Pentax K-r with DAL 18-55mm review

Fortunately, these symptoms were rarely noticeable without this processing. High-contrast lines revealed chromatic aberrations (see the red and green fringes on the church door in our sample gallery) but these instances were rare. More worryingly, focus was less than pin-sharp in quite a few of our tests. We can forgive this in portraits where the subject is moving but it was disappointing to see it in landscape shots too. The problem tended to be mild, though, and stopping down the aperture usually eliminated it – compare the totem pole and lakeside trees in the sample gallery.

Noise – or lack of it – is where the K-r really shines. Shots at ISO 1600 showed only the smallest hints of noise and ISO 3200 was perfectly usable too; the muted, dark colours of our foggy dusk landscapes suffered a little but were still good enough to print. With brighter-coloured subjects, the camera produced high-quality results at ISO 6400, and even the maximum ISO 25600 was good enough for the web – just about.

As with the K-x, colours were a little too vivid for our tastes on the default Bright picture style preset but settled down after we switched to Natural. Auto-exposures were generally well balanced; it tended to under-exposure shots with bright skies, but it’s easier to remedy this on a PC than to recover clipped highlights. Strangely, live view’s automatic exposures where a third of a stop brighter than when using the optical viewfinder, but this didn’t pose much of a practical problem.

The 720p AVC video mode captured crisp details and a full-bodied mono soundtrack. Videos were a little noisy under household artificial light but outdoor clips were smooth. Focus was fixed for the duration of clips, though. Because automatic exposure adjustment was performed by changing the aperture, it was able to dim the exposure but not always brighten it once recording had started. The lack of an HDMI output is disappointing, too.

Things are hotting up around the £500 mark, with the recent launches of the Nikon D3100 and Sony A33, both of which record 1080p video – we’ll be reviewing them as soon as possible. For now, though, the K-r is the best SLR we’ve seen at this price.