[UncleVanya]

Steve -that point about legacy lenses is spot on. Nikon has dropped screw drive on their lower end models and Canon can't use older lenses from the FDn,FD, or FL lines at all.

[Keith23]

The Model that most appealed to me was the K-3 II. I really liked the GPS and astro tracer feature and was willing to pay the price to get it. What really kills me is that this is the top of the line APS-C model and it does not have an articulating screen or wireless connectivity.

It does have live-view which I find covers most of the times I would use an articulating screen. Wifi is not an issue for me; don't know what I would use it for. I find it easier to pop out the card to transfer images.

[BigMackCam]

Hello, Steve, and welcome to the forums - glad you could join us.

You've already received some great feedback.

Regarding WR, the comments from @UncleVanya are spot on. No current DSLR, Pentax or otherwise, is completely immune to water ingress... that said, Pentax cameras are particularly well protected.

A few months back I took my K-3 and DA*60-250 on a small speedboat in very choppy waters. The camera and lens got very wet from the spray. At each and every opportunity, I used a microfibre cloth to mop away any standing water from around the buttons and switches, screen, port covers and lens barrel. Then, back on dry land, I thoroughly wiped everything dry and left it in a reasonably warm, dry place to allow any remaining moisture to slowly evaporate. Used like this, the camera has good weather resistance, but there are still no guarantees.

Conversely, I have a Sony A7II which is allegedly dust and moisture resistant, and just looking at the port covers makes me cringe... there is no way I would take that camera out in conditions I know my Pentax gear would be fine in...

[ffking]

with the exception of 4 fps burst which I consider pretty poor

No, it's not great, but, without wishing ti sound overly defensive, it's to do with the number of Mp - the Nikon D810 and Canon 5DS only manage about 5 fps for a lot more money

[Keith23]

Steve -that point about legacy lenses is spot on.

One of the main reasons I have stuck with Pentax. Every Pentax lens I have ever bought, I still have and all work just fine on my K-3II.

[normhead]

MY wife is still happily using her K-5. In your position it doesn't make sense to go for a K-3, and it's quite possible the K-3 mk3 will have the articulating screen. I recently bought a K-1, and I just love the screen.

Just a correction to your K-3ii assessment. Pentax makes a card called a FLuCard that gives you winless control of some functions of the camera on your phone of tablet. I sometimes use my iPad mini as a remote viewing screen, and to trigger the shutter. You image takes about half the iPad screen, which gives you a much larger image than a tilt screen and infinitely more flexible as it's not attached to the camera.

It's not a great solution, a tilt screen is infinitely more convenient. But, the Flu Card could be a stop gap solution until you get what you want.

[UncleVanya]

We all want to know, like in an Indiana Jones movie, that we "chose wisely". Mostly, it's a Dodge, Chevy, Ford or at least, a chocolate, vanilla, strawberry decision. We all admire the pro who knows, thinking we could spend half to get twice, if we only had the inside info. And of course, there is the fear of being a sucker, a patsy, to be avoided if we "only knew". So blend our natural tendency to be social with modern technology and here we are.

Being a camera owner has little to do with being a photographer. And it's not so easy to give yourself permission to spend what seem like a great deal on uncertain outcome. But making art is uncertain, if it wasn't, it would be craft, we would know the result beforehand. Art is risky but what we hope happens is magic, that which can't be expressed in discursive language.

Buy something, go make a lot of bad pictures and you'll figure what matters to you. You may find, this is all silly. Or maybe not.

What a lovely answer!

[steve_k]

All of your suggestions were very helpful and I spent a lot of time going through all of the available options. I just kept coming back to the K-3 II. So I am now the happy owner of a K-3 II, HD Pentax-DA 16-85mm F3.5-5.6 ED DC WR and the HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR. Received it last Friday and spent the weekend getting familiar with it and having fun. Here is a link to some of last weeks shots.

Stephen Krystopowicz | Flickr

Again Thank You All

Steve

[BigMackCam]

I am now the happy owner of a K-3 II, HD Pentax-DA 16-85mm F3.5-5.6 ED DC WR and the HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR.

Congratulations, Steve - that's a fine setup! Nice first shots from you, too. Looking forward to your continued involvement here