Hi all, I'm new here and I've restoked a long dormant photography interest in the last year and have been studying photography and shooting film with an SLR that has been first my dad's then mine since the mid-80s and shotting digital with a good compact camera, not usually in auto mode. I am a rank, amateur hobbyist with no professional aspiratons, but not an entirely ignorant one and I feel like I'm back into this in a way that won't go away. So, here's where i post a really neurotic newbee rambling and you all get to set me straight. I recognize that in parallel worlds where I'm actually the forum subject expert that posts like the one you're about to read get tiresome and only show the ignorance and neurosis of the poster. I'll own up to that and take what you give in response, but here goes:
I'm sold on my DSLR purchase being a Pentax and I'm ready, but stalled. If I just look at where things are in the product range, I typically buy at the K-30 level on things that I don't do at least semi-professionally. Alternately, I go up a level and buy a used or outgoing model, which in this case is the classic K-5. I feel in this particular case that I would like to buy a camera that I can live with for a long time and form a deep relationship with. I basing that largely on my connection to that 80's film SLR that I'm shooting with. I know some of you guys (rightly) look at these as ~2 year purchases, I feel like that won't be me. By the way, I actually think I'll be a top-LCD guy. Something I love about my film camera is that I can look at it and see where there aperture, shutter speed and ISO is set. I hate on my compact having to navigate the menu system to check that stuff. If that's what top LCD gives me, then I'll definitely use it. but, I don't know and I'm not really hung up on that.
The rub is, based on everything I've learned here and on photography review sites is that it seems that the K-30 in a lot of ways is a better performing camera than the outgoing K-5. That may not be quite right, but specifically AF. The camera I'm shooting with now is manual only of course, but I don't always get it right and I think that useable AF would be great to be able to rely on. The K-5 ii seems to have resolved a pretty big usability problem from the K-5. If it had been about a new design or a bunch of new features, I'd be happily snapping up the K-5, but my gut tells me that it's more than that. Which makes me think more about either K-5 ii or K-30. I think I can live without the iis, for my purposes.
What are my purposes? I love shooting city street shots. It is generally dark and wet here for a good part of the year, which is part of what draws me to Pentax. We've also got mountains, sea and rainforest all around us so there would be some wildlife/landscape, hiking shoots. And, maybe 1/2 of what I shoot now is in jazz clubs. I'm a player and friend to lots of players locally and around the country and I like to shoot for them when I go to their shows and have them do the same for me at mine. (I don't really care about video, by the way) So, I feel like that pushes me to low-light/no flash territory. Makes me afraid of what I read of the K-5, until i remind myself that I manually focus now and have said more than once that if my film SLR was only digital, I'd be good without all the features.
Lastly, I have a 4 year old boy who seems intent on playing sports as soon as they'll let him and I can see my direction changing to shooting his soccer/baseball/basketball/hockey/whatever games. I haven't done much of that sort of thing yet, but it does make me wonder if autofocus is going to become more important to me when that happens.
So, all that said, easy buy the K-5 ii, if cost isn't a factor. I could swing it, but of course cost is a factor. I am sort of waiting out price drop, but shifting around in my seat a lot while I do. If I thought that the difference between the K-5 and the K-5 ii wouldn't be significant to me, which some reviews suggest, I'd definitely buy a new or one of the clean used ones in our forum. Actually there's a nice one from a member who's taking some beautiful pictures with it who is semi-local to me so I could actually meet him and leave with it, most likely. But, he's selling it to fund and K-5 ii purchase, which feeds back into my neurosis.
I have pretty much no-doubt that the K-30 is all of the camera that I need for it to be. To be completely honest, I don't like the aesthetic of it that much, which makes me feel very small, but there it is. If it used the same materials but had a more conventional design, I'd probably buy a black one. Should it matter? No. Then again, I plan on having this for a decade or more and rarely being without it and I worry. I've watched a few hands-on video type reviews where the reviewer said it was a great camera, but looked and felt gimmicky and plastic-y. I wonder how they will age, we don't really know yet. Not trying to offend K-30 owners, I'm partially inviting you to tell me that I'm a beginner and I should get over it, it's a better camera than I'll ever need, etc.. I've seen some of the amazing pictures you take with them and there's no doubt in my mind that it's a great camera that's probably underpriced or over-built for where it sits in the market.
By the way, PENTAX, at least half of my skittishness is based on the fact that there are no Pentax retail stores within a days drive of me without crossing an international border. If I could go to a shop, talk through this with an educated sales guy and pick up and handle these cameras, I would already own one or the other of them. I'm sure of it. I can do that with your competitors. I'm going on faith that your products are going to feel right in my hands in a way that the others don't. Nikons and Canons feel like computer peripherals to me. I think that a K-5 is going to feel more like my beloved SLR (plus weather sealing, plus low light kick-assness, plus all those great lenses back to the 60's). I hope I'm not wrong, it would be a lot easier if I could see one along side those others. Just sayin'.
Now, all that said, am I over-thinking the autofocus issue with the K-5? Would I feel differently about the look at feel of the K-30 if I was holding one? Should I be patient or fund raise on the price of the K-5 ii? Should I shut up and go take some pictures? Should I buy a $150 iST on craigslist, acquire a few lenses, practice shooting and wait until all of you guys dump your K-5 ii for the FF camera when it comes out?
Thank you in advance. Give it to me straight, guys. I can take it.
Last edited by troika; 01-10-2013 at 06:49 PM.