With a handful of beta K-7s in the wild, sample images and videos are starting to trickle in from various parts of the world, including Korea, China, Russia, Germany and even my home state of Oregon. I suggest viewing the originals rather than the compressed versions that I’ve used in the post.

Where’s my saltshaker?

Photo Rumors has been tipped off by a reliable source that Samsung plans to announce a new DSLR next month, the GX-30. Keeping in mind the relationship that Samsung has with Pentax, I’d assume it’s just a clone of the newly announced K-7 since the GX-20 was clone of the K20D with a few cosmetic differences.

Announced back in January at CES, JVC announced today that the LT-42WX70 LCD “monitor” is now shipping for $2400. JVC is marketing the 42-inch LCD 1080p/120Hz HDTV in the hopes that it will snag photographers using a DSLR who might be shopping around for a high-end “monitor”. Sure, it displays 96 percent of the Adobe RGB spectrum and includes 52 image quality tweaks, but do photographers really need a 42-inch “monitor”?

Happy Tuesday! Hope ya’ll had a good weekend. Just for you, reader, we have some videos of the Pentax K-7 going head to head with the Nikon D3 and an overview from the team at Pentax in Golden, CO. There’s also some talk of new lenses that may or may not reveal what Pentax has in the pipe for their SLR line.

Despite my new found love for manual film SLRs, I can’t help but lust over the new Pentax K-7 that was announced earlier this week. Our good buddy Dan Havlik got a full week with a pre-production model and his positive hands-on of the K-7 gives all of us Pentaxians hope that the seventh gen SLR is going to kick some much needed ass.

The recently announce Pentax K-7 is shaping up nicely. The 14.6-megapixel shooter has an impressive spec list that includes 720p HD video recording, an HDR mode, and a solid body, but the high price of $1,299 took some by surprise. That price is notably more than the new Nikon D5000 and Canon T1i that feature similar specs. An early review by DemsystifyingDigital though gave the camera very high marks despite taking impressions from a pre-production model.

Let’s just forget about all those silly leaks from the last two weeks and imagine that this is the first time we’ve heard of the Pentax K-7. Deal? Most of the specs were a tad off if that helps.

Pentax announced today their seventh generation SLR, the K-7. The latest K-series SLR is chock full of features in a compact magnesium alloy body that’s just as rugged as its predecessors. Under the hood lies a brand new Samsung 14.6-megapixel CMOS sensor with four channel output, a 77-segment metering system, dedicated AF-assist lamp, electronic level, dedicated mirror lock-up, a 100 percent field-of-view viewfinder and HDR image capture mode. Pentax also implemented a HD video capture mode (w/ mic jack) with a default resolution of 1280×720 with a 16:9 aspect ratio at 30fps. Users can adjust quality, resolution and control aperture in movie mode as well.

Other notable specs, include ISO 100-3200(expandable to 6400), 1/8000 to 30 second shutter speed and 5.2fps in drive mode up to 40 frames. Shake Reduction now compensates for rotational sensor movement. The UI has seen an overhaul and is similar to the K-2000’s UI.

Update: An updated gallery of images from all angles of the K-7 have been added to our original post.

Finally, we have the factory specs on the Pentax K-7, and the teasing is over. Keep in mind these are factory specifications, but Pentax has been known to change things slightly before the camera’s actually hit the sales floor, usually for the better. We are seeing that most of the rumors are true however, including the much hoped for 100% viewfinder.

If you’re using a point-and-shoot digital camera for anything other than taking photos of your drunken escapades in the outer boroughs of New York City (I’ve since retired playing that game) then you might as well pack it up right now. That is to say you should be using a DSLR, whether it’s from Canon, Nikon, Olympus or, as we see here today, Sony. Yup, the not-having-a-great-year company just announced three (3!) new DSLRs that, of course, promise to make taking halfway decent photos even easier.

RiceHigh, bless his or her heart, claims to have the scoop on everything, but specs for the upcoming K-7 DSLR. As I mentioned the other RiceHigh, bless his or her heart, claims to have the scoop on everything, but specs for the upcoming K-7 DSLR. As I mentioned the other week, the nomenclature for all Pentax SLRs going forward will be dropping the “D” and simply going with K-x.

The Pentax Forums have been buzzing since the first images of the purported next gen Pentax DSLR surfaced last week. It was widely speculated to be the K30D, but it appears that Pentax has confirmed it to be the K7D according to Austrian site fotografie.

What strikes me as odd is that I know Pentax is veering away from the “D” nomenclature, which is quite evident with the K2000/K-m. It’s quite perplexing and we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the third week of May when all is supposed to be revealed.

What you see on the left-hand side is a very clear shot of the unknown Pentax DSLR next to its current brethren. Other models aside, you can clearly see that the flash module, shutter release and what appears to be a mic hole on top of the flash. Other than that, I don’t notice anything different, but I’d like close up on that dial. Hmm…

There are zero details about this unknown Pentax DSLR, but we know for fact that it’s not one of the current models available. So what is it? The K30? It’s all a mystery, but an announcement can be too far off if it’s already out in the wild.

The original Gigapan made national headlines by creating a ginormious photo of Obama’s inauguration. However, the device only supported point ‘n shoot cameras, which truely limited the picture quality. Not anymore, kiddies. The new Epic 100 comes with a larger mounting surface for DSLRs and big P&S cams along with other updates that should improve the quality.

Andrew Disney’s “Searching for Sonny” hopes to be the first feature film shot entirely with a Canon 5d Mark II. If the teaser trailer is any indication of things to come then Disney might have an indie film worth watching. According to his Vimeo page, cameraman Jeffrey Waldron mostly used a Nikon 50mm lens for the teaser with a Canon body. A full trailer shot with the Canon 5d Mark II is expected to drop on April 15.