Review on 📷 Pentax K-1 Mark II Black DSLR: Full Frame 36MP, Weather Resistant with 3.2" TFT LCD - Ultimate Photography Gear by Ronald Howlett

In an email I compare this camera to the K3 which I have had for a very long time. I put off buying this camera in part because it doesn't have an internal flash. WHY? In my opinion this is a MUST. I don't want to lug around a bulky flash all the time. Why did you miss it? Yes I know they installed the GPS. It's not an excuse! Another omission is that there is NO CABLE to download images to a PC. It is so easy! Why? And I did not see any information about which cable to take. It took a lot of effort to get this information. Pulling out the memory card to boot is a lousy substitute. It's really shocking that a company that makes such excellent cameras would leave out those two PERFECTLY BASIC things! I found that transferring my exposure skills etc from the K3 gave really weird results. And they weren't easy to fix in a paint/photo program. There was a bit of a learning curve adapting to this camera, which seems to handle some of the exposure/color issues better. Most of the time I get decent photos now. However, the single issue that worries me the most has not been resolved. I often photograph birds against the sky. I set the camera to only stop in the middle. It SHOULD only measure down the center but doesn't seem to. I still see black birds in the blurred sky. I have to adjust the exposure to get a decent photo. I'm used to this, but if you can set the camera to only meter in the center IT SHOULD ONLY NOTICE THE CENTER. Another problem is that I don't see a way to quickly switch to HD. I think the K3 was better in that regard. However, there are a few things I really like about this camera. THE BEST is the improved manual focus indicator. That's great! It shows a square in the center of the image when you're almost in focus. This square gets bigger as you improve focus and turns red when focus is perfect. I like this function very much. I didn't play with the autofocus a lot with flying birds. From what little I've tried it may seem like there's an improvement, but it's still not as good as Canon or Nikon. I hoped for the best. By wearing a Pentax 150-450mm lens I get exceptionally detailed and sharp photos when a close bird is in focus. I see individual strands of feathers. The same lens worked well on the K3, but this one is even better. You can shoot at a higher ISO although it looks like you NEED it as this camera isn't as light sensitive as the K3. Grain at higher ISOs isn't as noticeable as the K3, partly due to the larger image size (number of pixels), but the grain looks more like a hue change than a hard point. If the reason is lower sensitivity to light, I can live with that. On the other hand, if I see a bird in the distance and it only fills the center, I can now actually see detail in the bird where I couldn't before. I've found that writing images to disk is a bit slower than I'd like, but I can live with that. Haven't really tried this camera in landscapes yet, but no complaints so far. My focus was on bird photography.