Long time lurker, first time poster...
Like I said I am a pro shooter. I am the head shooter for the University of Colorado athletic program, as well as a landscape and portrait photographer. It is not my main job (I am finishing up my PhD in neuroscience) but it is a huge passion and actually pays a lot of the bills these days.
My first DSLR was a pentax K10D because of the combo of features and price. My pro career was launched when a picture I took after work of Folsom field went viral via CU alums.
****'em up, ****'em up, go CU | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I was contacted by the CU athletic dept out of the blue and they asked me to come shoot for them, so serendipity has been on my side and I have never looked back.
even got a shot in nat geo using the trusty K10D:
When Gods Watch... | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
The university bought me a K20D, so I have extensive experience with that camera as well. I also recently won a nikon d90 and have gotten quite a lot of experiance with that body as well. I also have rented the nikon D3s on multiple occasions.
I know a lot of people in this forum are not really into HDR photography, but for me it is a passion. Little did I know when I bought the K10D, but it was just about the best camera for HDR that money could buy (and it still holds up great in many regards, the only camera with better bracketing options is the Mark III/IV, and the CCD has pretty nice DR). Needless to say I actually like the results for landscape, and handheld HDR much better than the K20D.
Now to the K-5, here is why it is pretty much my dream camera and why it may keep me in pentax for a long time to come (I was dreaming of a mark iv but those desires have really subsided)
1) 7fps is hugely fast (I have shot the D3s many times at 10fps and it is almost too fast at that speed). I see people freaking out about the buffer being too small but as a preo sports shooter, we never really burst longer than a second, and we almost always shoot jpeg. It will also really help with hand held HDR.
2) high ISO. obviously it will really help with sports and low light shooting, but what I am really excited about is the ability to do handheld HDR in more situations. With high FPS, shake reduction and great high ISO IQ, I will be able to burst off a bracket using high ISO to keep the shutter speed down. I already do this a lot on my K10 and 20 (check my flickr site for examples).
3) auto focus. the will help with all the shooting I do.
4) 16 mega pixels. Don't get me wrong my 10 megapixel shots from my K10D have been blown up to billboard size all over the state (using genuine fractals plugin) and I have 40x60's in my house at 10 mgpix and they look amazing, but the extra resolution should make everything that much better.
5) better metering and DR. (ps will someone please do an official DR test, I can even supply the shot starting tomorrow, just tell me what to shoot).
I'd love to start a dialoge with anyone who shares similar taste in photographic subject ect. I just had surgery this morning so I'm a bit loopy on pain meds, but just wanted to share my excitement.
check out my full pentax porfolio on flickr....
Flickr: @!ex's Photostream
best,
Alex