Originally posted by Raylon 'Designer' primes? I don't know what a designer prime is. Canon has extremely high quality primes. And Pentax has better zooms? That's news to me...
Pentax has some very nice, unique primes at competative prices. I think that is what he meant by "designer" although I would think that Leica primes would take the cake on that one
.
If you love expensive, high quality zooms, I think Canon is a better brand. The magic of Pentax lies in the primes IMHO.
As for the 50 1.7 for 250 dollars... well, to me, it's worth no where near 250... but it's a discontinued lens, so it's way more expensive than it is "worth" so to speak. You can see the same thing happening with the discontinued FA 35mm 2.0. The new DA 35mm 2.4 is priced similarly to the FA when it was sold new.
You have to be careful with discontinued lenses... the market can either undervalue, OR overvalue, a lens.
Compared to the 150 dollar Canon 50mm 1.8, my 50 dollar A 50m 1.7 is a real deal, for example :P.
Comparing single lenses like this is a dangerous game to play, because some lenses cost less in canon world, some cost less in pentax world. What you rally need to do is look at what YOU plan on buying, and comparing the brands. That will give you the best indication of which brand is right for you.
In the end, if video is your thing, Canon is the brand. Neither Nikon, Olympus, Sony, or Pentax have anything on the Canon video system IMHO.
The Pentax is a "photographer's camera" insofar as that is is not a "filmmaker's camera". Assuming that photographer loves high quality, compact primes at a reasonable price, the Pentax system is quite special.