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Recommended Pentax Gear

Here, you will find a short list of carefully-picked Pentax equipment which the PentaxForums.com staff highly recommends! We've selected Pentax cameras, Pentax lenses, and third-party accessories suitable for beginner, intermediate, and advanced photographers, as well as for those photographers who need equipment that's weather-resistant for the extreme outdoors. If you're a Pentax K-01 user, see also our K-01 lens guide!

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Below each item, we've provided a link to the B&H Photo online superstore - one of our trusted partners. If you buy from them, please contact us- we may be able to give you free Site Supporter status! We hope you find this list useful in picking what's right for you! Visit the B&H Website

Pentax K-5 II Advanced • Weather-Sealed The Pentax K-5 II is an affordable enthusiast DSLR featuring best-in-class image quality thanks to its low-noise 16.3 megapixel sensor. The camera is fully weather-sealed and has an extensive array of built-in functions. The two control wheels and many dedicated buttons make it a snap to change shooting parameters in the field. The five customizable user modes allows the photographer to pre-set five sets of shooting parameters including bracketing, ISO, exposure mode, and more. 7FPS, ISO 80-51200, 16.3 Megapixels. $1199. Read our in-depth review

Pentax K-30 Beginner • Intermediate • Weather-Sealed The Pentax K-30 is an attractively-priced mid-range outdoor DSLR, perfect for beginners or those stepping up from an entry-level DSLR. In addition to featuring weather sealing and a very easy-to-use interface, it has new advanced video features as well as live view focus peaking, which makes it the ideal camera for manual lenses. 16.3 megapixels, ISO 100-25600, 6FPS. $749 See also our Pentax K-30 lens guide. Read our in-depth review

Pentax 645D Advanced • Weather-Sealed The Pentax 645D medium-format DSLR is for those who want to take no compromises when it comes to image quality. It's meant for any professional specializing in landscape, product, studio, or architecture photography. Its 40-megapixel sensor delivers stunning resolution, and it is weather-sealed for those who really want to use it outdoors. While it's not the idea choice for action photography, it has won multiple awards for its stunning image quality. Read our in-depth review

Pentax K-01 Beginner • Intermediate Some may think it looks ugly, but the Pentax K-01 mirrorless is the perfect choice for those of you who want premium image quality without spending too much. At just $346, this camera offers the same great image quality as the Pentax K-30 at a fraction of the price. It's currently the best Pentax camera for video, featuring focus peaking, full manual controls, and an external microphone input. The K-01 takes Pentax K-mount DSLR lenses and has an APS-C sensor. 16.3 megapixels, ISO 100-25600, 6FPS burst. See also our Pentax K-01 lens guide. Read our in-depth review

Pentax-DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 WR Beginner • Weather-Sealed Whether you need to take family photos, landscapes, travel snapshots, or photos in the rain, the Pentax kit lens does it all. Strongly recommended as the first lens for any beginner. If you have a weather-resistant camera, you should opt for the weather-resistant (WR) version of the lens- it's got the same great image quality as the normal version, but it also boasts Pentax's great weather protective seals and coatings for only $50 more.

Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 Beginner This is an affordable zoom with a long reach all the way to 300mm and an ideal companion to the 18-55mm kit lens. It is ideal for the beginner who wants to experiment with longer focal length and tight crops as the related smaller field of view provides for. At F4-5.8 it provides sufficient brightness for reliable auto focus and is thus suitable for school sports photography. Read our in-depth review

Pentax-FA 50mm F1.4 Intermediate • Advanced If you're looking for a fast normal prime, the Pentax 50mm F1.4 is ideal. Choose this lens if you do a lot of night photography, or are looking for a sharp alternative to a zoom. This is a small, sharp, fast, and light full-frame lens. It only costs $359 new! Read our in-depth review

Pentax-DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 WR Intermediate • Weather-Sealed This lens provides a very flexible zoom range along with fast DC (SDM) autofocus and weather-sealing. If you're looking for a mid-range walkaround lens, this is the choice for you! It's also an excellent companion to the weather-sealed K-5 and K-7 bodies. Read our in-depth review

Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 Intermediate Looking to take low-light photos and don't want to spend more than 200 bucks? This is the lens for you. Featuring a 35mm focal length, images from this lens appear almost as those seen by the human eye. Recommended for intermediate photographers who have mastered the basics of composition, and that feel comfortable without a zoom range. Read our in-depth review

Pentax-DA 17-70mm F4 Intermediate This is a good all-round lens and with its longer reach than the standard zoom great for photographing people close up or at a distance. It could easily become your most used lens. With the constant F4 across the zoom range it is visibly brighter than the standard zoom lens at the long end. Note that this lens does not autofocus on DLSRs predating the K100D Super. Read our in-depth review

Pentax-DA 40mm F2.8 Intermediate Looking for a compact, exceptionally sharp, and affordable lens? Look no further than the Pentax 40mm pancake! Just over a centimeter tall, this is one of the smallest DSLR lenses out there today. It's also one of the most popular and highest-rated Pentax lenses: it's withstood the test of time with a score of 9.8 in our lens review section. Recommended for intermediate photograhpers that need a compact camera travel/event setup; more advanced users would find this lens difficult to handle, while beginners might be frustrated that it's not a wide-angle. Read our in-depth review

Pentax-DA 12-24mm F4 Intermediate • Advanced This super wide-angle zoom is ideal for stunning landscape photography and has an extremely high image quality for a zoom lens. It is ideal for the advanced user who wants to and has the patience to explore how to create photographs with a lens with a much wider field of view than the standard zoom. It is relatively compact and with the lens hood reversed it doesn't take up that much space in the bag. Read our in-depth review

Pentax-DFA 100mm F2.8 WR Macro Intermediate • Advanced • Weather-Sealed If you want to take close-up photos with extreme 1:1 magnification, this is the lens for you! This macro lens is weather sealed, meaning that it's safe to use in rainy environments. It's one of the sharpest Pentax lenses out there today, and boasts Pentax's rounded aperture technology, which renders exceptionally smooth backgrounds in your photos. Read our in-depth review

Pentax-DA* 60-250mm F4 Advanced • Weather-Sealed This big and heavy zoom provides excellent image quality and has a relatively bright F4 throughout the zoom range which makes focusing easier. It is good for distant landscapes and for citiycapes if you want to emphasize detail rather than the big picture. The zoom range is very flexible and thus allows for a board number of applications. Highly recommended!

Pentax-FA 31mm F1.8 Limited Advanced This legendary full-frame lens delivers a unique "3D" effect and has superb sharpness, color rendition, and bokeh. Ideal for anyone looking for a professional-grade wide-angle lens. Read our in-depth review

Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS HSM Intermediate • Advanced The best zoom for sports photography, featuring constant F2.8 aperture, fast HSM autofocus, and optical stabilization. Read our in-depth review

Sigma 85mm F1.4 HSM Advanced A brand new arrival, this lens is ideal for portrait photography or as a walkaround lens for low-light photography. It focuses quickly and quietly using an HSM motor, and allows you to manually adjust the focus at any time via Quick Shift. It also fills a gap in the Pentax lens lineup, as no such lens is currently offered by Pentax. Read our in-depth review

Sigma 50-500mm F4.5-6.3 OS HSM Intermediate • Advanced This unique lens offers a 10x telephoto zoom range while delivering excellent image quality. Complete with optical stabilization, it is ideal for anyone who needs very long reach in a relatively compact package. Highly recommended for wildlife photography! Read our in-depth review

Giotto's Rocket Blower Beginner • Intermediate • Advanced The "Rocket Blower" accessory is used to remove dust from your sensor. If there's dust on your sensor that the automatic dust removal system just can't seem to shake, this handy little tool ought to do the trick. We recommend it for everyone, and suggest you take it with you on every outing! Go for the large model!

Hoya HMC UV Filters Beginner • Weather-Sealed Hoya HMC filters are excellent filters with the same use as Hoya Pro 1D filters. They aren't quite as slim, and the glass isn't as meticulously refined, but they're still better than most of the competition. These filters shouldn't degrade image quality when used, and will also protect your lenses while blocking harmful UV rays. Recommended for intermediate photographers.

Remote Control F Beginner • Intermediate • Advanced This infrared remote control is useful from anything from group photos where the photographer wants to be in the shot, over mirror-up macro shooting to night photography in B exposure mode. In B exposure mode the camera can be set so that the first push of the remote's button opens the shutter and the second push closes the shutter.

Pentax AF-360FGZ Flash Intermediate • Advanced An external flash vastly expands the range of photographic possibilities over the built-in flash. The external flash can be bounced off the ceiling or a wall, or be used off-camera - these techniques help prevent the flat look often created by the built-in flash. Off-camera the AF360FGZ can be used in a handy, wireless mode. Trailing curtain synchronization, high-speed flash (using flash above the normal flash sync speed), and contrast control is some of the advanced options of the AF 360 FGZ.

K-5/K-7 Battery Grip Intermediate • Advanced • Weather-Sealed Extend the battery life and egronomics of your K-5 or K-7 by getting the optional battery grip! This grip has several additional controls to make vertical shooting easy, and can also hold either an additional li-ion battery, or 6 AA's, which can directly power your camera. The grip also has a slot for an extra SD card. Recommended for advanced photographers that take many vertical photographs, and for photographers going on extended trips with no charger. Model number: D-BG4

Pentax ML-60 Focusing Screen Advanced Both the K-5 and K-7 allow you to switch focusing screens. The M60 focusing screen is great because it features added gridlines, which can be of great help with composition and alignment. Highly recommended!

Hoya Pro 1D UV Filters Intermediate • Advanced • Weather-Sealed Do you own many expensive, high-quality Pentax lenses, and are concerned about damaging them? Lens filters provide great protection for the front element of your lens, while filtering our nasty UV rays that ruin colors in your photographs. If you want to protect your lenses while maintianing the highest image quality possible, turn to these high-end filters- they are guaranteed to be nearly perfectly transparent. These filters are also very slim, meaning that you can stack them without risking vignetting. Recommended for advanced photographers.

Sandisk SD Cards Beginner • Intermediate • Advanced Everyone needs a sizeable SD card to store their photos on. We recommend 16Gb cards from Sandisk- they are affordable yet allow you to store large amounts of data!

Looking for gear that wasn't listed on this page? Check out our comprehensive Pentax Lens Database and Accessory Database! You might also want to check out the Pentax DSLR comparison page to view further technical details.