[Catherine]

Hi - I had a very sad and unfortunate accident with my K5iiS 2 weeks ago and have been told by Pentax repair that it's basically toast.
I see that it has been discontinued. What is the current comparable camera body?

I also lost my Sigma 17-70 at the same time, and am looking for similar (or same).

Would love to have your input!

Catherine

[C_Jones]

Hi - I had a very sad and unfortunate accident with my K5iiS 2 weeks ago and have been told by Pentax repair that it's basically toast.
I see that it has been discontinued. What is the current comparable camera body?

I also lost my Sigma 17-70 at the same time, and am looking for similar (or same).

Would love to have your input!

Catherine

Hi Catherine,

I too have a K5IIS and I use it with my Sigma 150-500. I know how well it performs and can see that you probably know that also. At this point, if I were you, I would probably find the K3II to be the successor to your K5IIS. It lacks the anti aliasing filter (is optional) as the K5IIS does, which would give you the detail you are used to. Plus since the K5IIS had a higher rating (per DXoMark) than the K3, the K3II would most likely be more efficient (AF, IQ, and other new features) in terms of performance over the K3 for what you need.

I myself will probably wait for the next in line after the K3II, since as you know the K5IIS is a high performance camera.

I hope my advice has helped, and that you are able to enjoy some new photo shooting soon with the appropriate equipment for your shooting needs.

Have a nice weekend.

Casey

[boriscleto]

The K-3. The K-3 II isn't much of an upgrade, or really an upgrade at all, over the K-3. Ricoh says they have improved the SR and replaced the pop-up flash with a GPS unit. Improvements to the AF are likely software based. Ricoh says they have improved the algorithm for AF.C, so improved AF could be coming to the K-3 as well (FW 1.20 improved it a bit). That's it, same sensor as the K-3.

[normhead]

K-3ii as a comparable body but if you'd rather have built in flash, than built in GPS, you might go for the older K-3. which is quite a bit cheaper. A KS-2 might be a good choice as well, if you're looking for something a little different. You do get a little more dynamic range with a K-5 series camera, but the K-3 series gets you 15 to 20% more resolution.... I find the loss of DR is rarely noticeable, the difference in resolution, I notice a bit more. But it depends on how you shoot.

[Adam]

Hi - I had a very sad and unfortunate accident with my K5iiS 2 weeks ago and have been told by Pentax repair that it's basically toast.
I see that it has been discontinued. What is the current comparable camera body?

I also lost my Sigma 17-70 at the same time, and am looking for similar (or same).

Would love to have your input!

Catherine

The K-3, you'll love it! Sorry about your old camera

[Catherine]

Wow thanks for the quick replies! Much appreciated. I feel lost without my camera and can't afford anything right now, but ... miracles happen :-). Thank you for your advice everyone!

[mee]

You could always go to ebay and find a gently used K-5iis and Sigma 17-70mm

I have a K-5ii and will not be upgrading to the K-3 due to the worse DR and ISO ratings on the K-3 plus it lacks stabilization on video. It is actually a downgrade in some ways.


But if you have no idea what I just said, go with a K-3 as otherwise it IS an upgrade.

[normhead]

If money is going to be an issue, look in the market place... you might find what you lost, second hand.

[C_Jones]

Catherine,

The new K5IIS is available on Amazon today for $616.95. I am not.sure if you are looking to buy today, but I just wanted to let you know.

Casey

[Catherine]

Wow that's half of what i paid for it!
Unfortunately i can't afford it right now but thanks for giving me hope!

Catheri


ne,

The new K5IIS is available on Amazon today for $616.95. I am not.sure if you are looking to buy today, but I just wanted to let you know.

Casey

---------- Post added 05-24-15 at 10:32 AM ----------

I understand what you said :-). But why did Pentax discontinue the 5IIs?

You could always go to ebay and find a gently used K-5iis and Sigma 17-70mm

I have a K-5ii and will not be upgrading to the K-3 due to the worse DR and ISO ratings on the K-3 plus it lacks stabilization on video. It is actually a downgrade in some ways.


But if you have no idea what I just said, go with a K-3 as otherwise it IS an upgrade.

[boriscleto]

I understand what you said :-). But why did Pentax discontinue the 5IIs?

You're better than I am if you could make sense of what was said...

The K-5 IIS was discontinued because the sensor dated back to 2010. Ricoh doesn't have the production capacity to keep old designs in production, and they don't make huge production runs so they can't keep selling new old stock like Nikon...(D90, D300s etc.)

Plus, the K-3 is a better camera than the K-5 II. If you aren't taking pictures of a target in your basement.

[C_Jones]

(Originally posted by Catherine)
"Wow that's half of what i paid for it!
Unfortunately i can't afford it right now but thanks for giving me hope!"

You're welcome. So it is still available. It is an excellent camera (K5IIS). Maybe it will be available to consumers for awhile. In the meantime the price may go down (if you do wait). Amazon is a good place to look occasionally. Just check to see that whoever offers it is an authorized Pentax dealer (check on Pentax website or call customer service) to ensure your warranty, whatever model you buy. Also, you most likely already know this, but if you buy from a dealer that is not in your state, sales tax will not be applied to your purchase.

[Catherine]

Thanks again! I'm in Canada :-).

---------- Post added 05-25-15 at 10:13 AM ----------

A target in my basement?? Sorry - you lost me there :-).
Some responders consider the K5IIs better than the K3 due to worse DR and ISO ratings on the K-3 plus it lacks stabilization on video. What would you say to that?

[Ash]

Overall, there is well controlled noise and DR in the K-3 sensor, and with the added megapixels, the overall image quality is significantly (although not earth-shatteringly) better when compared fairly (i.e. a K-3 image downsized to 16Mp).

[C_Jones]

DxOMark rates the K-5 IIs higher overall in its Camera Sensor Ratings section than the K-3. K-5 IIs overall score is 82 as opposed to the K-3 score which is 80.

Below are overall rating and breakdown

Overall rating K-5 IIs 82, K-3 80

Portrait (color depth) K-5 IIs 26.5, K-3 23.7

Landscape (dynamic range) K-5 IIs 14.1, K-3 13.4

Sports (low light ISO) K-5 IIs 1208 ISO, K-3 1216 ISO

The K-5 IIs makes use of its megapixels in an efficient manner, and as you can see it has no significant drawback compared to a K-3. The K-3II may possibly make more efficient use of the K-3 model megapixel count, but the K-3 does not shadow the K-5IIs in any major way. Testing will show when the K-3II performance is actually analyzed and rated compared to the K-3 and K-5IIs.