Originally posted by luftfluss You've mentioned SR a couple of times re: Pentax (and I find it to be quite effective) but remember that Fuji's only SR is in a handful of zooms.
It seems incongruous to me that you are comparing an entry-level body from Pentax with high-end bodies from Fuji and Sony which cost 3 to 4 times as much.
Pentax will never get "there" in terms of body size compared with other brands because of the K-mount. So if that is of critical importance to you, time to dump Pentax. That said, when comparing apples and oranges - (Pentax) APS-C to (Fuji) APS-C - what advantage in terms of lens size do you gain with Fuji?
While it would be nice to have a selection of WR primes, how often do you shoot in adverse elements? You could have a WR Pentax body with the WR 16-50 (or WR 18-135 or WR 16-85) and WR 55-300 (or WR 60-250). AFAIK, there isn't another camera brand that offers an advantage over Pentax in that regard.
The most important thing is to find the camera system that works best for you, and a large portion of your reasoning should be subjective. If you attempt to be objective and list the pros and cons of any brand versus Pentax, much of it will be fairly easily refuted or countered by other aspects of the system. Buy what makes you happy!
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luftfluss: My experience is based on using K-50. I wrote in the original post here and there that some issues I dislike were addressed by K5iis or K3. But even if I got the K3, it is in the same price tag as the other cameras I mentioned with the disadvantage of twice the weight for more or less the same output quality.
Now, regarding WR, I have a few manual focus primes and I realized I enjoy using them much more than zooms. Firstly because they can get fast and secondly because they can be unobtrusive and small in size. This is essential when shooting people. I hate being pointed at with a big zoom. Therefore, for people that have no problems with the zooms you mentioned Pentax WR is not just a marketing thing. But for me who would just grab the DA21, DA40 and DA70 for their small size for example, WR would be useless.
---------- Post added 01-27-15 at 11:29 PM ----------
Originally posted by kiwi_jono Everyone has there own priorities for sure and only you can determine what is best for you.
Personally I'm very happy with the size + weight of my K-5 and would find lighter cameras more difficult to hold steady and comfortably. The K-5 feels so much better than the smaller / lighter K-x (which I still use occasionally when I have to pack very light).
K5iis seems to be the closest to what I'm looking for from Pentax offerings.