Originally posted by stemked So...
I guess I spend too much time on youtube. Tony and Chelsea have their lists of 'bests' and 'worsts'. They named the Kf as the 'Worst Camera of the Year' because of its price and that it is essentially a K70. Over the years clearly these two reviewers harbor a distinct dislike of what Pentax manufactures (Chelsea seems to switch systems more often than other people change their underwear). But do they have a point? I am not a fickle camera owner; I find something that works and I try and improve upon my angle with the camera. I do appreciate occasional upgrades, but I like a system that is sustainable in the long run.
That noted, I do not have the Kf; I already have 4 Pentax dSLRs and god only knows how many Pentax film camera. Ergo, I'm not one to really one to be able to say either way. Do you feel the camera has more under the hood than they are saying, or are their points truly valid? Like it or not, they have a loud voice in the camera blogisphere. I just want to hear from those more in the trenches rather than from someone who likely never actually held the Kf.
Admittedly, I like Chelsea and Tony. I have been following them for the last 10 years at least. I don't mind youtubers criticizing Pentax a bit.
For me as a hiker, I like Pentax cameras. I have handled two mirrorless cameras recently and I could not come to grips when them. However, I am now in possession of one of them as a gift from a friend.
Pentax KF is a camera made in heavens for a hiker like me. Professional photographers and vloggers can't appreciate the benefits of a beginner's camera like KF. I condone/ignore them because they can't even relate to beginners anymore, much less to advantages that hikers would have. However, I do admit that it is a good present day camera with somewhat old, but surely not dated technology.
So now the question becomes why wouldn't I move to mirrorless cameras that are light weight as compared to the DSLRs. The answers are embedded in the following 4 questions:
1. Why should one move to a new system and invest money when he/she can put the same money in traveling farther and/or more often to earn photography experience?
2. Why should one invest so much time in learning a new system than to put the same duration of time to improve his/her photography skills with the existing system?
3. Why should one invest money in a better quality camera when vloggers like Tony and Chelsea tell us all the time that putting quality lenses on a low quality camera is far better than putting low quality lenses on a high quality camera?
4. Speaking from my area of interest, since I am able to take pictures with my right hand alone as I almost always have leash of my dogs in my left hand as they walk on that side, do other better cameras and systems offer me the same kind of ergonomics?
I can give you my answer to question # 4. From my recent experience of using Canon and Nikon mirrorless cameras, they don't. However, this is a discussion for another day.