Originally posted by Stavri Judging by your signature you seem to have two bodies and a small amount of lenses invested in K mount, would have made your transition to Nikon easy...
Yep, that's convenient isn't it?
No my Pentax investments where stalled mainly because I'm switching from landscape/travel to people&street photography, including a fashion blogger model (hobby, not professionally).
The three zooms collect dust since then, and my DA50/1.8 became my most loved and valued lens, regardless of it being the cheapest of the bunch. The DA40 Limited is also a little gem for discreet street photo of any kind, love that too.
But this switch towards people photo also had a dark side to it. It started to generate frustrations with my K-5 ii system, was disappointed by various signs of low quality from my zooms, and found the body's AF to be not fit for purpose. Too unreliable when used with fast 1.x apertures. Something I never experienced before with my f/8 landscape photography.
But where else could someone like me go?
The K-3 wasn't an upgrade option. Yes the AF points were less huge, and I saw previous K 5 ii(s) user reports of it being snappier, but not nececessarily more precise, I stumbled over reports in different forums which claimed, that for some lenses the K-3 AF turned out to be even worse than the K-5 ii(s). That was too much of a mixed bag for me, for the money been asked for.
Fuji X-T1? well it is sexy, the X lenses even more so, but they are waaays too expensive for my hobby budget. Getting the X system with all the lenses you want is as expensive as going full frame. Also, the X-T1 is not ideal for my hands, and like all mirrorless (inlcuding the Sony A7), it is probably more something for the fine art photo enthusiast, rather than people or even action. Let's hope they will discover the consumers' budgets and provide appropriate budget lenses. They made a start with that, and also Sigma's future entry to the X mount will help making the X system attractive for that market segment. Let's give Fuji a few years, then we'll see again.
Nikon D7100? had a too-shallow RAW buffer, no good for my fashion model shooting.
Canon's? Somehow I don't like them, and their sensors have fallen behind Sony's by now. Only if one was really keen on good video, one would have to go for Canon.
Then the D7200 came out and changed everything, Nikon had listened, and they had fixed all D7100 issues some were complaining about. Including: bigger RAW buffer, the newest (?) Sony sensor replaces the old "banding" Toshiba, and, an (even) better pro-level autofocus, not only better in the dark night (as claimed by Nikon) but also in the daylight (observed by early reviewers). As-if made for me. Not "sexy" in terms of new fancy gimmicks of any kind, but seemingly evolved to be a solid, mature and useful workhorse. As if for pros, or for consumers with a pro mindset.
Now, the sudden announcement of the K-3 successor changes (or could change) everything again
What a row of good news after boring 2014.
I do like the explcit emphasis been on the autofocus. Thank god Ricoh must have listened to their ambassadors (including those which were used to Nikon/Canon's AF performance before), and not to Pentax fanboys defending "their" respective AF against any accusations since the K10D. Well done, Ricoh, you seem on the right track.
Now the interesting part: where will the K-3 just catch up with the D7200, and where will it exceed it...