[The Squirrel Mafia]

My dad gave my niece his older Nikon D5200 with a Nikkor 18-55mm VR lens, since she's taking a photography class. She's been learning quite a lot. Last night we were outside shooting the moon. She was trying to focus through the viewfinder, but couldn't quite nail the shot. I gave it a try.

Holy dog poop! The difference between the D5200 pentamirror viewfinder & the K-50 pentaprism viewfinder is definitely noticeable. Even though I know that a pentaprism is brighter & sharper, I didn't realize how much of a difference it actually makes. I had the 50-200mm lens on the K-50, but I then I put on the Pentax 18-55mm lens to compare. It's way easier to manually focus the Pentax 18-55mm at 55mm on the K-50 & see the moon easily than doing the same thing on the D5200 with the Nikkor 18-55mm at 55mm. The K-50's viewfinder is a lot sharper, cleaner, & brighter than the viewfinder on the D5200. The viewfinder on the D5200 has more reflections & it's not as sharp. I guess it's the bouncing of the moon's glow in the viewfinder. Even my niece said that the K-50 was a lot easier to focus with the 18-55mm. It was even easier with the 55-200mm, but that's a given. I didn't have a 55-200mm Nikkor to compare, but I'm going to guess similar results as the 18-55mm comparison.

I use a D7200 on occasion & that has a pentaprism as well, but I never really compared it to the D5200, since I never really liked using it. Too menu driven & seems kind of limited in settings. Pentaprism viewfinders are pretty darn awesome. It's amazing that Pentax puts them into all their cameras. I don't think I can ever go less than a pentaprism viewfinder now. So yeah. I've been spoiled by Pentax...... & higher end Nikon.

[UncleVanya]

That's what going from the k100d super to the k50 felt like. Wow!!!! I can see! Without the side by side it never bothered me.

[Alex645]

If for no other reason, to me, this puts Pentax in my top recommendations for entry level cameras. Canikon can claim they use pentamirrors to reduce weight and size and price, but I have no doubt they do it as an incentive for consumers to upgrade to the D7100, non-Rebel T series or higher models. I appreciate that Pentax doesn't play that game. Pentamirrors are also more likely to get dust in the finder.

The brightness issue is another reason why I also prefer primes. Film and FF finders are even sweeter (size matters) and then you got your MF finder! Huge!!!

[ChopperCharles]

I had a similar experience going from the K-1000 film camera to the K-x. Couldn't manually focus at all, couldn't see anything. Put a split prism focusing screen in the K-x, and it still didn't help much. The pentamirror in the K-x is largely the reason I moved to a K-30. It's a lot better... still not K-1000 quality, but it's a lot better.

Charles.