[Pepe Le Pew]

I'm taking the K-30 to the grave.

So am I

[Colbyt]

K-50 won't change me, I'm taking the K-30 to the grave.

.

In that situation the extra ISO stretch might be needed.

[Jon Petersen]

But - that bit about the mic port?

I can´t find it anywhere in the specs, but it would mean quite something to me - the very few times I´d video something, it would be music....

Jon

[Giklab]

I'm taking the K-30 to the grave.

Through hell 'n' high water!

[Colbyt]

But - that bit about the mic port?

I can´t find it anywhere in the specs, but it would mean quite something to me - the very few times I´d video something, it would be music....

Jon

See post 12. Specs clearly state mono built in.

[kcupp95]

Still waiting for Pentax Australia to sort their self and actually put the K-50 on their web page so that the K-30 price will drop.

[Pepe Le Pew]

You can pry the K-30 out of my cold Dead Hands :P

[limbomoon]

So...I almost cancelled my order for the K-50 due the 18-55 WR lens having a plastic mount (which I read about in an article in another thread). Thought Pentax was pulling a fast one until further research indicated that the both 18-55 WR and their other WR lens have plastic mounts. Is this true? Do they make a WR lens with a metal mount? Are plastic mounts as bad as they sound? Anyway since it appears they are not pulling a "fast one" I am letting the order stand. Besides, I saw some images created from rather inexpensive Pentax Prime lenses that just blew me away. Plus seeing the following link didn't hurt either. Compared to the K-30 no noticeable difference at ISO 100, not so at ISO 800. Compared to both Nikon D5200 and Canon EOS Rebel T4i was like night and day, at least in terms of color vibrancy/contrast. It's a cool site for comparing camera images.
Imaging Resource "Comparometer"

[Adam]

So...I almost cancelled my order for the K-50 due the 18-55 WR lens having a plastic mount (which I read about in an article in another thread). Thought Pentax was pulling a fast one until further research indicated that the both 18-55 WR and their other WR lens have plastic mounts. Is this true? Do they make a WR lens with a metal mount? Are plastic mounts as bad as they sound? Anyway since it appears they are not pulling a "fast one" I am letting the order stand. Besides, I saw some images created from rather inexpensive Pentax Prime lenses that just blew me away. Plus seeing the following link didn't hurt either. Compared to the K-30 no noticeable difference at ISO 100, not so at ISO 800. Compared to both Nikon D5200 and Canon EOS Rebel T4i was like night and day, at least in terms of color vibrancy/contrast. It's a cool site for comparing camera images.
Imaging Resource "Comparometer"

All cheap kit lenses have plastic mounts- that's what makes them 50%+ cheaper than the regular metal-mount lenses. Before the K-50, Pentax didn't have a cheap version of the 18-55mm WR, which meant that the WR kit cost $200 more than the body only. Now, however, you can get a WR lens for just $80 more, which is a pretty good deal.

Here's a list of all Pentax lenses with plastic mounts. So if the lens you're looking for isn't listed here, it's got a metal mount

SMC Pentax-DA L 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL WR Reviews - DA L Zoom Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database
SMC Pentax-DA L 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL Reviews - DA L Zoom Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database
SMC Pentax-DA L 50-200mm F4-5.6 ED WR Reviews - DA L Zoom Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database
SMC Pentax-DA L 50-200mm F4-5.6 ED Reviews - DA L Zoom Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database
SMC Pentax-DA L 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED Reviews - DA L Zoom Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database
SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL Reviews - DA Prime Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database
SMC Pentax-DA 50mm F1.8 Reviews - DA Prime Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database

IMO because the kit lens is so light, the fact that it has a plastic mount doesn't hurt at all.

Here's our comparative review of the D5100, T4i and the Pentax K-30:
Canon T4i vs Nikon D5100 vs Pentax K-30 - Introduction - PentaxForums.com

In terms of IQ, both the Pentax and the Nikon should have an edge over the Canon. The D5200 should have an edge over the K-50/K-30 as the 24MP sensor is a generation newer.

[THoog]

Are plastic mounts as bad as they sound?

In the time I have been reading Pentax Forums, there have been tens of thousands of copies of the 18-55 DA L in use. I've seen dozens of threads asking the same question about plastic mounts, and exactly ONE thread with a confirmed failure of the mount (it was recent - the camera was dropped, and if the lens mount hadn't cracked, the damage to the camera probably would have been more than the cost of a new lens). If plastic mounts were as bad as people think they sound, we should have heard about dozens or hundreds of failures in the past five years, but we haven't. We certainly heard about SDM failures.

[loco]

I agree. The plastic mount has never been an issue for me and I've used the kit lens, DA 35 2.4, and DA L 55-300 quite a bit. If anything, the lenses are lighter and easier to use.

[limbomoon]

Adam, THoog and Ioco,
Thanks for the excellent feedback. Guess I was thinking that thread wear would be more pronounced on the plastic mounts not to mention being potentially more sensitive to temperature changes, Basically, if the optics aren't impaired there's no reason to feel threatened by the plastic mounts. And thanks for that comprehensive list of all of the plastic mount lenses, Adam. Good info.

[felixkh]

The Original DA 18-55 WR DA 50-200 WR are metal mounts. I know because I own them. The other ones are DA 18-135 WR and D-FA 100 WR both of which are also metal mounts. My other Pentax buddies also own the plastic mount DA 55-300 and have no complaints about the mount.

[Kobayashi.K]

I have pre-ordered a K-50 body even when a kit is apparently a better deal, because I don't like plastic mounts (I will actually fit a DA40 Limited to it).

We have seen a gradual degradation of the built quality of lenses:

1] All metal barrel | Aperture ring | Focus ring
2] Plastic barrel | Metal mount | Aperture ring | Focus ring
3] Plastic barrel | Metal mount | No aperture ring | Focus ring
4] Plastic barrel | Plastic mount | No aperture ring | Focus ring
5] Plastic barrel | Plastic mount | No aperture ring | Focus ring without distance scale

With the K-50 and K-500 kit lenses we have reached stage 5] now.
When Pentax observes that nobody is complaining about plastic mounts, they will think: "Well, lets remove the focus ring too, everyone is using auto-focus anyway". And the next step is:

6] Plastic barrel | Plastic mount | No aperture ring | No focus ring

The cheap lenses for the K-50 and K-500 can't be taken serious. So, you can better buy a body directly and fit a good lens, that's actually cheaper because you don't use the kit lens. And it's a signal to Pentax that we don't like more plastic and reduced functions.

[Giklab]

We have seen a gradual degradation of the built quality of kit lenses:

1] All metal barrel | Aperture ring | Focus ring
2] Plastic barrel | Metal mount | Aperture ring | Focus ring distance scales actually start losing hyperfocal markings here already actually
3] Plastic barrel | Metal mount | No aperture ring digital appears. No immediate need| Focus ring
4] Plastic barrel | Plastic mount | No aperture ring | Focus ring
5] Plastic barrel | Plastic mount | No aperture ring | Focus ring without distance scale

With the K-50 and K-500 kit lenses we have reached stage 5] now.
When Pentax observes that nobody is complaining about plastic mounts, they will think: "Well, lets remove the focus ring too, everyone is using auto-focus anyway" Like on compact cameras for the last 20 years. Digital ones can at least be cludgily focused via directional buttons. And the next step is:

6] Plastic barrel | Plastic mount | No aperture ring | No focus ring
I have enormous doubt this will happen any time soon on ILCs.

The cheap lenses for the K-50 and K-500 can't be taken serious. So, you can better buy a body directly and fit a good lens, that's actually cheaper because you don't use the kit lens because so many people buying these ENTRY LEVEL cameras will have an armada of Pentax glass. And it's a signal to Pentax that we don't like more plastic and reduced functions [b]I love plastic. My Praktica PLC3 is about the same weight as my K-5II, despite having about 2% of the latter's functions.[/]

There's an excellent reason why these lenses are here.
DA L : Plastic mount, no QS, no WR
DA L WR: Plastic mount, no QS, WR
DA WR: Metal mount, QS, WR

These new lenses are not a downgrade, but actually an upgrade from the "plain" DA L series. They are the middle ground between the "ordinary" and "premium", by adding (to the DA L, not removing from the DA WR) the only feature that could be interesting for the average consumer, and still keeping cost down.