Hello All!
I've been a lurker on these forums for a couple weeks now and found the info/discussion invaluable. My brother and I have both been into photography since our high school days so we do have some old-school film and dark room experience (mostly B&W prints) but dropped the hobby for for more than five years (life always seems to get in the way). Then in July of this year we picked up a Canon T3i (we've always been Canon people) and have been completely immersing ourselves in the world of photography all over again. It's been absolutely great! At first we thought we could share the T3i but it's becoming more and more apparent that that is most likely no longer the case. I figured why buy another standard DSLR when I could get something a little more versatile and could serve another purpose without sacrificing too much quality. So I've been on the hunt for a really solid mirror-less camera. I was all jazzed over the Canon EOS M (as I said we are Canon people) but fairly poor early reviews (really slow auto-focus) and the launch delay here in the US (still not available as of this post) have made me rethink that decision. I did a little more research and all the mirror-less cameras that I was interested in were over $1000 (a price barrier I'm just not willing to go over for any camera) but then I found the Pentax K-01 and over time (a few weeks of constant research) I have slowly come to appreciate it's quirky style and all that it seems to offer (K Mount, Focus Peaking, Aluminum Body, etc). I was also anxious to give Pentax a try since they have always seemed like the underdog, meaning high quality cameras with great IQ that just never catch on the way Canon and Nikon do at least over here in the US anyway.
So I figured I'd wait until I'd had at least a little hands-on with the EOS M before making a final decision but then I was searching eBay and found a some brand new white K-01 with the 40mm pancake kit lens going for $450 and at that price I just couldn't let it slip by. Hopefully I should have my new baby by November 5th, I'll update the firmware, and start looking seriously for some older more affordable manual focus K Mount lenses to add to my newly-birthed Pentax collection.
During my research I also fell in love with the oh so diminutive Pentax Q and will hopefully be adding that to my camera lineup sometime between now and the middle of next year. Only looking to spend between $200-$300 for that one but I am fairly confident that I should be able to snag one in the next few months. Very intrigued by the K30 (weather sealing FTW!) as well but will be looking for a sale or price drop sometime during the later half of next year (around $600 seems good).
Anyway, once I get my hands on the K-01 and get the hang of it I hope to be a regularly contributing member of these forums. Until then I would just like to say thanks for everything and that I am super excited about becoming a full-fledged Pentaxian in the very near future!
Post #3 by patrick9
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