[dragnb]

Hello,

I need your kind help to decide which camera I should go for. Today I have a K100D with various lenses, 16-45 sees a lot of action, 55-300 in the good days, 50 1.4 is next on line and last but not least is be the Tamron 28-75. When I build up this line I was thinking it will work in low light of Sweden. Latest experience tells, it does not work when in equation comes indoors, north facing windows, and the subject I try to get is my toddler daughter that when she sees the camera runs to get it. When the flash is mounted the little fingers cannot stop fiddling with the green and red lights until I put it away.
Yesterday she was playing nicely with her new train indoors and I wanted to get a photo. Did not work out but instead I managed to distract her. I set the ISO to 1600 with the aperture of 2.8 I got the TV to be 8 for a correct exposed shot. Too low for a child that when heard the first clack was up and running to get the camera and take pictures and see what I did. Thought of changing to 50mm with f2. Quick calculation told me not to do it, that would have improved the speed just marginally and could not solve my problem, @ f2 I would get TV 16 - too slow for a fast moving molecule, and 50 is narrow for indoors.

Calculation wise: ISO @ 128000 - > TV – 125 - decent enough to freeze some action. Underexpose one stop and I get to Tv @ 250 - this sound more like a freezing number.

In Sweden there is Pentax cash back program for K5 II and IIs and K30. The K30 is now ridiculously low price of 4500SEK with the 18-55 DAL lens. The lens kit is non WR and will end up unused. The body only after cash back will be slightly more expensive but must go through the hassle of cash back. The K30 and 18-135 will be down to 7300SEK after rebate and I would like to have that lens for diversity. What do not like the lens is that is very slow at 135mm where I would like to use it. For these I use the Takumar 135mm wide open and it works.
Cashback Sommarkampanj 2013 - PENTAX Photo

Thinking about the conditions of low light brought K5IIs in the equation that have faster low light focus, 14bit raw – I see it useful to reduce the noise and retain details during post processing in case I underexpose, higher dynamic range without fiddling with the menus, one stop in ISO and silent shutter! It does not have focus peaking though for when I use manual lenses. The price is in another league though. In this case I would choose only the body and still will be more expensive that K30 and 18-135mm kit. On the good part there is also the top LCD that helped me a lot while in the K100D the viewfinder notifications are small and difficult to check.

What way should I go?
1. I lean toward the K5 IIs but I have no WR lens - I will not feel comfortable to take it out in bad weather and here is more bad weather than good one... More, leaving 1kg object worth 10k+ into the small hands that mimic everything the father is doing with the camera: lift camera to the eye site, try to carry it around, try to put it around the neck and so on is not comforting.
2. K30 kit with non WR lens - could make sense only when I decide to sell it with a lens attached.
3. K30 with 18-135 - this will be possible to use it outside in bad weather. The bad is that the lens is rather slow.

All advices are welcomed!

[Nesster]

A thought might be K30 + a wide angle prime known to focus fast; AF speed depends on lens as much as the camera.

[Canada_Rockies]

How about buying the camera you want, and keep the K100. Your toddler can be a photographer with her own camera.

[JimJohnson]

I think you need to look holistically at the feature set differences and decide which will be of more value to you. In addition to the bit-level for RAW photos, the K-5 line supports a grip. On the K-30 side, you get focus peaking and an option to use AA batteries in the body that the K-5 cannot do.

[IchabodCrane]

In some ways asking whether to get a K-30 or K-5 IIs to take pictures of a toddler is like asking whether to buy a BMW X5 or Porsche Cayenne to go grocery shopping. Bottom line: they both will do extremely well.

[Bcrary3]

Personally, I'd get the K5, the K5II and IIs really isn't worth it in my opinion, and if I remember correctly, the K5 has has no AA filter. (maybe it was the IIs that didn't have the AA filter, I don't remember off hand). From what I read (as I was stuck between the K5 and the IIs) the K5 is better for portraiture, and outdoors work, and the IIs is slightly better indoors; the biggest difference (other than the fancy IIs on the front) is the AF system, the IIs does have a slightly improved AF system, I know you were looking at the K30,which from what I have read is a solid option for anyone, but if you need features like a battery grip (which also comes with an adapter so you can use AA batteries in it), other features like higher burst rate, better NR. I looked at the K30 myself, but decided to go with the K5 because I needed the battery grip. It's a matter of what features you need. Also, if I remember correctly (sorry a bit out of it today) the K30 has a polycarbonate body, and the K5 series is all Mag' Alloy. I could be wrong here. According to a website I use often (which compares cameras side by side, and rates them based on their features) the K30 wins over the IIs ( Pentax K-30 vs K-5 IIs - Our Analysis ) & the K5 comes over the K30
( Pentax K-30 vs K-5 - Our Analysis ).

In all honesty, I'd opt for the K5; but that is just my preference, and what suits my needs, IQ from any of the newer Pentax cameras is stunning.

[K McCall]

I have an 18-month-old myself in a tiny NYC apartment with only one window that receives anything you'd call "light." I haven't tried the K5, but I shoot with the K30. I have a K100D and a K200D and I can tell you from experience that there's a HUGE difference in shooting at high ISOs with the K30. Still, though, I almost only ever shoot indoors with a fast lens (the FA 31/1.8), and even then I know I only have so many shots before she gets bored or runs away or tries to reach for the camera. So I'd go for the cheaper camera and a faster/wider lens.

When I want to do a posed shot with her by that one window, I almost always give her something to play with. What almost always works is to give her a camera to play with - a real one (a broken film SLR) - because otherwise she'll want to play with mine.

Best of luck!

[IchabodCrane]

In some ways asking whether to get a K-30 or K-5 IIs to take pictures of a toddler is like asking whether to buy a BMW X5 or Porsche Cayenne to go grocery shopping. Bottom line: they both will do extremely well.

Bad form to reply to my own post but I realized I misread the question. The OP is wondering about the K-5, not the latest iteration as I first thought. I say go with the K-30 as there has been some anecdotal evidence that the focus is faster. That has to be more important than gaining 14 bit RAW when tracking a toddler.

[mbukal]

I say go with the K-30 as there has been some anecdotal evidence that the focus is faster. That has to be more important than gaining 14 bit RAW when tracking a toddler.

yes, of course! : Cool:

[aleonx3]

I honestly don't think that it matters, k-30 or k-5; both will work just fine. I am an event photographer... and I often shoot fast action performance on stage. The only thing that stops me from taking the shots is when the buffer gets full and I have to wait for it to clear before I can continue. The k-30 has the slight advantage over the k-5 as it has the newer AF system, but my k-5 is not slow either. I personally prefers the top LCD as it is easier to check the settings on the camera.

[kenyee]

1. I lean toward the K5 IIs but I have no WR lens

Do you have a store where you can try both?
Indoors, I'd think the K5-IIs would work faster than the K-30. You might want to compare/rent a DA16-50 to see if that's faster than your Tamron 28-75 and 16-45. The 50/1.4 is slowwwwwwww...it always has been. The issue is that there isn't much contrast wide open w/ that lens and that's how cameras focus (they don't stop down first). That's also why I'd hesitate to recommend the Tamron...when I tried it, I went through 3 copies w/ BF/FF issues wide open depending on what focal length you used...it was terrible

[dragnb]

I went to three locations and only one had both. In Sweden, Pentax is a rarity in the stores.
My impressions:

K5 + 18-55 WR sits good in the hand and feels very solid. Fast focus indoors with good light. I love the upper display. Heavier body than K30 which I see it more like a minus for me.

K30 +18-135 WR good balance of the weight fast and quiet lens. The sound of the shutter is there but does not wake up the dead as with the K100D. A small battery but there is space for AA batteries which I have 2 sets from the K100D and the flash. No real difference in picture quality.

Thinking about the lenses, my feeling is that the kit 18-55 focus faster than 16-45. The 50 1.4 is ok, once is close to the distance can lock but does not follow up easily. The worst one is the Tamron and I thought it is due to the fact that is heavy and the motor do not have the strength to spin it.
The DA*16-50 is out of my sight. It does not give me piece of mind. Coming first out with SDM it suffered from some of childhood sicknesses, a pity for such an expensive lens that got so many complains.

Talking about fast focusing primes, which one focuses faster DA 40 2.8 or the DA 35 2.4? This is just in case I go for the K30 and have some spare for a prime.

Parting from my K100D is out of my scope and I do not intend to give it to the child just now. It have about 50k actuation and still delivers. I think is a perfect camera to learn on and come back to it. Having a 6mp sensor and not much crop possibilities forced me to learn to think of composition before taking the pictures.

[6BQ5]

The 18-55 kit lens isn't a bad lens in the right conditions. Not having WR is OK sometimes. You may want to consider it as a lens which if your toddler gets a hold of then it's OK for her to touch and play with it. Kids are always curious. Let them explore with this lens.

[dragnb]

The quest ended up with... K5 and DA35 2.4
What I like about this combo, is quiet, it have upper display that saved me from running bad settings and is fast to focus. The child do not seem so much disturbed by the camera any longer. Possible because now there is no zoom . The only button she like is the green one and ask me to press it and move the back wheel.

What was new for me is that in Av mode the ISO do not change automatic as in my k100. Moving to TAv is OK but I still do not like it. Tv at 125 with the lens at f4 the iso goes above 5000.
5000 I think is the limit where I feel comfortable with the noise and details lost. Miss the focus and the picture is bad too and the point of interest is full of noise.

What I noticed is that, in artificial light the noise is comparable bigger than in daylight. One picture shot outdoor at iso 3200 has much less noise compared to the one shot in tungsten light and is sharper. the sharpening could come also from closing the lens down to f4.5. Is this normal?

Now I am back in the SW for Raw.
In the past the Pentax camera utility was a good tool for RAW to JPG and I got used with it. What I do not know is how to use it to clean up the pictures... New tool and with a lot of things to go through.
Today I run my PDCU habit just to extract the jps out of RAWs and I was surprised to see that the jps from PDCU came out around 2 MB. I dis a further study on this and I realized that PDCU is purely a waste of time. ...that led me to Lightroom! Well done HOYA! I hope Richoh will put some effort in the SW that the camera comes with.

[Canada_Rockies]

Auto ISO is a setting in the ISO menu on Pentax cameras. You can set the auto ISO to a range, such as 100-1600 if you wish. Your K100 was no doubt set to this.

The noise is a result of the amount of light hitting the pixel on the sensor. The darker the light, the less the signal, and the noise, which does not change, is more apparent. Lightroom is a good tool. There are workshops on the web that will allow you to learn more about it.

Good luck with your new camera. Don't let your toddler use it for teething, though.