[Des]

I was worried about only receiving the S grip, but fortunately, all three were included. ... The S grip is nice looking but it's so small and I don't know where to put my fat fingers! I liked the large grip on the K-S2, which I used to hold the camera firmly when not in use.

In US and European markets, the KP has always been supplied with three grips. Those of us in Asia and Oceania have missed out (only the S grip is supplied) and they are pricey to buy separately. Luckily a kind member in the US sent me his spare L grip, after he bought a battery grip which was also supplied with an L sized handgrip.
I don't really like the grip on the K-S2 - I found the K-30 and especially the K-3 more comfortable. I find the L grip on the KP better than the K-S2 but not as comfortable as the K-3.

I will have to get used to the lock button on the mode dial

I do not really see the point to lock that dial in the first place

I'm with you on this. I'd trade the 0.5% of occasions when I might knock the dial for avoiding the nuisance involved in pressing the button to change mode every time. The lock switch on the K-3 at least provides the option.

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Last edited by Des; 12-10-2020 at 06:27 PM.

[Breakfastographer]

In US and European markets, the KP has always been supplied with three grips. Those of us in Asia and Oceania have missed out (only the S grip is supplied) and they are pricey to buy separately. Luckily a kind member in the US sent me his spare L grip, after buying a battery grip which was supplied with an L sized handgrip.
I don't really like the grip on the K-S2 - I found the K-30 and especially the K-3 more comfortable.

Amen about the K-30 grip, brother. Amen.

[Bertrand3000]

I was finally able to take my first shots with the KP. According to EXIF, the camera has been made in september 2020! I know this camera did not rot in a warehouse for years, and now it has found someone who will love it and take care of it.

In order to tame the new camera, I put on the best lens I have, the 55-300 PLM, which is a perfect match for the KP, and went outside, in a dark, gloomy day. I left the Camera in Auto and all default settings for a start, and the KP went as high as 6400 ISO for every shot! Told you it was a dark, gloomy day.

But the shots are beautiful and noise is only visible at 1:1.

JPEG straight out of camera. Oh, did I mention the day was also wet and muddy?

[Ex Finn.]

I was finally able to take my first shots with the KP. According to EXIF, the camera has been made in september 2020! I know this camera did not rot in a warehouse for years, and now it has found someone who will love it and take care of it.

In order to tame the new camera, I put on the best lens I have, the 55-300 PLM, which is a perfect match for the KP, and went outside, in a dark, gloomy day. I left the Camera in Auto and all default settings for a start, and the KP went as high as 6400 ISO for every shot! Told you it was a dark, gloomy day.

But the shots are beautiful and noise is only visible at 1:1.

JPEG straight out of camera. Oh, did I mention the day was also wet and muddy?

I used to pack as many lenses as I could.
My two go to now are the PLM and 11-18, might bring the 20-40 LTD but I find it very limited...

[Bertrand3000]

I used to pack as many lenses as I could.
My two go to now are the PLM and 11-18, might bring the 20-40 LTD but I find it very limited...

Yeah, I'm starting to limit the number of packed lenses. Switching lens all the time is not that funny.

Back to the subject, I love that KP. I love it so much that I decided to spend the money I do not have to buy that Sigma 17-50 F2.8 because my KP needs a better lens.

I have the feeling to suffer from LBA, but I try looking the other way.

[jgnfld]

My 17-50 Sigma works well with people, general household, street, closeups, etc., but I simply do not like it's performance on landscapes which is the bulk of my shooting. It just doesn't render distance right to my eye and nowhere near as well as the 16-85 I got to fill that really important hole in my typical shooting. May be just my copy. However, if you want to use it that way, I suggest buying from a place with a good return policy.

Plus, I really do need weather sealing given the subarctic maritime climate I live in/hike in/sail in (Newfoundland). Another reason for the 16-85.

Given your pretty nice lens collection already, I'd go Pentax. Which one really depends on what hole you really need to fill in your shooting profile.

Another notion...

Rather than continuing to suffer from LBA (and I do have a dozen lenses or so and am looking at a Ltd right now for portraits/street which is a bit of a hole I need to fill), I have another suggestion (I haven't read all 8 pages, only 4, and it may have come up already): Buy experiences and photograph them. Or buy a good course from a quality shooter in a great location. (Shouldn't be hard since you live in France, I see! You could even stay in France and come to St. Pierre-Miquelon not all that far away from St. John's!) Travel is difficult now, of course, but should come back within a year.

A final note re. LBA: in APSC just having a 16-85 and 55-300 PLM on a KAF3 Pentax body truthfully can take care of probably about 66-90 percent of what many photogs+bodies are even capable of. Everything else is a want or else a special, individual need. The harder part in photography just isn't equipment. That's just money and involves little creativity, work, and skills (from the user perspective, anyway!). The truly hard part is actually getting some reasonably-to-extremely appropriate gear TO interesting subjects (which might even be in your own house or studio) and TO great light, and then having the skill to use that equipment correctly to gather that light perfectly in order to say something or to evoke something in the person viewing the images. Think Wadleigh of Woodstock fame on the video side, for example. A year or so later Wadleigh also climbed a mountain in the Hindu-Kush with 1970-era video gear to make a documentary entitled Once Before I Die. It was about 7 guys wanting to climb a peak there. I think it was unclimbed at the time, but I don't remember at this remove, nor can I link to it now from half a century later! But when I saw it, it was incredibly evoking. His Woodstock is simply legendary of course (but shot by a large crew).

I'd probably commit at least a minor felony, for example, to take one of normhead's (a frequent poster in these forums) guided tours. He works out of Algonquin Park in Canada which has a huge richness of landscape, flora, and fauna possibilities. (I've been there some decades back but wasn't photographing seriously then.) There are surely Euro alternatives in some wonderful-for-you wild or urban or even studio location with a great teacher. Or head on up to, say, Norway, or St. Petersburg, or some such. Or learn how to wander streets with a great teacher.

Lots to think about. Just think that equipment is by no means the most important thing to, er, well, to think about.

Some years ago there was a youtube series with the title something like great photog/toy camera. It's likely still accessible. They would take world famous photogs and turn them loose with literally complete toy cameras. Like Barbie cameras!!! The shots they could come up with were simply amazing sometimes. One I really remember was a videographer to whom they gave a not-even-VGA res Barbie movie camera (as I remember, anyway). He took it and made a very passable video sequence.

Sorry about all the words here.

[Bertrand3000]

My 17-50 Sigma works well with people, general household, street, closeups, etc., but I simply do not like it's performance on landscapes which is the bulk of my shooting. It just doesn't render distance right to my eye and nowhere near as well as the 16-85 I got to fill that really important hole in my typical shooting. May be just my copy. However, if you want to use it that way, I suggest buying from a place with a good return policy.

Thanks for your input. I do intend to use the Sigma 17-50 for indoors first, even if I am surprised to learn your bad experience for landscapes. That said, I already got my Sigma 10-20 which is good for that kind of use.

WR is of course good to have, but I realized I only really needed it once in three years.

Thanks as well for the rest of your comment, it's valuable.