographing and posting. I'm sure plenty will suggest itself in the morning.
I like this camera, and it had a hard act to follow.
stellar images
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