Originally posted by khardur You are correct, I can't be without a second body. I do have one, a K5 (but it's... odd... It doesn't ever seem to focus dead on. Basically, I can't depend on it. So it's a permanent backup "if I have nothing left."
That's strange. I wonder if you have a focus point or focus screen issue which could be resolved easily through service/repair? Of course, at this point, not really worth repairing as it's going to cost as much as a replacement K-5 in decent shape just to get it repaired. But, then again, you know this K-5, so maybe worth it. Does it consistently back- or front-focus? If it's consistent, it could be as simple as shimming the focusing screen to get it aligned with the plane of focus for the sensor. If the focus issues is "sometimes front, sometimes back" then I'm not sure what to say about that.
I have a K-3, and I really like it. But I've also found that for my shooting, I struggle with focus in some situations. I'm pretty sure it's operator error, as I can get good focus in many other instances and I end up with poor focus when I'm trying to stretch the light, which makes me think I'm using too slow a shutter speed. But I've taken some marvelous pics with my K-3, even nicely in-focus ones of a running antelope, from inside a moving train car, going through southern Colorado, earlier this summer. The 3 has some advantages over the 5 in terms of low light, I think. I know it has a wider range of usable ISO, and the noise isn't horrendous until you get up into the double digits, and even sometimes it's not bad until you get past 25k. Even then, images are usable for newsprint or web use, just not portrait quality.