[suliabryon]

So, my husband and I both have K7s (we don't share well, lol). Actually, he takes his on a three week trip to Japan every year, and I have to have mine for shooting my jewelry, I can't be without it for three weeks. Anyway, he goes hiking every summer, and there are some truly spectacular picture opportunities, but I'm a little wary of letting him take such an expensive body on that type of excursion....not that he doesn't take care of his stuff, but I'd be happier with a less expensive body, just in case of a fall or whatever. To that end, I recently picked up a K200D body here in the marketplace. Still WR, but much less expensive, and smaller and lighter than either the K20 or K10 - when you're hiking, every ounce counts.

However, the hiking thing only happens once a year. Why not make use of the body the rest of the time, too? So I was wondering, what lenses do you generally leave on your back up bodies? I recently acquired a DA 55-300 for some zoom shooting, and I've got various primes in 28mm, 50mm, and so on. My 50mm macro lens pretty much lives on my K7, as I use it a lot of jewelry shooting.

[Adam]

You could always get a second copy of your favorite lens- or, for general-purpose use, I'd recommend using either a WR kit lens or the 18-135mm.

[TaoMaas]

I think it really depends upon what you intend to be shooting and what lenses you have available. The idea is to be able to shift gears quickly without having to change lenses. You mentioned that your macro lives on your main camera most of the time, so maybe you'd like to have a fast 50 mm or a wide angle on your back-up camera so that you can do grab-shots around the house without screwing up your jewelry set-up. Or, if you're at the zoo, you might have your 50-300mm on your main camera, but have the 50mm macro on your back-up, in case you go into a butterfly aviary, herpatarium, or aquarium. Or you might want your wide angle on your back-up camera, if you think you're more likely to want to get shots of the crowds interacting with the animals.

[Parallax]

I leave my 40Ltd on my backup.

[Allenation]

newbie here..do i need some adaptors or something so that i can take a macro shots that can even capture an ant? or what lens i should need for my K-R which it has 18-55mm lens? my friend plans to take me as his photographer in food as my stepping stone into pro photographer. pls help. thanks

[suliabryon]

Thanks for the replies everyone. It's true, it would depend on what shooting I want to do with the camera. I'll just play with it for now.

Parallax - what's your back up body, out of curiosity?

[suliabryon]

newbie here..do i need some adaptors or something so that i can take a macro shots that can even capture an ant? or what lens i should need for my K-R which it has 18-55mm lens? my friend plans to take me as his photographer in food as my stepping stone into pro photographer. pls help. thanks

Hi. So, if you're wanting to do macro photography, you have several choices, ranging from very expensive to downright cheap. But the cheap solutions were more of a hassle to me (extension tubes, bellows, etc). I ended up going with an older manual macro lens, the Pentax M 50mm f4 Macro. It was a fairly inexpensive solution that fit my budget, and it's a great little lens. It requires manual focusing, but that hasn't been a problem for me. It takes good macro shots for my jewelry:



And great "regular" shots as well:



For around $100 here on the marketplace, or on ebay, I've been really pleased with the results. I think it would be a great lens for the kind of food shots you're talking about. Good detail, sharp, etc.

[Blue]

I don't use the backup body as a backup per se but as a second body with an alternate lens on it. Of course the 2nd body serves as a back up should the situation arise and it has a few times. I generally have complimentary lenses in this situation.

[Parallax]

Parallax - what's your back up body, out of curiosity?

I have 2 K20Ds.

[nigelorion]

hiking? i like my 16-45 a lot for outdoor stuff. it can focus really close as well. i think i paid 220 shipped a couple years ago for mine.

[Greeneg]

My back up is a K10D and I keep my Tamron 18-200 on it ready to go.

[Lowell Goudge]

Like many others who have posted here, I don't have back up bodies as such, but second (or third or 4th.....) as I do not sell my old body when I upgrade.

Right now, my main body is my newly aquired K5 with the K7 as "backup" more appropiately a second body.

When I am out, I fit them with complementary lenses and simply use which ever body has the lens I need for the shot. I did the same with my K10 and K7, before the K10 failed. The only thing to watch out for, is some cameras and lenses seem to work better than others. For example, for what ever reason, my K7 did not get along well with my Tamron 28-75, shots always seemed a little soft, but both my K10D previously and K5D presently do, so when I travel, my K7 gets the sigma 10-20 and the K5 the tammy. Similairly the K10D always had some issues metering with the sigma 10-20 especially for high contrast shots. It just seems some bodies pair off better with some lenses, and htis is where second bodies also come in useful.

I see no reason in buying a second copy of a lens you already have, for the back up. the only reason I could ever see doing something like that is if you were a wedding photographer. If your go to lens got dropped you would be screwed, and a second copy, even for use also by an assistant, could be a good idea.

[wkrider]

If I have my 18-200 on my K-7 then I have my 50mm 1.2 on my K100D. And if I have my 50mm 1.2 on my K-7 then I have the 18-200 on my K100D. All my other lenses are in the bag in case I need them.

[Kerrowdown]

For me, second body is not really back up (that would be third body)

As I only use primes, the second body has the other lens that I think I'm most likely to need for that particular shoot.

PS: I always keep the bodies in use the same, it cuts down the thought process and getting it wrong (setting controls etc) in the heat of the moment.

[reeftool]

With my recent purchase of a K5, my plan is to use my K10D as a backup and also a manual focus camera as I have a Katz Eye screen in it. One of my manual focus lenses is on it, a rather cheap JC Penny 28/2.8 but so far has proved to be a fine little gem. I have taken my K10D hiking, skiing, kayaking in all kinds of weather and it has held up well and I expect no less from the K5. Pentax cameras are very well built. The weather sealing does it's job. As for falls on hiking and climbing trips, my advice is be careful. Cameras are replaceable but people aren't. The padding in my Lowepro backpack is excellent and I'm sure my gear would fare much better than I would in a fall. Actually, I have fallen a few times while skiing. Me and the camera are still in one piece.