Originally posted by wishlf Hi guys, I am new to this forum. I am thinking about to trade my D7000 for K-5, for it's more robust and smaller body, and the Pentax color is also appealing me. One concern is that when I shoot D7000, I have 24mm 1.4 G as my favorite lens. Is there a Pentax equivalent? How does the Tamron 17-50 compare to Pentax 16-50mm. Another dumb question, is it a good decision to switch? I have 4 Nikon lenses. Thanks!
Hi Wish,
I'm not sure that there is a whole lot of difference between the D7000 and the K5 in terms of IQ. Pentax does apply some NR even to RAW files at higher ISO settings, but seem to have done a superb job of it. By all accounts, the K5 retains very similar levels of detail to the D7000 with less noise at higher ISO settings.
DR between the two is similar, but once again, I think the K5 might be a tiny bit better, but at the end of the day, a given copy of either camera could test better than the other, they are that close.
There is a close equivalent to the Nikon 24, it is the FA 24 f2.0. It is out of production, but there is one on Ebay right now. It seems to be about 1/2 the price of your Nikon.The 24 does not come up that often, so if you are serious about moving to the K5 and want a 24, you should take a look at that listing.
Otherwise, the 31 F1.8 LTD is a superb lens. It is a bit longer than your 24 and slightly slower, but it will not disappoint in the IQ area. If you like primes and want a compact kit, the 31 LTD works well as a normal lens, and the 77 LTD makes for a great fast portrait lens. Most would rate the 77 as even better than the 31, I think.
The 43 LTD is a real compact gem with stellar IQ, but it is a bit long on APS for general use.
I do not have the Tamron 17-50 and have not heard much about it, but the 16-50 is the lens most often found on my K5 (and the K20 before that and the K10 before that). Note that I have all of the lenses I listed above and a few more
but I reach for the 16-50 most often. It is quite good overall, but a bit weak at the wide end wide open. A very good all-around zoom combo is the 16-50 and 50-135. The 50-135 is superb, and the set makes a very good wedding pair, for example.
By most accounts, the Nikon has better AF in some conditions, and a better flash system than the Pentax PTTL once you figure out all of the complexities of the Nikon system and get the settings right for a given situation.
The Pentax QC issues have been beaten to death, but there have been too many problems with the latest cameras, that's for sure. On the other hand, from what I have read, there were more than a few with the D7000 as well.
Lastly, until the K5 came around, and even then until the front focus issue in low tungsten light was sorted out, I was close to moving to Nikon after being with Pentax since 1978. The K20 was a good camera for it's time, but the K7 took a bit of a step back in IQ (IQ is far and away #1 for me), and the K20 was letting me down at times in the AF area.
The K5 addressed all of my concerns and other than a bit of frustration with some flash quirkiness at times, I do not see why I would need anything more than the K5 for the foreseeable future.
Ray