Originally posted by falconeye The K-5 coupled with a Sigma 30/1.4 or DA*55/1.4 shot at 1/8s to 1/15s (which the Pentax SR easily supports for sharp handheld shots) is:
the best performing low light free hand capture device money can buy. Any amount of money!!
So, I understand why the question is raised. If it is worth a switch depends on the value of that feature. But nobody currently bests it.
To set things into perspective:
1/8s, f/1.4 and ISO 12,800 (which does still look very good) is
-3 EV
Metering and AF won't work anymore. To translate this: This is dark night with no lights whatsoever, just near full moon!
The K-5 allows high quality free hand shots in moon light and probably is the only camera on the planet allowing to do so now (w/o stacking).
Side note: you can stop the foreground motion with a weak wireless hand-held flash and still have the entire scene illuminated amd sharp rather than disappearing in the dark or fuzzyness.
Yeah. Dat, simply put, is da machine.
It's not the *only* sort of thing I do, but really, probably ninety-five percent of what I even need any particular high-tech for is part of being a good street/pub venue photo machine. The rest is just having solid basics. (Admittedly, a better high-tech flash system/return to true TTL would not go amiss for events/weddings and such. Getting a little slow on the ol' guide numbers in my old age.
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While I'm sure there are *livable* Nikon options, maybe Canon if you don't mind a dwindling supply of serious film bodies with hardly-immortal electronics, well, those livable options probably cost a lot more and presently can do less, at least. 'Street photography' and 'Massive Gear budget' don't usually go hand in hand, after all.
(I still want Pentax or someone to make what I call my Ratzeye screen concept: A focusing screen for fast lenses with a meter-not-obstructing ring of microprism focusing aid (Also snappy for fast lenses) around a plain matte center for critical focus and AF confirmation.
Then you're *really* cooking.
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A little less-realistically, I'd like it if they did a little 'mea culpa' and handed out little shoe-mounted AF illuminators to the K20d faithful till we can get K-5s. (Speaking of 'how to available-negative EVs.' Teeny little bulb. There you go.
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