Hi,
I retired a few months back and decided to upgrade my camera. After about a hundred hours I settled on the K-r, and a couple of kit lens.
I started film photography back in the 60's with Pentax, Mamiya, and Yash twins. Tried collecting a few older 6X7 and 6X9s but just drifted into digital. I still have some rollfilm in the fridge that bugs the heck out of the wife
.
Company I worked for got some FZ5s for plant use, which was a step up from a pocket camera so went for the FZ20 and loved it. Got a deal of an FZ28 and used it for a couple of years (FZ20 still works great) so naturally I was interested in the FZ40 or the FZ100. But reviews of these didn't really look like it would be much of a step up. A little more money and I could move into low end DSLR.
High ISO shooting was the primary factor in picking the K-r. The shooting day just ended too early for the little FZ's. Great little super zoom cameras, if you have the light.
I got the 2 lens kit for just a little more than a body and soon found out the limitations of the kit lens. Sorted through all my K,M and T mount lens, fixed and zoom, and picked a few that worked pretty well with the K-r. I even bought some more on ebay, on the cheap, but still wasn't satisfied. Tried a 500mm mirror and wasn't impressed. So I bought an adapter and a Pentax 6X7 300mm f4 lens, used on ebay. Manual focus about 3/4 of a turn but what a step up. I'm currently building a photojournal of the bird, bugs and other wildlife around our properly as a Christmas gift for relatives, to be finished before some future Christmas
I end up with 50 to 200 foot shots and the 300mm stopped down to f8 gives the sharpest results of any lens I have. A 105mm 6X7 (had to de-yellow it) for closer shots. I'll admit that away from the house one of the AF zooms is more convenient to carry than the K-r and 6X7 lens (a tad over 5 pounds), and I still take one of the FZs as a back up on trips.
Absolutely impressed with the K-r.
(I do need to resolve a small issue- so I'll search the forum)
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