[sebberry]

Heaven forbid you need to take a photo in the rain with your CaNikon

[andre-mz5]

The combo of K5 + 16-50 + 50-135 will make sure they can send you out on any assignment regardless of the weather conditions in the Big Apple. Come rain, snow or frost, that combo will work and deliver. You have to spend a lot more to get Canikon gear that will keep working in those circumstances.
It's a different story when the newspaper is going to buy the equipment for you and is not on a budget.

[Frogfish]

The only issue I'd have with your kit is the 50-135 which has very slow AF compared to almost any other HSM/USM/SDM lense - Pentax's as well as Canikon.

The K5 AF is simply outstanding. This shot (as posted here before) was taken with the K5 & DA*300 at dusk, at the moment of this shot the bird was ca. 80m away (I checked after the bird had disappeared). Even when I lost the bird in the frame focus was quickly re-established. I have the K7 too and there is no comparison. The K5 is streets ahead. People should therefore present no problem !

[jonny1986]

hi

im a photographer. im mostly travel photog, doing stock photos, now some portraiture for model amnd artist, and sometimes when i have the time and i like the event i do some photojournalism.
i collaborate with agency of pj in italy.
my style is more reportage than simple pj, and i like to ccreate a series of photos than take just a single frame.
in my opoinion a good pentax system, is pretty good for everything apart full time pj covering sports. In that case nikon is better. but for the rest k5 is very good.
and the next camerawill be better. But i dont' wanna deny that nikon d3s is faster and better. so if you can buy it , buy it. i'm thinking of adding it just for pj work.
i covered cannes film festival.

At vanity's fair - a set on Flickr

i have a problem , my two da* zoom were broken so i shoot mostly with prime. that was a bit of pain cause in pj zoom are better.
but i like the work i put out. i compared to many friend shooting nikon d3 and canon 1d and found their work pretty bored, always the same stuff, the same photo.
my suggestion is work hard, create your style. Use your pentax now and then switch if you cannot deliver. simply that.

af concern:

while i agree nikon is better, with my k5 i had just a bunch of totally missed photos. i mean completely out of focus.
for the rest all of my photos were usable, from tack sharp to a bit soft but usable range. Consider that in pj nobody look at 100% images to see sharness. 50 % is always enough. I had photo published that were soft at 100% view, but at print size they were perfect.

I am currently doing a photography intern for a magazine.

My gear is kx+16-50+50-135+540fgz.

I am going to upgrade to k5....

However....my friends and people online suggest me change system to nikon. They said nikon is for work, pentax is for hobby.

They said pentax auto-focus is too slow for journalist. and the nikon brand is just much more reliable and trusty. they said many company only want photographyer using either canon or nikon. damn, is this true???

any thought. I do not know what to do now...

first I do not have money go to full-frame. so even I switch to nikon, the body would be d7000. and I find nikon zoom lens is very expensive...I do not think I have that money now.
but think about future. I really worry if pentax is the right choice...

[RonHendriks1966]

Well your investment for just a K-5 is low. So just buy it, with the K-x you have a set with two bodies.

If it aint work out in future, you can change and sell everything loosing far less money then the writeoff with canikon systems.

[creampuff]

Take that advice.

Your obvious pro-Canon bias is showing thru yet again...

[liukaitc]

yeah I think I will just stick to k5 for now.
I am very familar with pentax system now, but i know nothing about canon and nikon system.
sell all my pentax current gear, doing research on canon and nikon, and get used to their camera just feel a pain in the ass to me now.
talk about future, we are not God. who knows what future would be like. maybe k3 or k1 has much better AF. who knows..right?
and kx brought me to the DSLR. I learned a lot of skill with kx. I have good favor with pentax......

---

Last edited by liukaitc; 05-31-2011 at 08:59 AM.

[MRRiley]

The whole argument regarding sports photography is spurious anyway. A good photographer, who is familiar with the sport he is shooting, can shoot that sport with a manual camera in manual focus with a lens of the appropriate focal length/range for the sport. Photographers shot sports with manual cameras for decades before autofocus or high-frame-rates (FPS) came along. Frankly those features are a crutch for most sports shooters...

And you do not need FF or insane amounts of megapixels or even dynamic range to shoot for any current magazine, much less any newspaper. The printing methods are outresolved by every current Pentax DSLR.

Mike

[JohnBee]

And you do not need FF or insane amounts of megapixels or even dynamic ranget to shoot for any current magazine, much less any newspaper. The printing methods are outresolved by every current Pentax DSLR.

YA!

And how much dynamic ranget does one need anyways!

[MRRiley]

YA!

And how much dynamic ranget does one need anyways!

Danged typos! LOL

[wlachan]

Your obvious pro-Canon bias is showing thru yet again...

Since when Nikon became Canon? Horse for course. One uses whatever he/she likes for pleasure, but should choose the best tools for work. OP is shooting PJ where things can happen fast and unexpectedly. If you miss, that's it. There will be no take 2. I have spent far more money on Pentax over the years that Canon but I don't blindly recommend something just because of what I use.

[liukaitc]

actually for the last outdoor event (it is just a festival, no any sports kind thing), i completely using manual-focus. the kx auto-focus miss too much shot and too slow..my eyes is way better than it...
I hope k-5 would be much much better....

[Smeggypants]

Well full frame is better. But better isn't always necessary, especially when it comes to camera bodies. Any mid to high range camera made in the last 4 or 5 years will take professional quality photos as long as there's a capable photographer behind it, and some decent glass attached to it.

So Full Frame isn't better.

[Smeggypants]

Take that advice.

I hope he takes no notice of you.

The argument that Nikon is for work and Pentax is for hobby is retarded. There's absolutely no intelligent rationale behind it.

[x-country]

Well full frame is better.

Like my man Chuck D from Public Enemy once said (a well sampled phrase): "Here we go again!"