[sjwaldron]

I noticed that Camera Craft in northern Illinois (USA) was selling new K10D and K20D as new old stock he picked up from his rep. to offer options against the likes of the Canon XS and Nikon D3000 when people didn't want a camera from the big two brands.

I think I received a decent deal considering the camera was new in box with an extended warranty (a bit less after tax than his asking price on their site).

I had sold my *ist DS to a friend at a cut-rate price so he could get into photography, but shortly after I seeing the need for a second body again. My other body is a K-7.

Not to mention the few notable features the K10D that are still relevant:
- PC tethering (already tried it out successfully with my old windows 2000 license under a virtual machine from Ubuntu Linux)
- Ability to disable dark frame subtraction.
- The k10D seems to be laid out to be a good studio and tripod task camera.
- The qualities of the Sony CCD at low ISO and overall differences in feel to the K-7's Samsung CMOS sensor.
- Pro level features such as WR and control compared to K-x/K-m/K-r.

My blog post about the camera and my reasoning in detail.

[kp0c]

Very interesting. Although I wonder why would you not buy a decent used body from the marketplace ? After all, you are going to use it as a secondary body ? To be honest, I don't know how much a K10D goes for on the marketplace, so maybe buying it new was a no brainer. However, if you could have saved significant amount of money, I think it could have served you well for a lens, or some accessories (flash, tripod, etc.) since you mention studio work.

But again, you have a brand new camera and a nice warranty...which is very good.

[Nic]

He was offerering it against the XS and d3000? I see it more to compete against the 40d, and d80 and such.

Anyhow, Im hoping over to read your blog now.

[Nic]

Very interesting. Although I wonder why would you not buy a decent used body from the marketplace ? After all, you are going to use it as a secondary body ? To be honest, I don't know how much a K10D goes for on the marketplace, so maybe buying it new was a no brainer. However, if you could have saved significant amount of money, I think it could have served you well for a lens, or some accessories (flash, tripod, etc.) since you mention studio work.

But again, you have a brand new camera and a nice warranty...which is very good.

Between 350-$400 is what I see them going for used. Very good deal IMO!

[sjwaldron]

Between 350-$400 is what I see them going for used. Very good deal IMO!

Yeah, I technically got it for less than that as I live where the shop is, but I had to pay sales tax which evens things out. Overall I'm thinking it was a good deal considering it does still have some unique features over the K-7.

[sjwaldron]

Very interesting. Although I wonder why would you not buy a decent used body from the marketplace ? After all, you are going to use it as a secondary body ? To be honest, I don't know how much a K10D goes for on the marketplace, so maybe buying it new was a no brainer. However, if you could have saved significant amount of money, I think it could have served you well for a lens, or some accessories (flash, tripod, etc.) since you mention studio work.

But again, you have a brand new camera and a nice warranty...which is very good.

I agree with you. Used is good too especially considering what the body goes for these days, but buying it new is easy with some extended guarantee for around $75 - $130 in my case after sales tax. I would love to have bought a K-5, but that's out of my justification range at the moment. With two bodies, I found that using both at the same time with two prime lenses is quite handy! I put one in a small shoulder bag and the second around my neck with the standard strap.

[Nic]

Yeah, I technically got it for less than that as I live where the shop is, but I had to pay sales tax which evens things out. Overall I'm thinking it was a good deal considering it does still have some unique features over the K-7.

Thats an awesome deal. I would have hopped on it. I recently switched to pentax and figured I'd go with the k10d body and just *slowly* build a lens collection. I bought a used, but in excellent (no scratches or blemeshes anywhere) for $380, If I could have bought it knew for $50 more I would have.

[sjwaldron]

Thats an awesome deal. I would have hopped on it. I recently switched to pentax and figured I'd go with the k10d body and just *slowly* build a lens collection. I bought a used, but in excellent (no scratches or blemeshes anywhere) for $380, If I could have bought it knew for $50 more I would have.

Nice to see a recently converted Pentaxian. The Pentax of old and seemingly the Pentax of new (Hoya) have a good focus on photographers tools rather than the mass market stuff some other companies put out.

Might I ask what type of lenses you are interested in getting eventually? I personally have a fondness for prime lenses. If you don't have a prime around 35mm, the new "plastic fantastic" 35mm f2.4 or the 40mm f2.8 limited would be great buys I think.

[Nic]

Right now all I have is the kit lens When I sold all my canon gear I put the money towards moving out of my parents house and getting married. I'm definitely more into primes. I don't mind if they're old, new or whatever. I actually was excited to come to pentax because I could purchase older manual focus lenses for cheap.


Do you have any suggestions for older manual focus lenses I should look for? I don't do photography for a job, I am into it just for the artistic value.

[wshi]

Oh, my home town is pretty close to Rockford, I might go check it out. Do they have the K-5 and other bodies out to try out?

[loveisageless]

A good place to learn about different lenses is the lens review database here on the Forum. You can read the specs for each lens and reviews done by Forum members. It is an excellent guide and not all excellent lenses are prohibitively expensive:-) If you see a lens you are interested in and don't see it offered in the Market Place on this site, post a "wanted" ad here and you will likely hear from someone who wants to sell their copy. Happy hunting!

[sjwaldron]

Oh, my home town is pretty close to Rockford, I might go check it out. Do they have the K-5 and other bodies out to try out?

Yep, they have a K-5 to try out. (along with K20D, K-x, K-7, etc...). I don't know if they have any K-r yet.

[sjwaldron]

Right now all I have is the kit lens When I sold all my canon gear I put the money towards moving out of my parents house and getting married. I'm definitely more into primes. I don't mind if they're old, new or whatever. I actually was excited to come to pentax because I could purchase older manual focus lenses for cheap.

Do you have any suggestions for older manual focus lenses I should look for? I don't do photography for a job, I am into it just for the artistic value.

I think you have good priorities. Don't spend too much on gear and try to avoid "LBA"

loveisageless has good ideas in his comment.

My suggestions would be:
Manual prime wise..... Probably most stuff labeled with Asahi/Pentax/Takumar would be worth spending some cash on. Good options to find things would be searching local craigslist for the keyword "pentax" or trying sites like shopgoodwill.com or keh.com. Be mindful of fungus and Ricoh mount stuff.

Anything A or FA will allow for more automatic functionality. Manual K-mount and M42 (works nicely with a K-mount adapter) are not bad options though.

[Mark Castleman]

Closeout and the like can often net you a very good deal. I picked up a new in-the-box K20 at Ultimate Electronics for $400 last week. Just the body, no lens, but I have 4 lenses already so I don't need more of those. Depending on what I can get when I sell my K10 it may turn out to have been a spectacular deal.

[sjwaldron]

Closeout and the like can often net you a very good deal. I picked up a new in-the-box K20 at Ultimate Electronics for $400 last week. Just the body, no lens, but I have 4 lenses already so I don't need more of those. Depending on what I can get when I sell my K10 it may turn out to have been a spectacular deal.

Now that's a good deal! I'm guessing that was before tax? I googled "Ultimate Electronics" and found their site. They didn't have much Pentax wise on there, so I'm guessing deals only happen locally...