An interesting thing happended to me today...
One of our members posted in the Pentax "Price Watch" forum regarding a truly excellent price on a new Pentax K-1 with two years warranty from one of the UK's most reputable suppliers.
Now, I
could actually afford to buy this camera. It would be a
big purchase for me, as I've limited funds and can't just buy whatever I fancy all of the time... but I
could afford it. And there's no doubt that I'd
love to own the K-1. I have other (to some extent, lesser) full frame digital cameras - my much-loved (Sony A99-based) Hasselblad HV, and my Sony A7 MkII, both with 24MP sensors and both excellent cameras (if not beloved of members here) - but Pentax is my favourite and main brand... the one I enjoy shooting most. So a 36MP full frame K-1 would be a welcome and fitting addition to my kit. And I could offset the cost of it by selling lesser-used equipment - surplus lenses, for example - and other non-photography-related items that I'm just not using.
I was really
very tempted to take advantage of this excellent deal on the K-1... but I didn't, and
that's the interesting part...
In thinking about this potential purchase, I've finally and unambiguously confirmed something I've suspected for some time... and that is, I'm actually
happy with the gear I already own and I don't
need, or even
want, more.
Now, I'm far from "making do"... I'm fortunate enough to own a wide range of equipment, both old and somewhat new(er). The most recent camera I own is the excellent K-3II (bought new, my copy is lightly and only occasionally used); my main day-to-day do-it-all camera is the K-3; plus, I have my full frame Sony gear which I really enjoy, none of which is more than five years old right now. I also have my much loved pair of "K10D" Samsung GX-10s, a "*ist DL2" Samsung GX-1L, and a Pentax *ist DL. And I have lenses for all - several, quite excellent - that cover most eventualities.
The older cameras I've mentioned, it seems, are quite key to my post. I love shooting my K-3, and I'm well aware of the benefits it offers in general performance and high ISO image quality. If I need to shoot at ISO 800 and above, the K-3 is my camera of choice. But, the rest of the time, I prefer to shoot one of my old GX-10s, because I enjoy the relative simplicity of operation and I love the image quality within the confines of my requirements and expectations. I have a few A-mount lenses that, with my full frame Sony gear, allow me to achieve better subject separation at certain fields of view than I could produce with my APS-C Pentax gear, but otherwise, I get much the same utility and satisfaction from all of my gear.
I'm not a professional photographer, nor even an especially demanding amateur. I shoot a wide range of subjects and styles covering most non-specialist interests. I capture raw exclusively and process the files in a number of different applications, such that I'm no longer tied to, or dependent upon, any one piece of software - and I'm reasonably capable with each of them. My photos are processed to look good on colour-managed displays up to 24", and I have a few wall-mounted prints (just three, currently, but I may add to that over time). Nothing that I view on my screens, or have printed for wall mounting, is significantly limited (to my eyes, admittedly) by the equipment I use.
And so, that K-1 will stay on the supplier's shelf until some other lucky photographer decides to buy it
I hope it's someone from these forums, and I hope they'll tell us all about it and show us wonderful photographs taken with it. But it won't, alas, be me - however much I may like the idea of owning such a wonderful camera.
I know there are many, many photographers here with genuinely greater demands and requirements (or, simply, deeper pockets
) than mine - and for them, I can of course see the benefit of newer, better, larger format equipment. But I wonder what proportion of our membership (and the wider market) that is, and how many more are - whether they realise it or not - like me, already served so very well by their existing gear that "upgrading" simply isn't necessary or justifiable...
Last edited by BigMackCam; 07-28-2019 at 02:48 AM.