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01-11-2017, 04:16 PM   #16
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QuoteOriginally posted by lithedreamer Quote
Did they round the aperture blades for the HD 15mm Limited?
Yep. And it lost a bit of the magic because of it. IMHO.

01-11-2017, 04:24 PM   #17
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QuoteOriginally posted by jatrax Quote
Yep. And it lost a bit of the magic because of it. IMHO.
Gotcha. That makes sense, it's the aperture blades, not the coatings.
01-11-2017, 04:25 PM - 1 Like   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by Karmaya Quote
probably because I never see them in camera stores.
One reason they can price their top notch cameras competitively as they cut all (well most) the middle men.
Pentax bodies feel like they are made by the photographers and for the photographers and a bunch of mechanical engineers teamed up. The ergonomics and reliability is top notch.
If you care about the DR more than everything else then there are only a handful of sensors (well only Sony makes them) that will do the job (the one on D810 for much more and the one on K-1 for a lot less).
GPS, WiFi are now built into the FF if you cared.
The third dial (not sure who else has this on theirs) makes the camera's 3 important settings ready to fly. (This is a serious and thoughtful design by every means)
For me Canon's strongest point is their 70-200/2.8 lens. All their bodies are just ok and their DR is subpar (but most canon shooters are doing their stuff in studio so for them DR does not matter much and their eco system is much stronger/wider/rounder than Pentax).
Pentax is a field thing. Robust weather sealed bodies is their forte and they squeeze every ounce out of the sensor and pretty much max out on DR performance (a virtue you cannot live without in landscape photos). They have already built all kinds of lenses in the past. And btw they were the ones to build the first SLR. So they know their thing very well as far as making camera's are concerned.

The one regret you may have from switching to Pentax from Canon would be that your friends will stop associating with you since you will no more be a Canon shooter. This may affect your social life. Besides that there may be some heartburn when they see K-1 images.
01-11-2017, 04:46 PM - 2 Likes   #19
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QuoteOriginally posted by shardulm Quote
but most canon shooters are doing their stuff in studio so for them DR does not matter much
Pentax is a field thing. Robust weather sealed bodies is their forte....
Most Canon shooters are in the studio....I do not agree with that statement at all.
In a rainy, windy, snowy football game or soccer match, I see about 75% canons on the field. Do those photographers throw away their cameras afterwards because they couldn't handle terrible conditions?

Sure their lower end bodies are not as robust as Pentax bodies...but their higher end bodies are built every bit as well as what Pentax has to offer.

01-11-2017, 04:49 PM - 1 Like   #20
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QuoteOriginally posted by cali92rs Quote
Most Canon shooters are in the studio....I do not agree with that statement at all.
In a rainy, windy, snowy football game or soccer match, I see about 75% canons on the field. Do those photographers throw away their cameras afterwards because they couldn't handle terrible conditions?
Yep. Totally disposable.

(Only the Canon Rebels after they've been mishandled by an uncaring photo student, really)
01-11-2017, 05:23 PM - 1 Like   #21
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QuoteOriginally posted by Karmaya Quote
If you've switched from Canon FF to Pentax, are you totally happy with your decision?
Welcome to the forum. Looks like you have done your homework. So here is my two cents.

My last Canon bodies were a pair of 7Ds, a 6D and 5DMKII. I owned mostly L glass. I switched to Pentax K5IIs then to K3 and now the K1. Pentax, I am sorry to say is not ideal for sports because of its lackluster focusing system. It is not bad but it is no match for Canon 1DX. I do not do sports so I do not care. The other "shortcoming" is video which I do not do regularly. For anything else as far as still image creation goes, the K1 blows any Canon I ever owned out of the water so far that I have to get a telescope to find the pieces in outer space!

I shot a pano image of Boston a few years ago with my 7D at 100 ISO and good light. I printed it to a large size canvas and hung it from my office wall. I had a chance to reshoot the same image recently with the K1 and the image quality difference is scary. If you want sensor (image) quality for less than $2K, no one offers anything in the ballpark. The ergonomic and GUI advantages of the K1 added to the mix make it a total winner in my book.

If you are going to get lenses, Get the Tamron 70-200 (the old lens), unless you have the funds to get the Pentax version which is a better lens but for a lot more money. Tamron 70-200 is optically superior from F3.2 on and it is on the cheap. Get it while they are still making it. As far as the wide end, I am using a few primes and a 14mm Samyang to do the job. I am working towards getting the Pentax 24-70 and the 15-30 which would put all my primes to rest and make my bag a three zoom lens setup covering the range from 15-200mm.

BTW, I have shot 1080P video with K1 and it does not look as bad as they say.

If your focus was primarily sports and you were on a budget, I would say get the Nikon D500, otherwise the K1 is far superior as a still image machine than any Nikon or Canon offering in the same price range.

Good luck.
01-11-2017, 07:14 PM - 1 Like   #22
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QuoteOriginally posted by cali92rs Quote
Most Canon shooters are in the studio....I do not agree with that statement at all.
In a rainy, windy, snowy football game or soccer match, I see about 75% canons on the field. Do those photographers throw away their cameras afterwards because they couldn't handle terrible conditions?

Sure their lower end bodies are not as robust as Pentax bodies...but their higher end bodies are built every bit as well as what Pentax has to offer.
Please accept my apology. I did not mean to hurt anyone's sentiments about Canon. Btw you should go back and read my post again. My comment was in regards to the DR and not weather sealing. Although i see most of them shooting with protection on them I still trust their high end bodies for handling terrible weather conditions. They are just not able to handle terrible light condition.

01-11-2017, 09:00 PM   #23
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I've never owned any Canon gear other than a little 35mm point-n-shoot. I made the transition from Minolta to Pentax when I transitioned from 35mm to digital, from manual focus to autofocus, and from the 20th to the 21st century. It was a lot of transitions all at once but I've never looked back. I keep looking forward--through the viewfinder--to the future.
01-11-2017, 09:09 PM - 1 Like   #24
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My last Canon SLR was an AE-1, so I can't offer any direct comparisons, but I do want to stress a point that others have touched on--the availability and compatibility of legacy lenses. Other than a few lenses with the "Ricoh pin" issue (which you can identify on the forum), virtually anything with a K mount will work on the K-1 or other Pentax bodies. I bought my first Pentax SLR four years ago (the K-30, still going strong), and since I'm on a budget too, I have supplemented my collection of lenses by visiting thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales, and flea markets. I got a free hand-me-down Pentax P3 with 3 lenses, including a nifty fifty and a Focal (K-Mart brand) 70-210 f4 that is not half bad and is very compact. I bought a 100mm macro and a 2x teleconverter at a local swap meet for around $90. Last summer at a yard sale I got an old Pentax Spotmatic and 3 lenses for $10, one of which is the sharpest lens I own. (I got a K-mount/M42 screwmount adapter for free at a local used camera shop.) Last week at a flea market I bought a mint condition Sears Auto 135 f2.8 for $10 that is sharp and very solidly constructed. These old lenses weren't designed for digital, lack modern coatings for the most part, and can have horrible CA in high-contrast situations. On the flip side, they are all "full-frame" (film) lenses, and they all have a unique "look" that is sometimes just what you want; when used within their limitations they can really shine. The lens databases on this forum include user reviews for practically every lens ever built for Pentax, price trends, and often sample photos.

And did I mention that they're cheap?
01-11-2017, 09:41 PM - 1 Like   #25
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I shoot with both systems. You don't say what lenses you own, unless I missed that, but if you're at all invested in Canon glass you should really look at the 6D, and maybe you should anyway. The 6D is an excellent low-cost camera with extremely good image quality. And great Canon lenses like the 135/2, 85/1.8 and 24-70/4 are considerably cheaper than new Pentax FF equivalents. The flash system is also much better.

Pentax is great as a hiking/travel/bad weather system, and I love shooting with my K-5IIs, but I turn to Canon for paid work (events and portraits) when I need to get it done right without a lot of fuss.
01-11-2017, 09:47 PM - 1 Like   #26
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Karmaya, if you have excellent Canon glass I think you should stick with Canon unless you have a specific reason to go with Pentax or somebody else. Feeling restless probably isn't the best reason to lay out thousands of dollars. I might joke about Canon from time to time, but the fact is they're the major player in the industry and make decent products - the G7X is my P&S, for instance.

But if you do change, as far as subjects go, I would not hesitate to shoot weddings, models or sports events with the K-1, as I did here, and I am a rank amateur. These athletes do 60kmh on the straights:









Last edited by clackers; 01-11-2017 at 10:53 PM.
01-11-2017, 09:56 PM - 1 Like   #27
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QuoteOriginally posted by Karmaya Quote
Good Afternoon.

I'm a brand-new member (joined this morning). I joined because I'm considering getting a K-1 and figured this forum is a great way to learn more about this camera. Everything I read about it so far makes me think it's perfect for me. However, there is a problem: I've been a Canon shooter since the late 70s, upgraded cameras and added lenses (some really nice ones) over the years. I'm pretty heavily invested in Canon, so to speak. Whenever I upgraded cameras, I never even looked at other brands because it just made no sense, what with me already having all these great Canon lenses, right?

My current camera is the Canon 7D. While outdated, it's still a great camera. But when hauling it (and several lenses) on vacation became too cumbersome, I added a Sony bridge camera as well as the tiny RX100m4, the two became my travel gear.
However, after almost 40 years of shooting, I've decided I want a FF camera, if only to see what I've been missing all these years. I want to get one soon, before retirement, as I may not be able to afford it when retired.

I was looking at the 6D, but it's too outdated. There are rumors of a 6Dm2 sometime this year, so that could be one option. I always dreamed of owning a 5D, but never could afford it, until now. I was about to order the 5Dm4 but, given its huge price, decided to do something I haven't done before: research FF cameras, any brand, to make sure I'm getting the best camera for my money and needs. I've never spent $3,500 on a camera before. Well, I've never spent $3,500 on anything smaller than a car, so I wanted to make sure I'm getting the best bang for my buck.

I looked at Nikon, but none struck me as being better than the 5Dm4. Since owning two Sonys, I also checked Sony FFs. There's one in the same price-range and the good thing about Sony would be that I could use my Canon lenses (with adapter), so that's on my short list for now, though I'm not sure I really want to go the adapter-route.

Long story short, throughout my search, research, reading reviews, watching video clips on YouTube, etc., the one camera that also kept popping up was the Pentax K-1. Always heard Pentax made great cameras, but I thought Pentax was out of business, probably because I never see them in camera stores.

The K-1 sounds almost perfect for me. It has almost everything I want. The only downside, it's not considered a great sports camera (I enjoy shooting Indy and NASCAR races), but I decided to keep my 7D which is great for that. I'm not much of a videographer, so learning that the K-1 isn't the best for videos is of no concern to me. If I do need video, I'll bring my Sony or use my iPhone.

My favorite subjects to photograph are landscape, wildlife, macros, and pets. While I don't really like shooting people, my family often expects me to be the photographer at events. From all I've read, the K-1 should be able to handle all of these things very well. So should I switch brands and start over with Pentax? I am torn because the financial-planner part of my brain says NO. But then I look at the price tag and realize that for the price of a 5Dm4, I could buy the K-1 and a good lens to go with it (trying to forget that I may want to add more lenses later, which is what my financial-planner in me doesn't like).

So if anyone in this forum reads this and can relate or has made the switch from another system to Pentax, please share your thoughts. If you've switched from Canon FF to Pentax, are you totally happy with your decision? Finally, if I do get the K-1, what would be the best all-around lens(es) (I'm a pixel-peeper) I should get for my purposes, considering it'll likely be my only K-1 lens(es) for a long time. Total price not to exceed $3,500. Thank you all!
If you already have good, expensive FF Canon glass, the better decision is to stay with Canon.
If you only have APSC lenses (since you use 7D), to go 5DM4 route would required you to upgrade your lenses as well. It is the same as switching system.

I believe your choice is more of: whether you should go the FF route, FF is expensive, no matter which brand you go for.

Pentax K-1 is relatively cheap for FF with such features, but adding lenses (especially you won't find many used, new release lenses) they end up not much of a different.

If I were you, I will look into 5DMIII, especially if you have FF lenses.
01-11-2017, 10:44 PM - 3 Likes   #28
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QuoteOriginally posted by Karmaya Quote
Any Regrets After Switching from Canon to K-1?
I haven't owned a Canon camera. What I do know in my area, Pentax is not allowed by Canon, and especially the K1. If you own a Canon and switch to Pentax K1, you'll get mobbed by Canon, if not captured by their secret forces and sent to gulag purge for being reeducated. Since I got my K1, I'm being banned by Canon friends, with the features, sensor specs, small size and discounted price of the K1, I've put off Canon fanatics. If I walk in the Canon local shop with my K1, they gonna call the police to take me out.
01-11-2017, 10:56 PM - 2 Likes   #29
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Someone suggested renting. I would rent any of the cameras you are looking at. Anything you get now is capable of great photography, and much your satisfaction depends on the finish, ergonomics and just enjoying the feel and look.

I got the K1 two months ago and have been amazed at how much capability it has. Lenses matter; I have a collection, but the format demands great lenses and I'm starting to buy lenses again. Canon makes a very compelling system.

Rent or borrow. You might fall in love with what you don't expect.
01-12-2017, 01:21 AM - 1 Like   #30
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QuoteOriginally posted by biz-engineer Quote
I'm being banned by Canon friends, with the features, sensor specs, small size and discounted price of the K1.
You call them friends? They should be focused in improving their skills and not in getting you banned, because a better specs camera is not everything when comes to photography.

---------- Post added 01-12-17 at 08:22 AM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by derekkite Quote
Rent or borrow. You might fall in love with what you don't expect.
The best advice in my opinion.
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