I've been watching this cool guy and he's reviews for some time now and I really like how unbiased he is. Although I have to say he is slowly but stadily becoming a Pentaxian. Check out his last review where he compares the pentax 150-450 with the new Fuji 100-400. The review is extensive and all about details. He is totally unbiased in my oppinion, which makes his rteviews even more relevant.

link:

You Tube

You Tube

[macman24054]

I agree he has a good channel. And his tests are fair.

[71sam64]

Cameravilles' reviews are always entertaining, informative, and just the facts. The way he abuse Pentax gear over and over just to demonstrate how robust it is built is a feather in the Pentax hat. I've rarely seen other reviewers do the same to other camera manufactures' gear that cost so much more but make the same claim concerning camera gear robustness. I think when it's all said and done, Pentax shooters have some of the best camera gear made.

[bobell69]

I'm glad to see you make this post. I have been following Cameraville for some time and have been impressed with his honesty, humour and the detail in which he goes into in each of his reviews. I don't always like what he says but for the most part he is dead on. This latest review is one that I have been hoping for and he shows how the DFA 150-450 shines when compared to the Fuji equivalent. He also demonstrates clearly how good the KP autofocus is compared to the Fuji.

I encourage Pentaxians to check out his youtube channel and give him some likes to encourage him to continue with his reviews.

[6BQ5]

I watched the full first half the video and then skipped around in the second half.

I have both telephoto lenses, the Fuji 100-400 and the Pentax 150-450. The video is a fairly accurate representation of the two lenses.

The Pentax build quality is very superior to Fuji's. My Fuji lens doesn't wobble like his and it's solid enough to be "solid" but it's not Pentax-solid. You could probably hammer nails into solid concrete with the Pentax lens. In a pinch you could probably use the Pentax lens as a rolling pin to knead dough too.

IQ from the Pentax lens at the long end is (very) noticeably better than Fuji's when you pixel peep. Pentax's colors, contrast, and general rendering is much better.

When panning across left to right at near infinity distances the K-1's focusing performance is great or definitely good enough. It's the closer distances, like 100 meters and below, when subjects are quickly running straight toward you, where a Fuji X-T3 way, way, way outshines a Pentax K-1. Select your focus point in the Fuji, keep your subject in point, and press the shutter button. The Fuji can give a you a ridiculous amount of sharp images from a burst. My K-1 lags in triggering focus, tracking, and writing data to SD cards. Suppose you have a runner coming at you full speed. I ask the K-1 to focus and fire the shutter when focus is confirmed. 9 times out of 10 the face is blurry/soft but the feet which are further back will be sharp. Why? The face has moved forward is out of the focus plane and the feet moved to the distance where the face was. Remember, runners lean forward. This is not a front/back focus calibration problem. Stationary objects or those at near infinity are ridiculously super razor sharp on my K-1. 36 MP is an amazing amount of pixels.

The 150-400mm can focus very fast if the camera commands it to and that's where the problemis . The K-1's focusing system is not very commanding (demanding?). I'm hoping Ricoh can one day make an auto-focus, SD card writing beast of a machine.

I sold all my K-mount zoom lenses except for the 150-400mm. That lens, plus my primes, is what keeps me in K-mount. Fuji doesn't have anything like the trio of FA Limited lenses.

Smaller sized zoom lenses, superior auto-focus performance, and write performance pulled me to Fuji.

[BigMackCam]

I'm not normally a fan of this chap's videos... Nothing against him personally, it's just my tastes and his presenting style, I guess. That said, I think this is a helpful and positive video for the Pentax community.

Whilst Pentax gear - like that from every other manufacturer - is far from perfect in terms of build quality and performance (including this specific lens), it's nice to see how well the D FA150-450 compares to Fuji's offering, confirmed by @6BQ5 above (comments greatly appreciated).

But more than that, it's nice to see OVF users vindicated in terms of tracking, at least when comparing these two cameras, and great to see Pentax AF peformance doing such a grand job - especially with the bird coming towards the camera. Combined with the Fuji's performance here (and allowing for the vlogger's technique), this is surely enough to demonstrate how no AF system is perfect in every scenario... hence those who claim "Pentax AF is bad", "Fuji AF is great" or "any other brand is better / worse" need to consider and state the use case(s), and provide evidence.

I know Pentax AF isn't the best - or even great - in all situations, but I've yet to have a serious problem, particularly once I've learned to work with it...

[surfar]

This guy has owned Fuji for 5 minutes and he bought the cheap version.I wouldn't take his opinion as a fair assessment.


His assessments of Pentax(and Nikon) are close to the mark.

---------- Post added 08-09-19 at 08:50 AM ----------

Smaller sized zoom lenses, superior auto-focus performance, and write performance pulled me to Fuji.

Then theres the Video side of the equation,Fuji provides some excellent range of features in a small package.Bang for Buck$$$.

[BigMackCam]

This guy has owned Fuji for 5 minutes and he bought the cheap version.I wouldn't take his opinion as a fair assessment.


His assessments of Pentax(and Nikon) are close to the mark.


Then theres the Video side of the equation,Fuji provides some excellent range of features in a small package.Bang for Buck$$$.

These are fair points. And yet...

We and the rest of the photography community read reviews of Pentax gear from folks that arguably have much the same minimal experience of the equipment they're testing. And that gives rise to a lot of the criticism levelled at Pentax (moving bike shots, anyone? ). More skilled Pentaxians as found in these forums demonstrate much better performance of their cameras due to experience and familiarity with their equipment.

Furthermore, you expose the lie to general comments that "Brand X is better than Pentax" if one has to purchase a certain level of camera and/or lens in the competing brand to reach that conclusion. The X-T30 currently sells for a recently-discounted GBP £750 here in the UK, body only. That's a very fair price for what it offers, IMHO, but hardly "cheap". What level in the range does a buyer have to choose in order to unlock the magic? Of course, this applies to Pentax too, but again this performance variance between models demonstrates how silly generalist brand-comparison comments can be... Specifics and context are everything.

As for video, no argument there. Of course, it matters only to those interested in video - which, whilst a significant group, is nonetheless a tiny subset in Pentax land...

[surfar]

"pentax land"….Is that the remote atoll in the vast ocean?

---------- Post added 08-09-19 at 09:51 AM ----------

More skilled Pentaxians as found in these forums demonstrate much better performance of their cameras due to experience and familiarity with their equipment.

Yes,completely agree.Same goes for those in "fujiLand"(the big island)

[BigMackCam]

"pentax land"….Is that the remote atoll in the vast ocean?

Do you mean Great Britain? No, there aren't that many Pentaxians here... Some, though, for sure... including little old me

Same goes for those in "fujiLand"(the big island)

Absolutely. It goes for any brand. Assessments of any brand's equipment from folks who are relatively inexperienced with those brands have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Longer-term reviews are far more valuable, though even then we have to allow for individuals' preferences and biases...

[Serkevan]

This guy has owned Fuji for 5 minutes and he bought the cheap version.

Isn't the X-T30 more expensive than the KP? Because it is. The total kit (lens+body) is 2.8K for both of them. The "cheap" point is kinda moot here.

[surfar]

Sorry,I don't understand what you are saying in your post.Can you elaborate please?

---------- Post added 08-09-19 at 10:16 PM ----------

Isn't the X-T30 more expensive than the KP?

Well, lets compare apples with apples.

KP release price early 2017...U$ 1099

XT-30 release price early 2019...U$ 899.

[Serkevan]

Unfortunately, the review is not made in early 2017... if you make a review *now* what is interesting is "how much would I spend now to get how much performance?". As a (potential) customer I don't care how expensive X thing was when it came out. I care about how much bang for my buck I can get at the moment of purchase. So yeah, it's apples to apples.

If you want, we can make an apples-to-apples comparison that pits the K10D ($1,379 launch price) with the KP ($1099). See what happens

And, honestly, if the 2019 setup fares worse (I haven't tried either, but if I had to decide today between those two body/lens combos I would go for the Pentax, zero doubts) then that already says a lot.

[Breakfastographer]

OMG, he's hilarious in this one.

Right here:


FujiFilm 100 mm - 400 mm ( X - T30 ) vs Pentax 150 mm - 450 mm ( Pentax Kp ) Birds in Flight? - YouTube

Oh, man. Thanks for sharing that.


Personally, I was done with Fujifilm when I found out they guarantee availability of parts for, what was it, 18 months? I think someone said Olympus guarantee availability for ten years. If someone can tell me the Ricoh/Pentax figure, I'd be interested. I'm hoping it's closer to the Olympus figure.

Btw, the way he runs through autofocus is a bit incomplete. If you want to compare Fujifilm autofocus to something, it should be Live View AF in the Pentax, and FWIW, that has face detection available. And it's interesting that he would talk about eye AF and number of focus points when in the end, the blackout on the Fuji prevented him from tracking the bird and getting the pictures he wanted. A lot of exposition for nothing, in the end.


The bottom line though is that in the Pentax combo, you get a flagship camera (begrudgingly as we admit it), while for the Fujifilm, the difference of the X-T30 to the X-T3 flagship shows, and that difference is around $500. So if you were to budget for the Fujifilm flagship, then with the same budget, you can get another nice lens for the Pentax, or put that money in the stock market or a college fund.

[Serkevan]

OMG, he's hilarious in this one.

Right here:


FujiFilm 100 mm - 400 mm ( X - T30 ) vs Pentax 150 mm - 450 mm ( Pentax Kp ) Birds in Flight? - YouTube

Oh, man. Thanks for sharing that.


Personally, I was done with Fujifilm when I found out they guarantee availability of parts for, what was it, 18 months? I think someone said Olympus guarantee availability for ten years. If someone can tell me the Ricoh/Pentax figure, I'd be interested. I'm hoping it's closer to the Olympus figure.

Btw, the way he runs through autofocus is a bit incomplete. If you want to compare Fujifilm autofocus to something, it should be Live View AF in the Pentax, and FWIW, that has face detection available. And it's interesting that he would talk about eye AF and number of focus points when in the end, the blackout on the Fuji prevented him from tracking the bird and getting the pictures he wanted. A lot of exposition for nothing, in the end.


The bottom line though is that in the Pentax combo, you get a flagship camera (begrudgingly as we admit it), while for the Fujifilm, the difference of the X-T30 to the X-T3 flagship shows, and that difference is around $500. So if you were to budget for the Fujifilm flagship, then with the same budget, you can get another nice lens for the Pentax, or put that money in the stock market or a college fund.

This right here! The Pentax system as he reviewed it is just so much more worth it. Not even getting into the fact that the 150-450 is FF compatible so for 200 or so bucks more you can get a K-1 and use it "as intended", while that is probably not the best birding-oriented idea.