Hello all. I've been using a K-R for the past years until it got stolen from my house. I still got the kit 18-55mm lens, tripod, batteries, etc.
Now I'm in the market for a replacement. I didn't think I'd stick with pentax since I always had some envy with canikon's lens selections.
However, after thinking about d5100, I started then looking at D7000 which invariably led me to the K-30/K-5. The K-30 (white body) is only $600 which seems pretty nice to me while old K-5 is what, $750? Anyways, I'm asking if I am doing myself any favors by going for the K-30 to save cost. I know there is focus peaking.
As for lens, I'm thinking about the DA* 300mm. I noticed when I took pictures of animals in my backyard that 90% of the time I was shooting at 200+mm range and usually at 300mm. Pictures turned out okay, but nothing drool worthy came out of the 55-300mm either.
Some examples with my old k-r:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YlonrBpRSGI/TrICjQRnD0I/AAAAAAAADa0/59PcF...4/IMGP0571.jpg https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-5CkDHuHBtlY/TrIC7CjWhiI/AAAAAAAADdo/mxtJe...4/IMGP0696.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GFmqNAp5qjg/TrID1Yp7nUI/AAAAAAAADj4/Jxuaq...4/IMGP0986.jpg
Please note that these pictures are hand held and some of them are through a dual pane window. But you can see that my last photo is pretty rough. I tend to like hand holding as setting up a tripod is not always ideal in my situation.
Am I best served with bang for buck by going with k-30 and DA* 300mm f4... or should I be getting a bigma? i'm not really all too familiar with canon and nikon's offerings. nikon d7000 + nikkor 300mm f4 is a bit pricier. T3i and its 300mm lens is around same price point.
My other passion is food photography but it's usually in the kitchen with bad lighting.
Just trying to figure out how to get the best photos I can but for less than $2k =P I'd appreciate some feedback