[Doublegone Dod]

Hi all,

I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland. I haven't actually bought the camera yet but its looking likely. So I probably have lots of questions.

I suppose I would describe myself as someone with a good eye but limited technique. I'm experienced with compacts and push them as far off piste as they allow - enough for me to know I am now straining at the leash for all a dslr offers. I've shot with an Olmypus Mju for years. Its great but my phone soon had more pixels. These days I have a Lumix TZ30 which I am enjoying very much indeed.

My main interest is in outdoor work, when I am hillwalking and fishing. Landscapes are high on the agenda. If there are fish I take shots of them. If there aren't I'll close up on some wild flowers or insects.

Looking to step up I wondered about more advanced compacts and cscs, but actually what the heck - I'm going SLR!

My spend is pegged around the Canon 600d level, so also looked at Nikons (variously 3200 and 5200 thinking ahead to a price drop). Then I got quite excited about the Sony A65 but I find them quite cheap and flimsy feeling. Also, it probably excels most at things I don't really care about - video, fast bursts etc.

So finally I saw amazing reviews of the Pentax K30 and it seems to be just what I am looking for. It was hard to track one down in a store but I found a nice little shop in Glasgow today for a demonstration. While I think it is a REMARKABLY UGLY camera - sorry if I am offending your baby - it more importantly feels just right in my hands. So I will likely commit in the next few months.

One thing that does concern me slightly, as a newcomer to DSLR and all the controls. I notice that the main Canon and Nikon models and even the Sony Alphas all have a wide variety of books dedicated to them - third party publications that give you step-by-step on how to do various things with the cameras. Having leafed through a few of these they seem really useful and digestable. So I am a wee bit disappointed the K30 doesn't seem to have anything like that out there. Why not?

Good to be on board anyway.

All the best.


George

[eaglem]

Welcome to the forum George, the reason there aren't any books out there on the K30 is because Pentax has been keeping it a secret so my question is..............................................How did you find out about it?????????????

[Doublegone Dod]

Ha ha!

When it was named in the annual awards by What Digital Camera mag.

[eaglem]

It won't take you long to work out your settings to take great shots and you have one helluva big friendly family here to help you. In fact, you have your own special section of the forum especially included for K30 owners.

[wpvv]

Welcome to the forum where lovely people love loveable seemingly ugly cameras...