Pentax Q7 Pro Reviews

The Pentax Q7, and by extension the whole of the Q system, is a difficult thing to summarise. On the one hand you have a surprisingly capable little camera with a good range of features, excellent build quality, performance and handling, and image quality that compares well to most high-end compacts. It's a genuinely nice camera to use, and its compact size means you can take it anywhere, and the best camera in the world is the camera you have with you when you need to take a picture. On the other hand it's hard to avoid seeing the Q system as something of a novelty act. Many reviewers, your author included, have drawn some obvious comparisons between the Q system and Pentax's Auto 110 system, introduced in 1978. Like the Auto 110, the Q system is a novel approach using an image-recording format usually associated with cheap consumer cameras.

If you equate small with beautiful then the retro-styled Pentax Q7 is worth further investigation. This may also mean you’ll take it out with you more and achieve shots you might not otherwise have attempted. Yet whilst it looks great and is a lot of fun, predictably there are still better compromises between image quality and smaller form factor to be found elsewhere.

Unfortunately I can't wholeheartedly recommend the Q series cameras to those debating on choosing an ILC system. The Q7 just isn't consistent at giving the user a high quality image straight out of camera. With the Olympus E-PM2 being $50 less than the Pentax Q7 it makes more sense for the average ILC user to choose the Olympus unless a smaller camera with more physical buttons trumps image quality and AF speed.

The Pentax Q7 does well in everyday shooting, delivering image quality that's generally as good as the best enthusiast compacts. However, it under delivers for the entry-level ILC class in terms of resolution and high ISO performance. Though we had few serious complaints about its performance, it's hard to recommend among so many excellent fixed and interchangeable lens cameras that cost about the same.

The impressively small Pentax Q7 mirrorless camera features an image sensor that is 50 percent larger than previous models, but its shutter lag is a drawback.

If you're a fan of small gadgets, the Pentax Q7 is going to appeal to you, particularly with the range of colours it is available in. It's extremely small, yet packs all the features you'd expect to see on a DSLR. You've full manual controls, RAW shooting and 5 fps continuous shooting. The screen size and resolution hasn't been compromised and the body and 5-15mm lens have plenty of rubberised grip. Image quality is good, with excellent colour reproduction, but detail in darker areas of the images is poor. The Q7 also comes with custom image modes and a range of digital filters so you can take creative pictures.