Considering coming from Nikon...Please help!

johnmflores · 01-10-2011, 07:26 PM

That's some nice glass that you are willing to part with. If you really like your glass, would you consider selling the D700, getting a D7000 and hope that one day Nikon makes a smaller FF?

dexmus · 01-10-2011, 07:53 PM

As others have said, you have some sweet glass. The 85 lens, is it the 'D' or 'G'?

Coming to your question, you have picked the best glass in Pentax as well. You can consider the DA* 55 in addition.

IQ with this lineup of Pentax lenses and a k-5 is going to be top-notch. You will not miss the D700 too much. Although that 24 1.8 is hard to replace.

Couple of things to be wary of - Flash system not as good as Nikon. And AF is not as good as Nikon D700.

cheers,

Abhi

**Rondec** · 01-10-2011, 08:14 PM

Good advice by the others. You have a really nice system already. The only benefit I can see with going Pentax is decreasing size. Just remember that you will lose about a stop in high iso ability and maybe another one because your Pentax lenses tend to have slower apertures compared to the Nikon lenses you already own.

For a hobby camera/lenses, a K5 certainly should be more than adaquate, but then again, most folks shooting for a hobby aren't moving from a D700 either.

Jim Olson · 01-10-2011, 08:22 PM

I am in the process of selling my Canon lenses and camera and moving to the K5 so I think I can understand your reasoning for switching. I recently decided to not photograph weddings any longer professionally and want a smaller system for my own personal shooting . Once I saw and held a K5 in the camera store I knew this was the camera I was going to purchase next. I am moving from some heavy L lenses and am not reluctant at all to switch.

Jim Olson

JeffJS · 01-10-2011, 08:45 PM

Originally posted by rsolti13

I currently have a Nikon D700 with the following lineup:

Zeiss 21 f/2.8
Nikon 24 f/1.4
Sigma 50 f/1.4
Nikon 85 f/1.4
Zeiss 100 f/2
Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VRII (least used...optically excellent but a damn beast!)

I really enjoy portraits and street shooting. I am not a pro so I don't mind changing up. Drawing me to the Pentax is the size and IQ that I regularly see from posts out there. I love the Zeiss lenses for the '3-D' look and I see that same look in many of the Pentax LTD lenses. I don't mind the crop factor vs full frame. Also of note is the cost of Nikon. It is getting ridiculous. I am looking at a 35mm f/1.4 but it is almost $2,000....I can't afford that with this just being a hobby.

The lenses that stick out to me are:
DA 15 f/4
DA 21 f/3.2
FA 31 f/1.8
FA 43 f/1.9
FA 77 f/1.8
DA 50-135 f/2.8

Anything else out there worth considering? I would look into the K5

My question from anyone that has done similar....would I be happy with the Pentax? I am looking for great IQ in a small package and I think this looks like the perfect solution.

I have every one of those except the DA21 f3.2. Never held a Nikon for more than about 5 minutes so I cannot offer a compare or tell you that you'll be happy. However, feel free to look at my flickr, divided by lenses, to see for yourself. The camera used is usually noted in the first two letters of the file name.

Collection: Lenses

MrPetkus · 01-10-2011, 10:06 PM

You won't miss the weight of the D700 but you'll sure as hell miss the viewfinder. The K5 viewfinder (or any on an APS-C) will not compare to a FF offering.

Originally posted by rsolti13

Another thought, what about the viewfinder? Is it nice and bright like the D700? The D700 and manual focus glass are just a dream. I would imagine that the Pentax would not be as nice.

TomE · 01-10-2011, 11:11 PM

You will not only miss the viewfinder in the D700, but you will miss the amazing AF that never hunts for focus, even in low light.

Tom

Jasvox · 01-11-2011, 12:19 AM

If I had that body and that collection of glass, I would not be considering a move to Pentax or any other system unless something was seriously seriously wrong with all of your gear. I cant imagine what you will expect to improve upon going to Pentax and lenses stated that you dont already have the ability to capture now.

Jason

**Douglas_of_Sweden** · 01-11-2011, 12:42 AM

Originally posted by rsolti13

Thanks a lot so far. I have the 55 f/1.4 on my list but missed adding to the list above. Thanks for reminding me and reinforcing my thought of lens choices. I though the weakest link would be a 35mm equivalent (DA 21mm f/3.2) but don't know of other options out there....any thoughts? elho_cid - how is the FA*24? Maybe I could get a Zeiss 21 (though large...fine performer) and use that as my 35mm equiv???

Douglas_of_Sweden - thanks for reminding me about the weatherproofing. I assumed that all the newer Pentax's were but I guess not. So it needs to be a DA* or WR designation to tell me it is suitable for those conditions? I'm not up to speed on the Pentax terminology yet

In regards to flash, I do like the Nikon system but seldom use it. I'm assuming Pentax has a wireless system similar to Nikon??? If not, I will look, but is it compatible with a radiopoppers setup?

Maybe selling off one or two Nikon items and trying the K5 with a lens or two will be the best way to test it. I don't have any Pentax dealers around in my area so it is hard to get a hands on with this system.

Thanks for the comments all....keep them coming

By the way, I have found the DA Ltd/FA Ltd/DA 15 threads and they are amazing

Fast and wide and in production does not give you much alternatives. The Sigma 20/1.8 is a good lens. But if you want away from big and heavy, it may not be to your taste. Also, it does not have the build quality of the Pentax lenses. I'm currently trying the DA21/3.2 for tasks that I've previously used the Sigma 20/1.8 for and with the high iso performance of the K-5 I can't say that I miss the speed. You are not likely to seek razor thin DOF at such a wide angle anyway, are you? The DA14/2.8 could be a compromise. It has it's own thread somewhere on the forum.

Yes, only DA* or WR lenses are weatherproof. I suspect it would be impossible to build the compact DA ltds weatherproof without loosing that special feeling they offer. On the other hand, I've never had any problem with water getting into them even in moderate rain. After all, they don't expose much surface to the weather since they are so small

Pentax has a wireless flashfunction. But overall, Nikon is supposed to have the best flash system of all DSLR systems. But as you indicate you don't use flash that much the difference may not matter too much.

As you probably notice, the fanboyism isn't that heavy on this forum...a majority of the responses to your questions appears to try to talk you out of changing, not because they don't like Pentax, but because of respect to the Nikon gear. Somehow they miss that you appear to know already why you want to change, but that you want advice on the Pentax options.

Also, notice that most of those that keep saying that you wont get as good autofocus with the Pentax system does not have the K-5 on their list. It appears that Pentax have finally bothered to invest enough to catch up with a large part of the difference to Canon/Nikon. I'm not saying that they yet have an autofocus that match the pro-models of Canikon... they don't have (yet) a pro-model, and you don't pay that price for a K-5 either, but the difference between the K-5 autofocus and that of comparable Canon/Nikon models appears to be small.

Good luck!

pentup · 01-11-2011, 01:09 AM

I've read that the dynamic range of the K5 is superb -- how would it compare with a full-frame camera? (pardon my ignorance, but I've put full-frame entirely out of my mind. Even if Pentax comes out with one, I'll never be able to afford it. Which is a shame, because I would so love to use the FA 31 as a wide instead of a "normal" lens.)

Personally I think the OP might enjoy the K7 with maybe the DA 40 for a very compact supplement, not replacement, to the Nikon arsenal. Just for those days when you want to travel light.

Abstract · 01-11-2011, 01:16 AM

Originally posted by johnmflores

That's some nice glass that you are willing to part with. If you really like your glass, would you consider selling the D700, getting a D7000 and hope that one day Nikon makes a smaller FF?

HEED these words!

As great as a K-5 sounds, Right now you have a Full Frame camera, your best bet is to grab a D7000 if you want the DR and same(Almost) picture quality of the K-5. Honestly if I had that setup I would never switch to Pentax, it happened to be that I was not that invested in my Nikon setup as you are though. Please think it over hard, one lens should not make you change systems.

Usuqa · 01-11-2011, 03:55 AM

You really do have some nice glass there, i recently switched from a d3 to a k5.. but I already had some pentax glass (still no ltds yet sadly) and flash's for my pentax system. With the nikon I had no flash's and the old f2.8 zooms and fisheye.

So for me the move was a no brainer, I couldn't afford to upgrade to the latest Vr versions of the lens and Nikon's primes while fast and amazing were also very expensive.

Now the bad part... all that fine glass you have on your d700 is wasted in some way, the sensor in the d700 and d3 isn't that sharp (very strong aa filter) but the good side of that is you can use the cheaper glass and get just as good results. Im sure once the new FF cameras come out or if you had a d3x the lens you have would give even better results.

The only thing I miss is the wonderful window the d3 had when looking through the lens, the k5 is much smaller in that regard (and harder to manual focus with). But apart from that I love my k5 and would even say it has better image quality than my d3 did. There is more information to play with in the shadows and highlights and sharper images (but you need better glass). There is more pf than what i seen on the d3 (cant really remember seeing much on the d3 at all tbh)

Technically I think the k5 is a much more advanced camera, if you can live with the crop factor and lack of 3d auto focus tracking im sure you would be happy, the size difference between the k5 and the d3 is major but you have the d700 which i have never held so I couldn't tell you there.

Just mind tho.. there is nothing like the 24mm f1.4 for a crop body, if you like shooting wide with shallow dof then stick to the d700. Also another thing to consider the base iso of the d700 is iso200 and iso 100 for the k5 (or 80 for best image quality). So again to get the best out of each camera the k5 will have longer shutter speeds.

rsolti13 · 01-11-2011, 06:12 AM

Originally posted by Douglas_of_Sweden

As you probably notice, the fanboyism isn't that heavy on this forum...a majority of the responses to your questions appears to try to talk you out of changing, not because they don't like Pentax, but because of respect to the Nikon gear. Somehow they miss that you appear to know already why you want to change, but that you want advice on the Pentax options.

Also, notice that most of those that keep saying that you wont get as good autofocus with the Pentax system does not have the K-5 on their list. It appears that Pentax have finally bothered to invest enough to catch up with a large part of the difference to Canon/Nikon. I'm not saying that they yet have an autofocus that match the pro-models of Canikon... they don't have (yet) a pro-model, and you don't pay that price for a K-5 either, but the difference between the K-5 autofocus and that of comparable Canon/Nikon models appears to be small.

Good luck!

I see that! Like I mentioned in my original statement, the size and IQ are most important to me. I love the Zeiss look and see that in a lot of the Ltd lenses. I am not a pro, don't do weddings/etc and use AF for family shots only. Whenever I go street shooting (majority of shooting) I take the two Zeiss lenses and maybe the Nikon 24...that is it. Those things are so damn heavy its ridiculous. Plus, I am used to MF so if the AF system on the Pentax is good...just not AS good as the Nikon I am fine with that trade-off. There are trade-offs to each system, it just comes down to which am I willing to make. I want to get rid of the size and expense number 1!

From hearing these comments, the thing I am most worried about is the VF. I like the big bright VF in the D700. I know the K5 won't be as big being a crop sensor but I guess I need to play with it on my own to see how easy it is to focus manually.

I guess I will sell a lens or two (maybe the two Zeiss lenses) and buy the K5 and a lens or two to try out. I really want a take everywhere camera (which the K5 sounds like it is and the D700 certainly ISN'T) so maybe it is best to just go with two systems until I figure out if the Pentax really is for me. Thanks for the help all!

Usuqa · 01-11-2011, 09:35 AM

For critical manual focus, the live view system is very good and you can zoom in to fine tune your focus. Another good thing about using the liveview for that is you can also use composition adjustment too. I hated the liveview on the d3, i don't know if the d700 was any better in that regard.

The view finder shows 100% on the k5 (unlike the d700) and you can get a split screen prism if you so wish, or a magnifier ? Mind that the k5 also lets you do catch in focus.. hold the shutter down while focusing and it will fire when its in focus. The focus points of the k5 while less than the d700 actually goto the edge of the frame unlike the d700/d3 where they are all clustered in the middle.

The ltd lens you like all have autofocus so maybe you will end up using that more? but yer the best thing you can do is try one..

RonHendriks1966 · 01-11-2011, 09:46 AM

Originally posted by Usuqa

The view finder shows 100% on the k5 (unlike the d700) and you can get a split screen prism if you so wish, or a magnifier ? Mind that the k5 also lets you do catch in focus.. hold the shutter down while focusing and it will fire when its in focus. ..

These two will help you using MF on your K-5 and are not expensive.

Looking for older glas: maybe the FA*85mm/f1.4 is good asset to your list.

01-11-2011, 03:55 AM	#27
Usuqa Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scotland Photos: Gallery Posts: 348	You really do have some nice glass there, i recently switched from a d3 to a k5.. but I already had some pentax glass (still no ltds yet sadly) and flash's for my pentax system. With the nikon I had no flash's and the old f2.8 zooms and fisheye. So for me the move was a no brainer, I couldn't afford to upgrade to the latest Vr versions of the lens and Nikon's primes while fast and amazing were also very expensive. Now the bad part... all that fine glass you have on your d700 is wasted in some way, the sensor in the d700 and d3 isn't that sharp (very strong aa filter) but the good side of that is you can use the cheaper glass and get just as good results. Im sure once the new FF cameras come out or if you had a d3x the lens you have would give even better results. The only thing I miss is the wonderful window the d3 had when looking through the lens, the k5 is much smaller in that regard (and harder to manual focus with). But apart from that I love my k5 and would even say it has better image quality than my d3 did. There is more information to play with in the shadows and highlights and sharper images (but you need better glass). There is more pf than what i seen on the d3 (cant really remember seeing much on the d3 at all tbh) Technically I think the k5 is a much more advanced camera, if you can live with the crop factor and lack of 3d auto focus tracking im sure you would be happy, the size difference between the k5 and the d3 is major but you have the d700 which i have never held so I couldn't tell you there. Just mind tho.. there is nothing like the 24mm f1.4 for a crop body, if you like shooting wide with shallow dof then stick to the d700. Also another thing to consider the base iso of the d700 is iso200 and iso 100 for the k5 (or 80 for best image quality). So again to get the best out of each camera the k5 will have longer shutter speeds. Last edited by Usuqa; 01-11-2011 at 04:08 AM.

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01-10-2011, 07:26 PM	#16
johnmflores Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Somerville, NJ Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 5,361	That's some nice glass that you are willing to part with. If you really like your glass, would you consider selling the D700, getting a D7000 and hope that one day Nikon makes a smaller FF?

01-10-2011, 07:53 PM	#17
dexmus Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: United States Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 392	As others have said, you have some sweet glass. The 85 lens, is it the 'D' or 'G'? Coming to your question, you have picked the best glass in Pentax as well. You can consider the DA* 55 in addition. IQ with this lineup of Pentax lenses and a k-5 is going to be top-notch. You will not miss the D700 too much. Although that 24 1.8 is hard to replace. Couple of things to be wary of - Flash system not as good as Nikon. And AF is not as good as Nikon D700. cheers, Abhi

01-10-2011, 08:14 PM	#18
Rondec Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Gladys, Virginia Photos: Gallery Posts: 27,653	Good advice by the others. You have a really nice system already. The only benefit I can see with going Pentax is decreasing size. Just remember that you will lose about a stop in high iso ability and maybe another one because your Pentax lenses tend to have slower apertures compared to the Nikon lenses you already own. For a hobby camera/lenses, a K5 certainly should be more than adaquate, but then again, most folks shooting for a hobby aren't moving from a D700 either.

01-10-2011, 08:22 PM	#19
Jim Olson Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Cincinnati Posts: 49	I am in the process of selling my Canon lenses and camera and moving to the K5 so I think I can understand your reasoning for switching. I recently decided to not photograph weddings any longer professionally and want a smaller system for my own personal shooting . Once I saw and held a K5 in the camera store I knew this was the camera I was going to purchase next. I am moving from some heavy L lenses and am not reluctant at all to switch. Jim Olson

01-10-2011, 08:45 PM	#20
JeffJS Inactive Account Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Michigan, USA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 7,484	Originally posted by rsolti13 I currently have a Nikon D700 with the following lineup: Zeiss 21 f/2.8 Nikon 24 f/1.4 Sigma 50 f/1.4 Nikon 85 f/1.4 Zeiss 100 f/2 Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VRII (least used...optically excellent but a damn beast!) I really enjoy portraits and street shooting. I am not a pro so I don't mind changing up. Drawing me to the Pentax is the size and IQ that I regularly see from posts out there. I love the Zeiss lenses for the '3-D' look and I see that same look in many of the Pentax LTD lenses. I don't mind the crop factor vs full frame. Also of note is the cost of Nikon. It is getting ridiculous. I am looking at a 35mm f/1.4 but it is almost $2,000....I can't afford that with this just being a hobby. The lenses that stick out to me are: DA 15 f/4 DA 21 f/3.2 FA 31 f/1.8 FA 43 f/1.9 FA 77 f/1.8 DA 50-135 f/2.8 Anything else out there worth considering? I would look into the K5 My question from anyone that has done similar....would I be happy with the Pentax? I am looking for great IQ in a small package and I think this looks like the perfect solution. I have every one of those except the DA21 f3.2. Never held a Nikon for more than about 5 minutes so I cannot offer a compare or tell you that you'll be happy. However, feel free to look at my flickr, divided by lenses, to see for yourself. The camera used is usually noted in the first two letters of the file name. Collection: Lenses

01-10-2011, 10:06 PM	#21
MrPetkus Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 387	You won't miss the weight of the D700 but you'll sure as hell miss the viewfinder. The K5 viewfinder (or any on an APS-C) will not compare to a FF offering. Originally posted by rsolti13 Another thought, what about the viewfinder? Is it nice and bright like the D700? The D700 and manual focus glass are just a dream. I would imagine that the Pentax would not be as nice.

01-10-2011, 11:11 PM	#22
TomE Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 299	You will not only miss the viewfinder in the D700, but you will miss the amazing AF that never hunts for focus, even in low light. Tom

01-11-2011, 12:19 AM	#23
Jasvox Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,107	If I had that body and that collection of glass, I would not be considering a move to Pentax or any other system unless something was seriously seriously wrong with all of your gear. I cant imagine what you will expect to improve upon going to Pentax and lenses stated that you dont already have the ability to capture now. Jason

01-11-2011, 12:42 AM	#24
Douglas_of_Sweden Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Stockholm Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,374	Originally posted by rsolti13 Thanks a lot so far. I have the 55 f/1.4 on my list but missed adding to the list above. Thanks for reminding me and reinforcing my thought of lens choices. I though the weakest link would be a 35mm equivalent (DA 21mm f/3.2) but don't know of other options out there....any thoughts? elho_cid - how is the FA24? Maybe I could get a Zeiss 21 (though large...fine performer) and use that as my 35mm equiv??? Douglas_of_Sweden - thanks for reminding me about the weatherproofing. I assumed that all the newer Pentax's were but I guess not. So it needs to be a DA or WR designation to tell me it is suitable for those conditions? I'm not up to speed on the Pentax terminology yet In regards to flash, I do like the Nikon system but seldom use it. I'm assuming Pentax has a wireless system similar to Nikon??? If not, I will look, but is it compatible with a radiopoppers setup? Maybe selling off one or two Nikon items and trying the K5 with a lens or two will be the best way to test it. I don't have any Pentax dealers around in my area so it is hard to get a hands on with this system. Thanks for the comments all....keep them coming By the way, I have found the DA Ltd/FA Ltd/DA 15 threads and they are amazing Fast and wide and in production does not give you much alternatives. The Sigma 20/1.8 is a good lens. But if you want away from big and heavy, it may not be to your taste. Also, it does not have the build quality of the Pentax lenses. I'm currently trying the DA21/3.2 for tasks that I've previously used the Sigma 20/1.8 for and with the high iso performance of the K-5 I can't say that I miss the speed. You are not likely to seek razor thin DOF at such a wide angle anyway, are you? The DA14/2.8 could be a compromise. It has it's own thread somewhere on the forum. Yes, only DA* or WR lenses are weatherproof. I suspect it would be impossible to build the compact DA ltds weatherproof without loosing that special feeling they offer. On the other hand, I've never had any problem with water getting into them even in moderate rain. After all, they don't expose much surface to the weather since they are so small Pentax has a wireless flashfunction. But overall, Nikon is supposed to have the best flash system of all DSLR systems. But as you indicate you don't use flash that much the difference may not matter too much. As you probably notice, the fanboyism isn't that heavy on this forum...a majority of the responses to your questions appears to try to talk you out of changing, not because they don't like Pentax, but because of respect to the Nikon gear. Somehow they miss that you appear to know already why you want to change, but that you want advice on the Pentax options. Also, notice that most of those that keep saying that you wont get as good autofocus with the Pentax system does not have the K-5 on their list. It appears that Pentax have finally bothered to invest enough to catch up with a large part of the difference to Canon/Nikon. I'm not saying that they yet have an autofocus that match the pro-models of Canikon... they don't have (yet) a pro-model, and you don't pay that price for a K-5 either, but the difference between the K-5 autofocus and that of comparable Canon/Nikon models appears to be small. Good luck!

01-11-2011, 01:09 AM	#25
pentup Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Flushing NY Photos: Albums Posts: 413	I've read that the dynamic range of the K5 is superb -- how would it compare with a full-frame camera? (pardon my ignorance, but I've put full-frame entirely out of my mind. Even if Pentax comes out with one, I'll never be able to afford it. Which is a shame, because I would so love to use the FA 31 as a wide instead of a "normal" lens.) Personally I think the OP might enjoy the K7 with maybe the DA 40 for a very compact supplement, not replacement, to the Nikon arsenal. Just for those days when you want to travel light.

01-11-2011, 01:16 AM	#26
Abstract Inactive Account Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: New York Photos: Gallery Posts: 388	Originally posted by johnmflores That's some nice glass that you are willing to part with. If you really like your glass, would you consider selling the D700, getting a D7000 and hope that one day Nikon makes a smaller FF? HEED these words! As great as a K-5 sounds, Right now you have a Full Frame camera, your best bet is to grab a D7000 if you want the DR and same(Almost) picture quality of the K-5. Honestly if I had that setup I would never switch to Pentax, it happened to be that I was not that invested in my Nikon setup as you are though. Please think it over hard, one lens should not make you change systems.

01-11-2011, 06:12 AM	#28
rsolti13 New Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Savannah, GA Posts: 8 Original Poster	Originally posted by Douglas_of_Sweden As you probably notice, the fanboyism isn't that heavy on this forum...a majority of the responses to your questions appears to try to talk you out of changing, not because they don't like Pentax, but because of respect to the Nikon gear. Somehow they miss that you appear to know already why you want to change, but that you want advice on the Pentax options. Also, notice that most of those that keep saying that you wont get as good autofocus with the Pentax system does not have the K-5 on their list. It appears that Pentax have finally bothered to invest enough to catch up with a large part of the difference to Canon/Nikon. I'm not saying that they yet have an autofocus that match the pro-models of Canikon... they don't have (yet) a pro-model, and you don't pay that price for a K-5 either, but the difference between the K-5 autofocus and that of comparable Canon/Nikon models appears to be small. Good luck! I see that! Like I mentioned in my original statement, the size and IQ are most important to me. I love the Zeiss look and see that in a lot of the Ltd lenses. I am not a pro, don't do weddings/etc and use AF for family shots only. Whenever I go street shooting (majority of shooting) I take the two Zeiss lenses and maybe the Nikon 24...that is it. Those things are so damn heavy its ridiculous. Plus, I am used to MF so if the AF system on the Pentax is good...just not AS good as the Nikon I am fine with that trade-off. There are trade-offs to each system, it just comes down to which am I willing to make. I want to get rid of the size and expense number 1! From hearing these comments, the thing I am most worried about is the VF. I like the big bright VF in the D700. I know the K5 won't be as big being a crop sensor but I guess I need to play with it on my own to see how easy it is to focus manually. I guess I will sell a lens or two (maybe the two Zeiss lenses) and buy the K5 and a lens or two to try out. I really want a take everywhere camera (which the K5 sounds like it is and the D700 certainly ISN'T) so maybe it is best to just go with two systems until I figure out if the Pentax really is for me. Thanks for the help all!

01-11-2011, 09:35 AM	#29
Usuqa Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scotland Photos: Gallery Posts: 348	For critical manual focus, the live view system is very good and you can zoom in to fine tune your focus. Another good thing about using the liveview for that is you can also use composition adjustment too. I hated the liveview on the d3, i don't know if the d700 was any better in that regard. The view finder shows 100% on the k5 (unlike the d700) and you can get a split screen prism if you so wish, or a magnifier ? Mind that the k5 also lets you do catch in focus.. hold the shutter down while focusing and it will fire when its in focus. The focus points of the k5 while less than the d700 actually goto the edge of the frame unlike the d700/d3 where they are all clustered in the middle. The ltd lens you like all have autofocus so maybe you will end up using that more? but yer the best thing you can do is try one..

01-11-2011, 09:46 AM	#30
RonHendriks1966 Banned Join Date: Jan 2009 Photos: Gallery Posts: 9,675	Originally posted by Usuqa The view finder shows 100% on the k5 (unlike the d700) and you can get a split screen prism if you so wish, or a magnifier ? Mind that the k5 also lets you do catch in focus.. hold the shutter down while focusing and it will fire when its in focus. .. These two will help you using MF on your K-5 and are not expensive. Looking for older glas: maybe the FA*85mm/f1.4 is good asset to your list.