I can predict I'm going to receive the following question soon from a neighbour, as I'm a local 'expert'
She wants to buy her 11 year old a camera - that much I know ! I know he's become very interested in spotting badgers, spending dark evenings crawling around the local woods and grave yard. As a sloooow landscape photographer, I'm a little on shaky ground here...
First off I don't know the budget, so I appreciate this is not helpful, but it's the essence of what I need to consider for advising him. Maybe what follows should be aimed at twilight use as dark locations are not possible with basic kit eg, no flash, at this stage, I'd guess.
I appreciate this is a Pentax forum, and as a 100% Pentax user, I'd like to think he considers Pentax when he chooses, but I know some folk here go on about Pentax's, supposedly, poorer AF than other brands, so please have this in mind with any responses.
My first thoughts at the lower end were a used K-5 and a 55-300. The K-5 was good in low light, but this combo may not be that fast focusing, though he could use a snap-in-focus or pre-focused arrangement for the badgers.
The K-3s had better AF in my experience, but low light usage was not as good as K-5. He will, of course want to use it for other usage than just badgers. So if budget is higher a K-70 or KP, though I've not used these ...
The HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm f/4-5.8 ED WR may not be the best choice as it's not an especially fast lens, but as a youngster a fast prime would not probably be a good starter lens.
So then it's other brands, and importantly, other aspects we might want to consider.
Thanks for any advice.