We started shipping the K-x to dealers in the US last week. I am not sure what availability will be like in other markets, but I expect that "black" units are already in the hands of early customers by now. I believe "white" units should start shipping by the third week of this month, with limited quantities of "red" and "blue" probably showing up in early November.
As I have mentioned to a few Pentaxians, I frequently use an old "analog days" adage that it takes at least 36 rolls of film to begin to appreciate the capabilities of a new lens. By the same token, it takes quite a bit of time to fully test a new camera. Not having a lot of free time this past weekend, I was only able to devote a few hours to checking out my first production samples of the K-x.
One thing I should note if you already have the K-x and shoot in RAW: Adobe's Camera Raw 5.5 and Lightroom 2.5 already support K-x PEF files. It is not documented under their current "supported" cameras, but it works as we provided Abobe this info at the same time as the K-7 maker notes. I don't have an update on Apple's support for K-x RAW files, but will do so as soon as I get information.
I limited my first photos to shots I could take around my house and backyard. I also restricted the lenses I used to the FA 100mm Macro and the FA 77 mm Limited. Obviously, the range of subject matter available to me was not great, but I tried to find images that had color, texture, contrast or patterns which would give you an idea of the K-x's potential capabilities with two very reliable and well known lenses from a rendering perspective.
All images were shot in RAW at ISO's of 200 and 400, with the exception being the photo of the wine cabinet rack, which I shot at ISO 800. Images were processed with Camera Raw 5.5 to produce JPEG's for posting here on Blogger. In converting from RAW to JPEG, I left all but two images white balance set "as is", only adjusted one or two images exposure by no more than .25 of a stop, and did not change any brightness, contrast or saturation settings.
While I realize these photos are not going to win any awards, I believe the fact that they were taken under a controlled situation will give you a pretty good indication of the K-x's image quality. I'm spending the upcoming weekend in CO, and hopefully if I have time and weather permits, I'll be able to get out and take some more photos to share with you.
(Note: click on any thumbnail to see a larger image file.)
Update: 10.13.09
Although it seems obvious that the point of my posting these type of "first shots", whether it's a new lens or camera, is to produce representative samples of the type of imagery you can expect straight from camera without any post-processing. This is the approach I have used since starting my blog, and I believe most folks understand and appreciate that any image I post will not be altered. I've always thought I had a responsibility to produce images straight from the camera, which can serve as a "baseline" for you to evaluate. It's obvious to me that doing any type of post-processing could sway or influence your impressions, and in fact subject me to criticism that I'm altering the results to gain a more favorable reaction.
What prompted me to add this update is that I saw a rather ridiculous claim on one of the Pentax forums that my images looked "pale" and immediately condemned all of the K-x images. Obviously, I have no way of knowing how this person is viewing the images posted here, and whether his display is calibrated, etc., etc. However, I can tell you that after reviewing the results from the K-x that the overall color and tone is representative of the lighting that I saw when the shutter was depressed. Many of the outdoor plant photos should look muted, as I was shooting under our typical morning Southern California "marine layer" (cloud cover or fog).
To make my point, below is a heavily processed version of the leaves image I originally posted. While I personally prefer photos that retain a more natural look, I can appreciate that some folks prefer heavily saturated colors. However, if I had posted this processed image it would not have given you an honest look at the K-x's standard rendering characteristics. I'll continue to shoot and post test images as they were captured by the camera, under the conditions that I encountered when taking the photo. The beauty of digital is once you understand the "baseline" image parameters of your camera, in post-processing you can push the saturation and contrast sliders to your heart's content.
