Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
02-01-2012, 07:14 AM   #46
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 11,913
I found this on another site, and found it perhaps relevant to the OP's concerns.
Also: poor Sony. Until recently, it never got any respect.
Name:  1328096374161.jpg
Views: 367
Size:  59.0 KB

02-01-2012, 08:17 AM   #47
Pentaxian
normhead's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Near Algonquin Park
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 40,442
So, what they're saying is fast autofocus is not necessarily good auto-focus... which would make sense in a "things that ought to be true "kind of way. Often things done faster are not done as well. I find it interesting the great percentage of keepers on the Panasonic Lumix GH1. Years ago I bought a bunch of Lumix's for my course, for students to use, because they had the fastest "press the release button to shutter releases time" of any digital camera. And before I got them, the one thing students had trouble dealing with, was pressing the shutter button and then having an action shot change because of shutter delay, waiting for auto-focus. Now you have the GH1 with an 85% sharp or acceptable rate, and I bet the auto focus is still very fast. Geeze the NIkon D7000 and Canon 7D, less than 50% of the frames in sharp focus and more than 20% unsharp. We've been sold a pack of lies. The Pentax, over 60 percent in sharp focus, and less than 10% unsharp. I hope those guys didn't lose their Canikon advertising over this.
02-02-2012, 03:57 AM - 1 Like   #48
Forum Member




Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: reno
Posts: 70
QuoteOriginally posted by Verglace Quote
Don't get obsessed with brand loyalty, it does nothing for you, choose the one you want. Pentax forums has a good 2nd hand market, and canikon gear are ridiculously easy to move on ebay. Just think of the switching costs as rental fees.

Looking at your gear, you should be able to find equivalent Canikon models for all of the modern glass you have (besides the DA 70). Sigma makes a Canikon version of the 10-20, the same for the Tamron 70-200, you should be able to sell + buy equivalent models for minor losses (or even no losses), unless you insist on buying them brand new again.

Your other lenses are old manual focus ones, people in these forums seem to be obsessed with manual focus (i remember reading a thread asking pentax to make modern manual focus lenses), so they should be easy to move.

Also its not secret that Pentax is playing catch up in a couple of key tech areas: autofocus and flash systems, while also ahead on refinement such as smaller lighter cameras and lenses. So its up to you what you want more.
I agree with this.

Each brand has something going for it, if one were universally better -- the others would go out of business! If you really want the best autofocus then canon/nikon are great. If you want a good low-light FF, nikon D700 is good. If you want high MP FF and a good all-around package the 5d M2 is great. Both of these cameras are due for an update though, I would wait and see what they announce. 7D and D7000 are great APS-C cameras as well.

Just realize that you might be giving up something you didn't realize you had with pentax. If 21 / 40 / 70 limited were available in nikon I would buy them in a heartbeat, I think they are an amazing combination of size and performance. In-body SR and a small durable body are great features of pentax as well.

I've never understood the brand loyalty thing, when my friends had nikon or canon cameras I was always thrilled to pick up their cameras and try them out. I could use them effectively right away and sometimes even taught my friends what certain things did. I didn't look down on them because they didn't use the same brand as me and they did not look down on me. We were all photographers!

If I could own all 3 setups(canon/nikon/pentax) I absolutely would. Each has benefits body-wise and each have gems in their lens lineup. Figure out which body and lens system works best for you. You really can't go wrong with any of these 3 systems. Don't feel bad if you don't stick with pentax, and don't feel bad if you do stick with pentax.
02-02-2012, 05:28 AM   #49
Veteran Member




Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Melb. Aust
Posts: 840
QuoteOriginally posted by boriscleto Quote
But all those Pre-AI, AI, AI-S, and E lenses don't meter on anything less than the D7000. And you have to manual focus anything that isn't AF-S or AF-I.

Nikon's can't use M42 lenses either. But you can use those Nikon lenses on a Pentax. The Pre-AI lenses don't even need to be modified.
I reckon if you've got a Dnnn or D7000 (Or better, Dn, etx) Nikon then you've got as good backward compatibility as Pentax. No adaptor necessary (ie m42 on Pentax). Some metering is possible where in Pentax land you need a A lens or better to avoid stop down metering (no idea how you meter a M42 as I've never used one but I'm guessing it's not open aperture??). You can't use Nikon lenses on a Pentax with any real compatibility. I've got a Nikon to Pentax converter and it's junk, and half screwing a lens on to the mount is not reliable either. And, M42/M/A lenses don't AF on Pentax either so although there might be a lot of old Pentax lenses made (they've dried up as mentioned above and here in Aus you don't come across them at garage sales) there'd be a lot more AF Nikkors about. If you've got a 'consumer' Nikon then yep, old lenses are probably not recommended (although most will still mount... then all you need to do is Sunny 16 and histogram your exposures!).

My story... I initially bought a K10D because I needed to by a D200 to use my old glass but I didn't want to fork out that much at the time. That K10D had a shutter count of 36K when I sold it to my niece who is still using it. I upgraded to a K7 (which had light years better AF than the K10D but moderately better ISO capabilities). It's shutter count is at 35K but I'm about to buy back into the Nikon world (I still have my manual lenses) as I wanted a decent tele zoom and decided that was Sigma 100-300/4, which Sigma in their wisdom stopped making. Picked up a 2nd hand Nikon mount one off these forums and now just have to decide what body to buy to be able to use it! Planning on keeping the K7 as handy to have two camera at my kids sport as sometimes they are competing at the same time and one camera can't be in two places!

02-02-2012, 05:36 AM   #50
jac
Loyal Site Supporter
Loyal Site Supporter




Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada
Posts: 2,364
My Grandmother used to say that it was poor carpenter that blamed his tools.
02-02-2012, 05:38 AM   #51
Senior Member




Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 254
I don't know about you guys but I buy an AF camera so it can actually AF. I'm not alone in having some iffy AF problems with Pentax.
The K-r was a train wreck for AF accuracy
02-02-2012, 05:55 AM   #52
New Member




Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 16
as far as i'm concerned i've tried a few friend's gear like, nikon d40, d90, d5000, canon 450d, 500d. some of these cameras are considered to be in k-x's league, and some considered out of it's league. All of my friends mocked me about my choice of a pentax k-x. When the time came for tests all of them shoved their gear in their bags. Finally, besides the speed and quality of the camera, the common question was "whow! your's has also this feature?".

jump on whatever boat you think it's better but i think that the cameras you own belong to the "old", if i may say, generation of pentax. If you are ready to try another brand why don't you first have a test on a k-5? maybe this way you'll save some money and a lot of frustration!

02-02-2012, 10:18 AM   #53
New Member




Join Date: Mar 2010
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 24
If you want a full-frame system with pro-level glass, or want to get into video, then I would jump ship (Nikon D700/D3s, Canon 1D/5DmkII). If you can't afford that, or don't care about video as much, then I would stay with Pentax and get the K-5.

This is pretty sound advice. You've got to try the k5. For most photography, this camera will do everything the others will do, except in a smaller and weather-sealed body.
For serious auto focus that does everything including think for you, yes you'll probably be better of with a Nikon, but expect to be in the $6000 range.
When people talk about glass being a wide range of glass being a reason to go over to the other brands, I don't see it. In-body-stabilization seems so elegant compared to bulky, heavy, overpriced lenses with stabilization built into them. When a company makes my glass, I want them to focus solely on optics.
Pentax does this and in my opinion has some of the best lenses money can buy at a fraction of the price of the other brands.
Try a k-5 and one of the FA lenses- 31 would be a good choice or the 100.
These are just amazing and the quality you get will not be lacking in any areas.

A complaint of mine would be that I think Pentax had better video in the K7 than k5 and whatever they did in their update caused the image to be a bit less fluid. They improved the picture quality, but steadiness is a big part of picture quality and video shooting is not always static.

Last edited by BrightStar; 02-02-2012 at 10:23 AM. Reason: missed quote.
02-02-2012, 10:40 AM   #54
Pentaxian
normhead's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Near Algonquin Park
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 40,442
QuoteQuote:
I don't know about you guys but I buy an AF camera so it can actually AF. I'm not alone in having some iffy AF problems with Pentax.
The K-r was a train wreck for AF accuracy
Did you read the article, posted in this thread about AF accuracy? Because, sometimes people who contribute to the thread actually read what's posted in it.

I'll just the put the results up here for you. Some people actually run some unbiased tests before they shoot their mouths off. The artical is linked to further up in the thread.

Nikon D7000 -- Sharp images 35.2% Acceptable images 40%. Unacceptable images 30%
Canon 7D --- Sharp images 40% Acceptable images 29.7 percent Unacceptable images 24%
Sony A55 --- sharp images 62.1% acceptable images 16.4% - unacceptable 21%
Pentax k-5 --- Sharp images 62.4% Acceptable images 28.9 percent Unacceptable images 8.6%

The Pentax had less than half the un-acceptable images as it's closest tested,competitor and succesfully autofocused 90% of the time. The highest tested competitor was at 80%. Depending on how you shoot, you may actually be better off on a K-5 than many other cameras out there. If you want sports shots... but hey.. I while ago , one of the well known local sports photographers died. The paper printed 20 of his bast and most famous photos. Personally, there wasn't one I would pay for. Yet I've seen a number of photos posted by people on this site I'd consider paying for. What does that say about fast - focus photography? I know what it says to people like me. It says, stick with what you have.

Faster focus is not necessarily better. Hopefully we can in the future pass this kind of statement off as the garbage that it is.

Why has Nikon always had a higher frame rate for burst mode pictures? They have to to get the same number of useable shots.

Last edited by normhead; 02-02-2012 at 10:54 AM.
02-02-2012, 10:42 AM   #55
New Member




Join Date: Mar 2010
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 24
I tried to upload a photo taken with the k5 to give an example of k5 quality, but only came out with the image name. Can someone tell me how to do this?
02-02-2012, 10:52 AM   #56
Veteran Member
JinDesu's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: New York City
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 5,638
QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
Did you read the article, posted in this thread about AF accuracy? Because, sometimes people who contribute to the thread actually read what's posted in it.

I'll just the put the results up here for you. Some people actually run some unbiased tests before they shoot their mouths off. The artical is linked to further up in the thread.

Nikon D7000 -- Sharp images 35.2% Acceptable images 40%. Unacceptable images 30%
Canon 7D --- Sharp images 40% Acceptable images 29.7 percent Unacceptable images 24%
Sony A55 --- sharp images 62.1% acceptable images 16.4% - unacceptable 21%
Pentax k-5 --- Sharp images 62.4% Acceptable images 28.9 percent Unacceptable images 8.6%

The Pentax had less than half the un-acceptable images as it's closest tested,competitor and succesfully autofocused 90% of the time. The highest tested competitor was at 80%. Depending on how you shoot, you may actually be better off on a K-5 than many other cameras out there. If you want sports shots... but hey.. I while ago , one of the well known local sports photographers died. The paper printed 20 of his bast and most famous photos. Personally, there wasn't one I would pay for. Yet I've seen a number of photos posted by people on this site I'd consider paying for. What does that say about fast - focus photography? I know what it says to people like me. It says, stick with what you have.

Faster focus is not necessarily better. Hopefully we can in the future pass this kind of statement off as the garbage that it is.
That's pretty interesting - always hear that the D7000 rocks everything else in AF...
02-02-2012, 11:10 AM   #57
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: NE, USA
Posts: 1,302
OP...No doubt about it, Nikon and Canon make better pro gear than Pentax. If money is no object, go ahead and restock with better gear.

Generally most of the cameras nowadays produce decent photos . Just depends on what you want to do with them? Is Pentax really holding you back or is your ego holding yourself back and just trying to fit in with your friends gear? Instead of fondling each others gear, try sharing prints or images to look at. (Unless you guys are camera collectors and not shooters?)

Pentax makes good quality, mid level gear that can produce decent photos. The Pentax glass generally comes in about 55-60% as sharp as Nikons or Canons best pro level glass on the optical bench tests. But we are talking about comparing Pentax to pro level Nikon and Canon lenses. Nikon and Canon non pro level glass comes in about the same as Pentax and cost lots more than Pentax glass...so no upgrade here.

I look at Pentax as more of a 'disposable camera' that can get wrecked or stolen and it wont hurt as much as losing a Nikon D700/800 with a 14WA zoom and a 75tele zoom that cost $8000 for a handfull of gear. I buy like new Pentax bodies on ebay for $250 or so and have a nice 10 - 12 MP dslr Pentax. Add some decent, but cheap Pentax glass and I have a nice photo package for not a lot of $.

All the bells and whistles on any of these dslr don't mean much to me. I shoot manual a lot and just shoot old school. I can't believe how crazed you guys are with AF. I started shooting back in the late 60's. I know how to focus a lens. What I like is a sharp, contrasty, photo with good tonality, not all sorts of useless dodads.



These photos were taken with a cheap Walmart PS Kodak $75 camera...at the lowest setting of 1.1MP.

So again I say...generally most of the cameras nowadays produce decent photos.












I finished up sauna a few weeks ago and am sweating like hell now!

OP...Good luck withing finding peace with your camera gear!

Last edited by slackercruster; 02-02-2012 at 05:54 PM.
02-02-2012, 11:34 AM   #58
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: NE, USA
Posts: 1,302
QuoteOriginally posted by jac Quote
My Grandmother used to say that it was poor carpenter that blamed his tools.

Grandma was a smart gal!
02-02-2012, 08:11 PM   #59
Veteran Member




Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Manila
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 2,185
QuoteOriginally posted by DownhillGR Quote
as far as i'm concerned i've tried a few friend's gear like, nikon d40, d90, d5000, canon 450d, 500d. some of these cameras are considered to be in k-x's league, and some considered out of it's league. All of my friends mocked me about my choice of a pentax k-x. When the time came for tests all of them shoved their gear in their bags. Finally, besides the speed and quality of the camera, the common question was "whow! your's has also this feature?".
in that list only the D90 and the 550D can beat and/or come at par with the long-discontinued K-x... but well, it still depends on the photographer. A "good eye" with a K-x can beat a "bad eye" with a 1DIV/D3x, at least that's what I believe

QuoteOriginally posted by JinDesu Quote
That's pretty interesting - always hear that the D7000 rocks everything else in AF...
that "everything else" i believe is all about speed, yes.
02-02-2012, 09:51 PM   #60
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 11,913
QuoteOriginally posted by slackercruster Quote
What I like is a sharp, contrasty, photo with good tonality, not all sorts of useless dodads.
That's crazy talk. Someone stop this guy from spreading his wild ideas any further.

Great looking little sauna btw.
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
af, camera, canon, dslr, f2.8, k20d, lenses, model, pentax, photography, ship, smc-a
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Jumping Ship lynx426 Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 12 01-15-2011 10:47 AM
Can the K5 save me from jumping ship? sabatocd Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 21 12-08-2010 11:23 AM
Thinking about Jumping Camps thashef Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 64 11-20-2010 07:03 PM
Thinking of jumping ship from Nikon to Pentax sas.quatch Pentax DSLR Discussion 32 03-26-2010 10:56 AM
For Sale - Sold: Jumping ship. My loss you gain.... pen123 Sold Items 16 02-23-2009 10:29 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 12:39 PM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top