Pentax Kx Performance

Performance

Overall performance from the K-x is pretty good, at times very good, but along the way you’ll deal with several quirks and one major annoyance. The K-x starts up pretty fast, you can take a picture in under a second if you choose, but the info screen takes a couple of additional seconds to appear if you aren’t taking an immediate shot. Overall ergonomics are pretty good as we’ve already mentioned, the shutter release is comfortably placed, but the shutter sound is rather loud and mechanical sounding, something I didn’t love, but didn’t hate either.
The K-x provides a viewfinder with 96% coverage, .85x magnification, and dioptre correction, all largely the same as the competitors (except the Olympus E-620). Here’s where we get into the one hard to understand inconvenience of the K-x: the total lack of visible AF points in the viewfinder. Of course the K-x does have AF points, 11 of them in fact, and as it turns out they are selectable, you just can’t see them when composing your photos. If that sounds bad to you, well it is bad, but in general I personally am a center focus and recompose type shooter, so it’s easy enough to imagine the center point to accomplish this task, but still this is the single biggest negative facing the K-x. Outside of that hard to ignore issue, the Pentax K-x has a reasonably good AF system, with single, continuous, and auto options, and the ability to use one, 5, or all 11 points for focusing duties. The SAFOX system that has trickled down from the K-7 is not quite as fast as say the Nikon D5000, and the AF motor is noticeably noisier, but it is a pretty reliable system even for some dynamic subjects, and even performs well in low light.
Back to more positive territory the K-x boasts the ability to shoot at a Pentax claimed 4.7 fps which in our tests seems about right. On the flip side, that rate is for 5 RAW files, so yes it’s faster than the competition, but with a catch (which is lessened for JPEG shooters, 16 frames instead of 5). Once the buffer fills you can keep shooting at rate of about 1.5 fps for RAW files, which all in all, is not too bad.

One final issue remains with the K-x, and that relates to its use of AA batteries. I’ll just reiterate, I don’t really like putting batteries in my cameras, the lithium-ion option is infinitely more elegant and practical in my opinion, but some folks prefer the convenience of being able to buy batteries anywhere, so I’ll let you decide on this one. That said, a set of regular alkaline AA batteries will be rapidly depleted by the K-x, shockingly so. Instead, use the included lithium AA’s, and the K-x will last a long time, good for hundreds and hundreds of photos and plenty of video too. Rechargeables however are somewhere in between the two, so either have a couple of sets handy, or stick to the lithiums.

Live View

The K-x does offer Live View shooting, but as we’ve found on many DSLR cameras, its uses are largely suited more for macro or tripod work than actually imitating a compact camera. Accepting that, the K-x does provide a pretty thorough live view experience, with a multitude of views: unobstructed, additional shooting info overlays, a grid overlay, histogram overlay, highlight and shadow warning, and the everything all together on the screen at once solution. You can choose from a contrast detect AF, phase detection AF, or face detection AF, but all are pretty slow (contrast being the slowest), and poor choices for capturing anything that might be moving more than just a little. You can magnify your view up to 6x while in live view, but the 230K LCD hinders the effectiveness of really seeing supreme levels of focus detail. On the whole, as with most DSLR cameras, live view on the Pentax K-x won’t be the preferred way of taking most of your photos, but Live View remains invaluable for tripod friendly photographers.

Live view usage is best for macro and tripod type work, where a magnified view can come in handy.	The K-x offers several different views, an info-free view, grid overlay, and the "just about everything you could need to know" view, which includes a live histogram