Originally posted by BigMackCam Hello and welcome to the forums - great to have you with us
The K-30 can act very much like a point-and-shoot in auto mode, but if you persevere with learning all it can do, I think you might get bitten by the DSLR bug
Once you start taking control of your photography, you'll be amazed at what can be achieved - and we're here to help if you get stuck
Nah, I definitely do not have any SLR bug. Like I said, I used a Pentax Super Program for nearly 20 years, from 1984 until 2003, so I certainly know my way around manual SLR photography as well. I just generally prefer *not* to worry about all that stuff. To me, it's like driving a manual vs. automatic transmission - yeah sure that manual can be fun and you can get the most performance out of your engine and all, but 99% of the time I just want to get where I'm going and not have to worry about it, so when I buy a car, I get an automatic.
Especially being focussed on dive photography... when drift diving along the Florida East Coast, you're moving at 1-2 knots, your subject is drifting by, you can't even stop & stay still if you want to, you just don't have time to tweak apertures and dig through menus or whatnot to setup fancy slow-sync flash jobs, you've barely got time to set your flash and snap a pic, and then preferably another one with your white card in frame so you have a white balance reference for that particular depth when post-processing. Also, I don't want a hugemungous dive photo rig like the professionals have, where you must have assistance from someone in the boat just to get your multi-zillion-dollar rig in the water, where even a hair across that o-ring seal will mean you've ruined that equipment with a fine saltwater mist!
That's why I loved the Optio S5i - even inside its dive housing, it was overall smaller than just the dry body of most DSLRs like my new K-30. Add a bracket and a single underwater strobe (I use a Sea & Sea with a fiber optic trigger), the whole rig can be bungeed to my chest for water entry/exit, no assistance necessary. Plus, if the S5i does flood (and it has)... oh well, into the trash - there goes another $75 on eBay and I'm back in business! Who cares if I never make the cover of NatGeo with that rig? My pics make my Facebook friends happy and let me share some of the joy of diving with them, that's all I care about.
I won't be using the K-30 underwater, however. While it's water-resistant and all, I don't think it can handle 3-4 atmospheres of pressure all on its own. I know Ikelite makes a housing for some Pentax bodies, but not the K-30. Besides, I'm retiring my beloved Pentax OptioS5i and will be using an Olympus TG-4 for underwater work. It's environmentally-sealed to handle snorkelling depths down to 50'/15m all on its own, similar to the Pentax WG, but unlike the Pentax there are several really good dive housings for the Olympus, like the Nauticam I'll be getting. I wish Pentax would support dive photography a bit more like Olympus is doing, but I understand it's a niche market. I got the K-30 because I can generally use it mostly in automatic mode, but for the occasional night launch, I have the option to take more control. But I guarantee I won't be doing that any more than I absolutely must!
P.S. Luckily, I'm finding that the Olympus TG-4 menus and button layout aren't really much different from my old Pentax Optio S5i. This has made the transition MUCH easier than I anticipated...