[podboy3]

I have a *ist DL that I think I am finally wanting to upgrade from, I pulled it out over Christmas break and it was very painful to use. I am currently in college (again) and will have very little money for the next couple years so new anything is out of the question.

I have been out of the DSLR loop for quite a while and was wondering how what the Pentax lineup looked like and what would be some recommendations. I just expect the camera to have faster auto focus and better low light capabilities.

Sorry if I am vague on this, I just decided today today to start looking stuff up but I am taking too much time from studying and am hoping to get a jump start in the right direction.

[dansamy]

I upgraded from the k-x to the k-5ii on Black Friday. It's a massive upgrade. I paid $599 for it on sale. I think you can pick up a k-30 for under $400. I'm not sure what the k-50 is going for now.

[ebahle]

Check out the forums. A k7 would be a great low budget upgrade. They can be had for a great price.

[dansamy]

The current Pentax lineup is:
K-500, K-50, K-3

Recently discontinued:
K-30

Semi-discontinued, some places have stock, some don't:
K-5ii & K-5iis

[Adam]

The k-x would be a very affordable upgrade. If you want to spend a bit more, go for the k30.

[jatrax]

And don't forget the k-x and k-r a bit older but still good cameras on a budget.

My k-x went to my and then to my son, now on the third user it still works great.

[mythguy9]

Last time I got my k5 second hand with $550, not it must be lower than that. But I'm not sure whether you need the K5's extra function or not. If not, just go with K500 or Kx like others said.

[dansamy]

Pentax K-30 Weather-Sealed 16 MP CMOS Digital SLR (Blue, Body Only) by Pentax Amazon.com: Pentax K-30 Weather-Sealed 16 MP CMOS Digital SLR (Blue, Body Only): Camera & Photo

Amazon Warehouse has a K-30 for $362.

[podboy3]

Wow!!! Thanks for the replies. I am going to start looking around and see what I can dig up, hopefully something will turn up here. I stopped using the digital a long time ago and pretty much used my film bodies (which I will never abandon) but I really would like another digital.


Please keep helping & making suggestion.
Or maybe someone wants to trade my classic *ist DL for their used K5 that works good. You get a classic camera and the feeling that you have helped a struggling college student.

-Dan

[Al_Kahollick]

Another option you may find fairly cheap used is the K20. It's much larger than the *ist DL and K30, but is an upgrade from the DL and may be easier to grip with larger hands.

[PPPPPP42]

Since a lot of original K-5 owners just jumped on K-3's or dirt cheap clearance K-5II and IIs cameras there have been a number of K-5 cameras right around the $400 mark (just bought mine for $390 shipped). If that is still too much you can get the stuff the people buying used K-5's replaced for dirt cheap. I still haven't decided if I want to keep my K20D as a backup body or sell it since its worth hardly anything thanks to a few cracks in the plastic body (tipped over on tripod due to circumstances) but it still works perfect, however others are definitely dumping the stuff they used before the K-5 jump. A K20D could be had for dirt cheap (don't pay more than 200-250 for a perfect one with low shutter count) and is a good camera in general. The shake reduction on/off switch is handy if you use a lot of your film camera zoom lenses on the DSLR (K-5 moved it to a menu).
HUGE difference in even mid ISO quality with the K-5 sensor over earlier stuff though so I would save up rather than going cheap unless you really need to go cheap. Maybe a tax return thing?

[podboy3]

I have been so busy with school I completely forgot it was tax return time, That could potentially change a lot. I have been looking around and saw the K20D and was also reading what I could about the K7 but I just don't see where saving the little bit of money would make it worth what seems like much less of a camera than the K5 or K5 II. I think I will start looking for some deals on a K5.
I don't really like that the shake reduction is moved to the menu. How much of a pain is it to navigate to?

[jatrax]

I don't really like that the shake reduction is moved to the menu. How much of a pain is it to navigate to?

SR is under the 'info' quick menu, so just a couple button presses. Not really a big deal.

But why would you need to mess with it anyway? Just leave it on, or off if you prefer. It will automatically turn off if you use 2 second delay.

[TER-OR]

Definitely look for used. Here on the forum is good, online classified are often overpriced but sometimes not.

A K5 or K30 would be my first inclination. Both are great bargains now. I think K30s go for around $350ish on the forum markeplace.

[PPPPPP42]

If you have a tax return coming I would go with a K-5 for $450 or less from our classifieds. As TER-OR said the board members here tend to be pretty honest in describing stuff and much more reliable than other used sources. A possible exception would be used from KEH as they always rate conservative and have fair prices.
Not sure how the K-30 compares or exactly what the feature differences are.

I still can't get used to being able to actually use ISO 1600 and 3200 without major de-noise work, they looked terrible on anything pre K-5.

EDIT: Also as was said turning SR on and of with a K-5 is no big deal, just hit info twice and turn the rear dial and you turn it on or off. As far as why you would do that, when I walk around with a manual focus zoom lens on I set SR to the long end (say 105mm on my 35-105) and just leave it off unless I am using the longer end of it at which point I turn it on for the extra stabilization. I don't like to use it too far off what its set to on zooms though I haven't had consistent enough results in any experiments I have done to see what effect it has. With a prime of course you would just leave it on after telling the camera the focal length. I haven't bothered to figure out how to change the focal length after setting it at power on (I rarely need to change it), it was in a menu on the K20D but I just flip the camera off and on to reset it on the K-5.