Originally posted by Hary J Adiwinata hello i just joined here.
first of all i like photography as a hobby only, was looking for camera, before i did not have dslr camera or mirroless but i had used it from rent and borrow my friend.
now i'm looking for my first camera and I liked the pentax but from the results of my survey on the internet and information about pentax where I live is very little and rarely. but it makes me more curious and more like, but with the lack of availability of the lens is very difficult and make me think once again, why i should buy pentax. and i want to ask for help on senior pentax maybe can help me, why pentax?
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Best regards.
When I first got into photography I literally knew nothing. Over time I saved my money and read a ton of books (about photography). When I had enough to actually buy a camera and some lenses I started shopping around.
At the time I compared all the brands I could find, even the big names. After a comparison I found Pentax almost by accident. My intention was to find a 'starter camera' and then just work up into something 'better' (or so I thought). After comparing everything I learned that Pentax offered WAY more features and the cost was substantially less, so I bought a K-5 having never seen one in real life.
Now I am on my 3rd camera body.
As for nuts and bolts... I knew before I ever started that I wasn't interested in making videos. Again, that was something down the road (maybe) for me. I was much more interested in fine art photography. Comparing apples to apples at the time my whole kit that I bought was about 60% of the cost of a similar kit from Canon. To me it was a no brainer.
As for what Pentax does good... they have in body stabilization. They have backwards compatibility with all K mount lenses ever made. The image quality is at least as good or better than many other cameras. They have weather sealing that is awesome, which I would venture to say better than all others. The actual functions and menus and stuff to work the camera are 10x easier to use on Pentax. Also FA Limited 3 Amigos glass is at least on par with Canon L Series (I actually compared).
What Pentax does not so good...Video is supposedly lacking. I don't know because I never tried to make a video yet. If video is your prime objective (remember mine was to take stills) then other options are better. Others have a much wider array of modern lens selection. Pentax lens selection is growing but its slow.
At the end of the day it's not really about 'why Pentax' though. Why I have stuck with Pentax is because so far nothing has made me leave, and the controls and functionality of things is far superior in my opinion.
At the end of the day what it is really about is what your goals are. If you are learning to paint somebody could sell you on using camel hair paint brushes, or horse hair, or whatever, but none of that will make YOU better at painting. Hemmingway could write with a cheap typewriter, a pencil, and ink pen or whatever.
If you want to spend serious Nikon money to get new gear then that's cool. Go for it. It's all your budget. But what brand of camera you use won't make you one bit better at seeing light and capturing scenery that you like.