[bobbotron]

thanks everyone again for the replies! I've been looking at other cameras, and the Nikon D5200 seems pretty good, perhaps better than the K50? The video quality looks good and it shoots 14 bit raw files (which is pretty good apparently?) I could buy it with a 35mm 1.8 prime lens. I also imagine the rotating screen would come in handy too, any thoughts? Is it blasphemy to talk about other brands of cameras in this forum?

I'm sure the Nikon would be a great camera - at the end of the day, you've gotta do you research and buy what's best for your wants! The D5200 is a very nice camera from what I've read.

[GolNat]

thanks everyone again for the replies! I've been looking at other cameras, and the Nikon D5200 seems pretty good, perhaps better than the K50? The video quality looks good and it shoots 14 bit raw files (which is pretty good apparently?) I could buy it with a 35mm 1.8 prime lens. I also imagine the rotating screen would come in handy too, any thoughts? Is it blasphemy to talk about other brands of cameras in this forum?

I agree with bobbotron, it's untimely up to you and what is important to you. Do your research. The d5200 is a fine camera but the K50 is too.

Before I bought my K50 I was looking at the exact same cameras as you (D5200 and even used D7100). It can be a big decision because you are buying into a system. Around me, no one sells Pentax. I could only handle and play with Canon and Nikon and Sony mirror less but a few things ultimately made the decision for me.

*In body stabilization. Makes lenses cheaper and they are all stabilized.
*Lens selection.
*I don't care about video. It's a camera.
*Customization and extra front dial (5200 does not have)
*Weather sealing
*I felt like Pentax was more for purists if that makes sense. People who just want to take great pictures.
*Overall value for my money
*I like being a little different. Its rare to encounter another Pentaxian.

I went crazy going back and forth with specs and features, 14 bit, cross type AF points, amount of AF points and in the end it all does not matter. It forces you to be a better as a photographer in a way, which I like. Yes having extra AF points would be nice but now I know how to work around that and not rely on the camera to do everything.

[robc009]

I agree with bobbotron, it's untimely up to you and what is important to you. Do your research. The d5200 is a fine camera but the K50 is too.

Before I bought my K50 I was looking at the exact same cameras as you (D5200 and even used D7100). It can be a big decision because you are buying into a system. Around me, no one sells Pentax. I could only handle and play with Canon and Nikon and Sony mirror less but a few things ultimately made the decision for me.

*In body stabilization. Makes lenses cheaper and they are all stabilized.
*Lens selection.
*I don't care about video. It's a camera.
*Customization and extra front dial (5200 does not have)
*Weather sealing
*I felt like Pentax was more for purists if that makes sense. People who just want to take great pictures.
*Overall value for my money
*I like being a little different. Its rare to encounter another Pentaxian.

I went crazy going back and forth with specs and features, 14 bit, cross type AF points, amount of AF points and in the end it all does not matter. It forces you to be a better as a photographer in a way, which I like. Yes having extra AF points would be nice but now I know how to work around that and not rely on the camera to do everything.

I've doing doing a lot of back and forth as you mentioned, there are so many different features on different cameras it's crazy! so I've had to choose which features are important for me, I'd like to be able to shoot in low light (so I'll need to buy a 1.8 lens or similar I guess if I don't want to use a tripod). I'd also like the video quality to be decent because I'd like to experiment with film making etc. The pentax k50 seems like a great camera, although I might be leaning towards the D5200 simply for the video, the 14bit and the focus points. I'd probably prefer to have the in-body stabilization of the k50 but you can't have it both ways I guess!

[The Squirrel Mafia]

My niece has a D5200. The IQ on that camera is pretty darn good. My only gripes are the pentamirror viewfinder on it, no IBIS, no second control dial, & just about everything is menu driven. Trying to change settings can be very annoying at times. The minimum Nikon that I would shoot with would be a D7xxx series.

Outside of that, it's a pretty darn good camera with great AF. Better AF performance than the K-50, but at the cost of a few conveniences that the K-50 offers. Basically you give up one thing for another. This happens all the time when camera shopping. Pick your poison.

[GolNat]

Those are all great reasons to choose the 5200!

Are you planning on buying older lenses? The 5200 does not have a screw drive so you have to buy newer lenses with it. 7100 and K50 both have a screw drive which is a plus to me. I was leaning more toward the 7100 over the 5200 for this reason.

IBIS is a wonderful thing, especially when shooting telephoto!

[GolNat]

Double post...sorry.

[robc009]

Those are all great reasons to choose the 5200!

Are you planning on buying older lenses? The 5200 does not have a screw drive so you have to buy newer lenses with it. 7100 and K50 both have a screw drive which is a plus to me. I was leaning more toward the 7100 over the 5200 for this reason.

IBIS is a wonderful thing, especially when shooting telephoto!

I'm a beginner I don't think I'll be buying older lenses just yet, I guess older lenses don't have shake reduction etc? I would have considered one of the newer 7000 series for sure but they cost a lot more than the 5200

[awa355]

Long exposure shutter speed while the camera is on a tripod will allow you to get well lit landscape shots in low light. Low light action shots will require a faster shutter speed and usually lower F stop number or higher ISO number. The K-50 utilizes all of the basic DSLR techniques, so it would do what you need to approach what you mentioned. Flashes come in handy in other situations, where you may need light other than using a tripod and you find your settings do not provide enough light without a flash.

Would you disable the shake reduction when using a tripod?.

[UncleVanya]

First the 5200 feels cheap. Please hold one before you decide. Second Nikon has no focus peaking - this may matter in low light if you need manual focus but I doubt this is a deal breaker. Third and maybe most important, a lot Nikon lenses are not VR or VRii (including the 35 f1.8) which means they have no shake reduction at all. This means that from a low light picture of a static subject made while handheld the DA 35 f2.4 can be shot at around 1/4 second without significant blurring. The Nikon 35 f1.8 would need to be shot at about 1/30th to avoid blur which gives about a 2 stop advantage to the slower Pentax because the lens starts about 2/3-1 stop slower but gains 3-4 stops via the in body stabilization. Also the kit 18-55 VR (not VRii) has only about a 2 stop benefit. The VRii version has about 3 stops. Where optical comes into favor is very long lenses and there it seems a bit more effective plus the viewfinder image is stabilized.

On another note; the ability to create thin depth of field is still a potential advantage of the f1.8 lens but here again a longer lens like the DA 50 will have even thinner depth of field than the 35.

I'm all for exploring many options but $ / feature it will be hard to beat Pentax at this entry point.

Let me suggest that a tripod as pointed out is a fantastic way to extend low light capability. Bean bags, gorilla pods, small carbon tripods etc. are a way to vastly improve low light shots. But when caught needing just a bit more light the ibis system is generally up to the task.

[robc009]

First the 5200 feels cheap. Please hold one before you decide. Second Nikon has no focus peaking - this may matter in low light if you need manual focus but I doubt this is a deal breaker. Third and maybe most important, a lot Nikon lenses are not VR or VRii (including the 35 f1.8) which means they have no shake reduction at all. This means that from a low light picture of a static subject made while handheld the DA 35 f2.4 can be shot at around 1/4 second without significant blurring. The Nikon 35 f1.8 would need to be shot at about 1/30th to avoid blur which gives about a 2 stop advantage to the slower Pentax because the lens starts about 2/3-1 stop slower but gains 3-4 stops via the in body stabilization. Also the kit 18-55 VR (not VRii) has only about a 2 stop benefit. The VRii version has about 3 stops. Where optical comes into favor is very long lenses and there it seems a bit more effective plus the viewfinder image is stabilized.

On another note; the ability to create thin depth of field is still a potential advantage of the f1.8 lens but here again a longer lens like the DA 50 will have even thinner depth of field than the 35.

I'm all for exploring many options but $ / feature it will be hard to beat Pentax at this entry point.

Let me suggest that a tripod as pointed out is a fantastic way to extend low light capability. Bean bags, gorilla pods, small carbon tripods etc. are a way to vastly improve low light shots. But when caught needing just a bit more light the ibis system is generally up to the task.

I understand the benefits of having in-body stabilization with low light shooting etc, but the pentax video quality really let's it down. Can you suggest a pentax camera that has good video quality?

[1wild1]

Here's a comparison to look at to show $ value. We did senior pics of my son with a friend and I brought my camera to compare. 5D mk2 with post done by my friend who knows more than me, especially positioning and post, vs K-50 shot by me on probably some wrong settings. Mines at F3.2 his F14. They are slightly different angles and mine is jpeg out of camera with just a little exposure bump, his has some post processing done (the main reason I call him to do our photos). The shot where the sliver of sky is visible ( first shot ) is the 5D. I know these aren't low light but they are a good comparison of value the K-50 is.

Also there are two other pro's who's kids play sports with mine. After comparing their 7D M2 shots with my K-50 shots I was glad I didn't spend any more money than I did. I'm sure I have more throw-aways than them due to focus issues but picture quality wise I didn't see the extra money equal value.

edit: I have a sony video camera so I don't know how the K-50 handles video. I'll even use my nikon coolpix L820 P&S for video over the K-50 if I know I'm wanting to do video. Thinking about it, I don't think I've used the sony since I got the Nikon. Sometimes it's best to separate the equipment between video and pics.

[C_Jones]

Would you disable the shake reduction when using a tripod?.

It is desirable to turn it off for long exposures, depending on how long they are. Shorter exposures on a tripod you can use it if not in Bulb Mode, but on the tripod the movement is usually very limited, so you may not require SR on. You can turn the SR off in the camera as far as I know, I am not sure which camera model you are specifying. On all of my Pentax dslrs I have used you can (K20D, K-5, K-5IIS, K-3II), and I would assume so on all Pentax dslrs. Most likely you would turn it off in the camera menu (rear lcd). For example, I can turn it on or off by selecting [Shake Reduction] in the [Rec. Mode 4] of my camera menu. Also, if you are in Bulb Mode, the SR will be turned off automatically (not available), and that mode is the one that you would be shooting exposures over 30 seconds long if you desired to, and on a tripod to avoid blur. Also, you would want to use the delayed timer function (for example 2 second delay) when on a tripod to avoid your triggering of the shutter moving the camera at all, or you could use a wired remote that attaches to the camera that would trigger the shutter along with a delay, or an infrared remote that works off of a signal to the camera infrared sensor to trigger the shutter along with a delay. My wired remote does not require a battery, it derives its power from the camera it is attached to. Most of the infrared/wireless remotes require a battery, which I do not want to have to depend on.

[UncleVanya]

Would you disable the shake reduction when using a tripod?.

Yes. I can't recall all the details but I'm pretty sure all self-timer modes and remote modes disable SR automatically - the 2 sec version also adds a 2 second mirror lock up automatically.

I understand the benefits of having in-body stabilization with low light shooting etc, but the pentax video quality really let's it down. Can you suggest a pentax camera that has good video quality?

Sadly no. I do not use video on my Pentax cameras. I tend to either use a cell phone or my Panasonic LX-7 or GX-1.

It is desirable to turn it off for long exposures. You can turn the SR off in the camera as far as I know, I am not sure which camera model you are specifying. On all of my Pentax dslrs I have used you can (K20D, K-5, K-5IIS, K-3II), and I would assume so on all Pentax dslrs. Most likely you would turn it off in the camera menu (rear lcd). For example, I can turn it on or off by selecting [Shake Reduction] in the [Rec. Mode 4] of my camera menu. Also, if you are in Bulb Mode, the SR will be turned off automatically (not available), and that mode is the one that you would be shooting exposures over 30 seconds long if you desired to, and on a tripod to avoid blur. Also, you would want to use the delayed timer function (for example 2 second delay) when on a tripod to avoid your triggering of the shutter moving the camera at all, or you could use a wired remote that attaches to the camera that would trigger the shutter, or an infrared remote that works off of a signal to the camera infrared sensor to trigger the shutter. My wired remote does not require a battery, it derives its power from the camera it is attached to. Most of the infrared/wireless remotes require a battery, which I do not want to have to depend on.

In addition the 2 second self-timer and the 3 sec delay IR remote option perform a short mirror lock up to reduce mirror induced vibrations.

[GolNat]

I'm a beginner I don't think I'll be buying older lenses just yet, I guess older lenses don't have shake reduction etc? I would have considered one of the newer 7000 series for sure but they cost a lot more than the 5200

Being a beginner has nothing to do with it. Its a great way to get some nice lenses and not spend as much money. No Pentax lens has SR because its built into the body (well maybe some do but its redundant). Nikon telephoto lens with VR is more money then equivalent lens without VR,IS. My 50mm prime is stabilized with is nice in low light situations.

If video is that important to you then it might be best to get one dedicated to video. There are always compromises when trying to make something do everything.

Would you disable the shake reduction when using a tripod?.

I leave it on all the time. Camera only seems to use it when it is needed, as I have not noticed any effects from having it on while mounted on tripod.

Yes my K50 feels much more solid and expensive then the 5200!

[robc009]

thanks for all the suggestions, I've been looking at the K-3 at it seems to have most of the features i'd like to have in a camera, although a bit expensive. Is the K-3 good in low light? (for photos and video?) I found these videos comparing the K-3 and the D5300:

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

do you think it's an accurate representation?

also on another note, if I were to record video on a zoom lens e.g. 300mm (handheld) is it better to have in-body stabilization or in-lens stabilization? This example seems to have decent stabilization:

You Tube

You Tube

do you get similar results with the pentax in-body using zoom lenses? or does it make the jello effect worse?