Author: | | New Member Registered: July, 2013 Posts: 2 | Review Date: February 18, 2023 | Not Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 2 |
Pros: | Lightweight, weather sealing | Cons: | Aperture block | Years Owned: 9
Ergonomics: 8
Build Quality: 8
User Interface: 8
Autofocus: 5
Features: 9
Value: 3
Image Quality: 8
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
| | After nine years of good service, my K-50 has succumbed to the dreaded aperture solenoid failure. Still usable, but only in Live View and/or with lenses with manual aperture control. Can't recommend a camera with an infamous weakness. Fortunately, my K-70 was made after Pentax began putting proper solenoids in these cameras. The K-50 is packed full of useful features - too bad Pentax didn't build it like my K200D, with enthusiasts in mind, rather than consumers.
| | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2020 Posts: 4 | Review Date: December 13, 2021 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 5 |
Pros: | Weather sealed, great ergonomics | Cons: | Aperature Block Failure | Years Owned: 5
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 1
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 8
Features: 9
Value: 10
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
| | Would have loved to give this camera a better rating but Aperature block failure occured after about 4 years of light use.
| | | | New Member Registered: May, 2021 Posts: 1 | Review Date: November 27, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Image quality, Cost | Cons: | Aperture block failure | Years Owned: 1
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 9
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 8
Features: 9
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 9
New or Used: Used
| | Here's the thing about the K-50. It is capable of very good image quality if you just pretend you are shooting a digital Spotmatic. Use older glass and run it in manual mode. The green button will help you get proper exposure and the focus confirmation works pretty well. Can it see in the dark and deliver low noise and 12800 ISO? No. BU if you keep it within it's proper parameters it works REALLY well. Don't be afraid to buy a cheap one that has had the aperture issue and then go out and spend the $70-100 on a nice 50mm 1.4 (or $50 on a 50 1.7) and go out and shoot.
| | | | New Member Registered: March, 2021 Posts: 2 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: March 27, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 7 |
Pros: | WR, shake reduction, good IQ, dual dials, K mount | Cons: | Aperture prone to failure, video mode, autofocus | Years Owned: 6
Ergonomics: 8
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 7
Features: 8
Value: 9
Image Quality: 8
Noise: 7
New or Used: New
| | I've got this camera since 2015 and I've been around the world with it.
It's been through many adversities without any problems. From really cold (like -30 degrees C) to very hot (40 C) climates, from some light rain to extreme rainstorms. The weather sealing is just excellent.
Build quality is excellent, for this price is very hard to find a camera so solidly built.
It's packed full of features and the images it takes are really good quality (for this price range at least).
Unfortunately, after a few years and a little more than 15000 shots, it developed the infamous aperture failure problem. Obviously it was out of warranty when it happened.
Unfortunately this problem is common and, in my opinion, it greatly affects the value of this camera. I would have given a good 9, but it's a design flaw and it's quite frustrating, so there's why it's only a 7.
Autofocus is quite loud and sometimes slow. Not too bad, but not great either. Forget using this camera for shooting videos, it's clearly not made for that.
One of the greatest things that I love about this camera (actually, all Pentax cameras) is the K mount. I have a great collection of older lenses and I can use them all on my K50! I just love it! Bravo to Pentax!
It means that, since I had the aperture problem, I can still use and enjoy great vintage SMC Pentax glass without any problems and with shake reduction too!
So would I recommend this camera? If you're searching for a cheap full-feature camera that's weather sealed and takes good pictures with any K mount lens ever made.. well yes! (with the risk of the aperture failure problem...)
You're searching for a semi-professional camera or a camera that's good for video? It's definetly not the one for you.
| | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2020 Location: Tennessee Posts: 4 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: November 9, 2020 | Not Recommended | Price: $294.00
| Rating: 6 |
Pros: | Full featured | Cons: | Failures and unusable video mode | Years Owned: 5
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 5
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 5
Features: 10
Value: 6
Image Quality: 8
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
| | As most reviews pointed out this is a very capable still image camera with lots of control and features. It is not capable in video mode. The video images are terrible and there is no continuous focus so you really have to use manual focus as the refocus button is too disruptive while shooting. My Panasonic FZ-150 shoots much better video and has an external mic jack which the K-50 lacks. After five years my K-50 developed the aperture block problem. This comes up by surprise on several Pentax models and therefore can't be relied on especially if shooting professionally.
The K-50 is usually great to use and I appreciate the weather sealing and the compatibility with a host of previous Pentax K-mount lenses. I use several older KA lenses in addition to the newer digital auto focus lenses. I have had no technical issues with it except for the aperture block.
I can't kick too much because I only paid $294 brand new from B&H in 2015. Adding the cost of the aperture block repair it still came in less than original retail. I don't shoot professionally any longer and just use cameras for family and fun. So I'll be keeping it as long as it still functions. For now I use the Panny for video and the K-50 for still photography.
| | | | New Member Registered: August, 2018 Posts: 2 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: March 13, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Weather sealed | Cons: | None | Years Owned: 3
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 9
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 9
Features: 9
Value: 10
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 9
New or Used: Used
| | This is my landscape camera because it is weather sealed. It has high ISO capability. It is not great for video but it works, best used for still pictures. You can use rechargeable battery that comes with it or there is an option to use 4 AA batteries with a insert. Overall great camera.
| | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2018 Posts: 131 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: January 7, 2020 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Light, tough, IBIS, fantastic feature set for the price. | Cons: | High-ISO performance is weak by modern standards | Years Owned: 6
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 7
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 8
Features: 8
Value: 9
Image Quality: 8
Noise: 7
New or Used: New
| | This is an excellent camera. It’s lightweight, sturdy and weather sealed (although the screen scratches easily). Autofocus is fine, menus are easy to navigate, but the best thing is that you get a fully featured camera. Lots of drive modes, exposure bracketing, user-defined modes, image stabilisation, remote controllable, green button metering, it’s all there and as a first DSLR it meant I could have a go at anything, which was great. It gets noticeably noisy from ISO 400 but otherwise I like the images, 16MP is plenty for a hobbyist most of the time. Occasionally I could use more fps and/or a better buffer but this isn’t meant to be a sports/wildlife camera and nowadays I use it for a street/walk around camera where the small size is great. It does have a louder shutter than I would like some times, and the shake-dust-off-sensor function, although wonderful on a camera at this price, can be a bit noisy too.
| | | | New Member Registered: January, 2016 Location: Warsaw Posts: 20 | Review Date: August 11, 2018 | Not Recommended | Price: $550.00
| Rating: 6 |
Pros: | durability/hermetic body | Cons: | Planned obsolescence/cheap parts inside | Years Owned: 3
Ergonomics: 8
Build Quality: 1
User Interface: 7
Autofocus: 6
Features: 7
Value: 5
Image Quality: 8
Noise: 6
New or Used: New
| | I can't recommend it with with a clear conscience. The camera behaved good at the beginning but later (after ayear or so) some issues started occuring, most memorable and common are:
- built in - lamp sometimes didn't fire with no reason (when powered up fully)
- from time to time pressing the shutter releas trigger didn't release the shutter at all. I had to on/off camera to start taking pictures...
After the guarantee ended after 2 years (EU) a black appreture issue appeared too and joined other issues. After a while also AF stopped working properly (especially with the KIT lens, where it didn't catch the focus at all). So, I'm FORCED to use manual lenses or pay 1/3 of camera value to fix the issues with the solenoid inside the camera (just to fix black appreture issues, I doubt they can fix the rest). Does it look to you like a planned obsolescence? To me it does. Really.
Provided battery also is poor - lasts for short time and charges quite long.
The only pluses I see, is that of Pentax system - you can buy almost any from old lenses for Pentax and those will be compatible with the camera. The camera is also hermetic but, fortunately, I never had to check that feature.
Comparig to the poor camera I had before for 10 years (Sony A 200) before I started earning money as an adult... It has more features, it does better quality pics, yes... but its failure frequency crosses Pentax system off for me. Never again. | | | | Pentaxian Registered: January, 2015 Posts: 3,035 | Review Date: October 10, 2017 | Not Recommended | Price: $526.00
| Rating: 7 |
Pros: | Lots of features not found on equivalent cameras like IBIS, dual control dials, 100% pentaprism viewfinder, weather sealing, great menu system, & related. | Cons: | Autofocus sucks at times, especially in low light. Noisy screw drive motor. Video feature is very lacking. A 50% chance of a possible aperture motor failure. | Years Owned: 3
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 4
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 2
Features: 10
Value: 7
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 5
New or Used: New
| | I've been using this camera for almost 3 years now. When I got it, it offered a tremendous bang for the buck value. This replaced a Sony A200 DSLR that I had. I was able to get a lot of features that I would have had to pay at least $1,000 US for a Canon or Nikon. I have enjoyed using it for the most part. The image quality is great up to ISO 12800 if you're shooting RAW. It's great up to ISO 1600 if shooting jpegs. I can print a low ISO image up to a 30x45 size & have gotten some 24x36 prints out of ISO 6400 shots. All from RAW. So yeah. No gripes here with the image quality.
My only gripes are the AF performance & aperture motor failure. Unless you are outdoors in the bright sun, the AF sucks when trying to shoot in low light. Sometimes it can't lock focus or it tends to hunt & when it finally confirms lock, the picture still comes out blurry. I have to manually focus the lens myself quite often in low light. Want to catch a fast moving toddler? Forget about it. Better have great manual focusing skills here. I can get some really good shots out of it, but there are times that it requires a tremendous amount of effort & a ton of wasted shots just to get that one great shot.
The other issue is the aperture motor failure. This happened to my black K-50 at about 25,000 shots. I had to fix it myself. The total cost of purchasing a white OEM replacement solenoid & tools was about $60 in the end. Plus about 3 hours of my time & a slight burn to one of my fingers. The red one is still going fine, but who knows for how long. From reading several posts on this site & other sites, it's seems like it's not so much of if it's going to happen, but more like when is it going to happen. The K-30 also has this issue. Some K-S1 & K-S2 cameras have also experienced aperture motor failures. On the other hand, there are several K-50 users that haven't experienced this issue at all. I guess it's luck of the draw.
Outside of the AF & aperture motor issues, the camera has been nice. For those that like to take it slow & do a lot of static shooting, it's great. If you're looking to catch some action shots or do low light shooting, it's not so great. Forget about video. It's pretty lame. If I had known about the possible aperture issue prior to buying this camera, I would have probably skipped it & got the Pentax K-5IIs or the Sony A77 Mark II instead, since I already had Sony lenses, but hey! Live & learn. Although I do enjoy shooting it for the most part, I really wouldn't recommend anyone getting a K-50 at this point. A K-70 would be a much better choice at this point. The K-3II would be a more solid choice.
As for now, I'm waiting for that K-3II replacement. Hopefully Ricoh will pack in a lot of excellence & win into it. | | | | New Member Registered: April, 2017 Posts: 12 | Review Date: April 11, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | image quality, handling, controls | Cons: | (somewhat) focus, video | Years Owned: 3
Ergonomics: 8
Build Quality: 9
User Interface: 8
Autofocus: 7
Features: 8
Value: 9
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
| | The Pentax K50 is a solid, satisfying camera, its sensor is capable of excellent results but it is still lacking a bit in terms of focus speed.
Even though I really like this camera, I'd never recommend it where shooting video is a must, while for photo-oriented tasks I'd say it's still very good in spite of it being 4 years old.
Focus speed is not great but with some lenses it is much better; more-than-occasional low-light hunting may happen, something that is becoming an annoying thing of the past with more modern models but I personally don't care very much. The idea is that with the right lens also this issue can be almost forgotten.
Controls are OK for anybody familiar with other Pentax digital bodies and mostly well laid-out; I am still a nostalgic of the film era so sometimes I'd like some more past-oriented options but from this point of view Pentax is even more conservative than other brands, so it is quite from thids point of view, too.
The live view, once you get used to it, can be very useful especially with old lenses. It's not a novelty but on SLR cameras, in 2013, a good live view experience was not for granted.
I give an 8 just for the focus thing, otherwise I'd happily give it a 9!
| | | | Forum Member Registered: May, 2011 Location: Port Elizabeth Posts: 64 | Review Date: February 12, 2017 | Not Recommended | Price: $360.00
| Rating: 5 |
Pros: | High ISO capabilities | Cons: | Numerous intermittent problems | | My first DSLR was a Pentax K-r, which I am still using. I have thoroughly enjoyed this camera. It has given good service and has over 60 000 shutter clicks and is still going strong.
As I am keen on wildlife photography became frustrated with continuously changing lenses to suit the circumstances, so I decided to get a second Pentax. I read all the reviews and settled on the K-50, because it looked like a good option and because of its compatibility with the K-r - batteries, remote and other accessories. My K-r is now armed with the 170-500 mm lens and the K-50 with the 18-250 mm. This makes a great combination when shooting wildlife, because of the flexibility.
However, I am not entirely happy with the K-50, because I do not always get the results or the performance expected. It is generally a good camera and has a lot of great features that I like using. The high ISO capabilities are excellent, as there is little or no noise.
Things I do not like are a the intermittent problems, which bring its reliability in to question and take the fun out of using it: - Sometimes instant replay does not happen after a picture is taken. I find this feature useful as a quick check, to ensure that the picture is ok. Also means I don't have to chimp.
- Playback button does not work after a picture is taken. To be able to view pictures taken I have to turn camera off and then on again. Only then does the playback button work.
- When taking a series of photos the autofocus stops working after a few clicks. I have to turn the camera off and on again for it to work again.
- The inability to shoot a series of shots, unless the camera is set to "continuous mode". Unlike the K-r that keeps firing away as the stutter button is pressed.
- Pictures, especially landscapes are often very dark, even when using the AF lock function. On a recent trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park I had to work on my settings to ensure decent shots (TAV or manual). This is not ideal when you only have a fleeting opportunity to take the shot. I've been tempted to buy a manual light meter, so that I can go back to the traditional way of doing things. With the K-r, I set it to Av and away I go - no problems.
The fact is that I prefer using my K-r and if I knew then what I know now I would never have bought a K-50.
As Pentax does not honour its guarantees worldwide I cannot get it sorted out in South Africa. Sending it back to the USA is not a viable option.
| | | | Site Supporter Registered: March, 2007 Location: Tucson Posts: 292 5 users found this helpful | Review Date: July 26, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $291.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Durable, great image quality, light | Cons: | None I've found yet. | Years Owned: 1
Ergonomics: 8
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 8
Autofocus: 8
Features: 8
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
| | This is a little tribute to Pentax. I retired from my day job in February, 2015. I began setting up at least one camera in the yard, daily, to take hummingbird photos using Catch-In-Focus. Up until then, I had been doing this only on weekends and holidays. A year ago (July 23, 2015), I received a K-50 to use as the main hummingbird camera, since experience has taught me that I'd be shooting a LOT of hummingbird photos in retirement, and I didn't want to burn out my K-3 and K-5. I got it from Amazon for $290. A good deal for a 16MP camera that will shoot at 6 frames-per-second. On July 23, 2016 I checked the EXIF data for the last image taken on the 22nd. In the one year that I've had it, my K-50 has taken 64,668 shots. It's still out there today, taking more. It's been pretty toasty here in California lately. At 12:41 PM on the 22nd, it recorded an internal temperature (also in EXIF) of 51.7ºC, or 125ºF, in the image below. It has a tendency to shut down when the ambient temperature seems to get over 95ºF. I just go out at around 2PM and reset the shutter release to wake it up again. I don't know if Pentax gave the K-50 a bit of self preservation code to do that, but it seems pretty smart to me. Not only do Pentax cameras taken nice photos, they're durable as well. I'll try to remember to post an update in a year to report the shutter count at that time.
UPDATE: Today is July 23, 2017. Two years since my K-50 arrived. The 'Shutter Count' recording on the last image it recorded today was 237,243. I was hoping to get to 250,000, but that's not the K-50's fault. I blame that on the current dominant hummingbird in my yard who wants only her image taken, and chases all the other birds off. Perhaps in a couple weeks... At one point, back in May, this K-50 shot over 2,700 hummingbirds in one day. I'd say this is a robust camera.
Here is image #237,243: | | | | Site Supporter Registered: June, 2014 Location: Springhill Nova Scotia Posts: 397 | Review Date: May 4, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $495.00
| Rating: 7 |
Pros: | viewfinder, build, | Cons: | no top LCD, view finder info. | Years Owned: 2
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 8
User Interface: 8
Autofocus: 8
Features: 7
Value: 7
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 7
New or Used: New
| | Image quality is very nice there is no fault here. On sunny days I find it hard to read info shown on the view finder, this where a top LCD is useful and I dont like reading from the LCD screen. Shutter is very noisy but not a big deal.
I would advise any one to try before buy as I went by positive ratings and not touch. very good camera I think for the right person just not me.
| | | | Pentaxian Registered: November, 2014 Posts: 2,075 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: April 18, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $599.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | IBIS, Pentaprism viewfinder, dual control wheels, weather sealing and a great feature set | Cons: | Solid but not state of the art AF, a bit loud | Years Owned: 1.5
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 8
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
| | After being away from serious photography for over a decade, I decided to get a DSLR. After some research, I found that the K-50 offered the best bang for the buck and I really like the IBIS.
The camera handles great, it has excellent image quality and between physical and operational features, it is really pretty loaded feature-wise. And the IBIS make buying lenses more affordable. Plus, I intend to get into astrophotography and the GPS option is a killer.
I eagerly and honestly recommend this camera to anyone looking for a camera that meets a budget. Obviously, if you can afford a K-3 or K-1, go for it, but for people with more limited resources all the features and performance the K-50 offers are hard to beat.
About the only people I wouldn't recommend this to would be serious sports photographers or people that want sexy video features. Or maybe people that really, honestly need a quiet camera. Just about anyone else should consider this fine camera.
And just to be clear, my price for the camera was with the two kit lenses but before a $100 rebate.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2015 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 791 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: March 3, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | weather sealing, ability to use old lenses | Cons: | | Years Owned: 1
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 8
Autofocus: 8
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 8
Noise: 7
New or Used: New
| | I love this camera .
For the cost I don't think there's a better DSLR out there. The similarly priced Nikon D3200 is way worse (the Nikon has no weather sealing, feels like plastic, and has only one dial--dual dials are a must). For a photographer with a limited budget, the K-50 is a quality option that allows to to experiment with legacy lenses without breaking the bank.
Almost immediately after buying I paired it with a Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7 and the pictures are simply amazing. The camera is very comfortable in my hand and feels solid. The only ergonomic complain I have, which is quite minor, is that the SD card is a little difficult to extract from the camera. You just have to be a bit patient and gentle with it.
I got mine with an 18-55mm kit lens, which is a pretty boring lens and I haven't used it since upgrading to the 50mm. However within its limitations the kit lens is pretty sharp and it's portraits at the longer end are very nice as long as there's enough light. To compare, the portraits from the 50mm f/1.7 are an order of magnitude better, so I recommend just going with the body and getting a cooler lens from the start.
For the most part the noise is negligible. Pictures up to ISO 3200 are usable, though definitely not as crisp as ISO800 for instance. The rendering of backgrounds isn't as creamy as I would like but that's only at 100% pixel peeping.
So far I've shot about 3500 pictures and no problems yet.
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