Hi Guys (and Gals)
I am NOT trying to bash Pentax here. If anybody has read it that way, I can only say that I regret them having done so. It was not my intention. If anything, I'm bashing myself for not taking the opportunity to get into a Pentax system when prices were lower.
With Pentax, I have the opportunity to make use of in camera stabilisation. That's a REAL bonus. With Nikon, I can probably use higher ISOs with a more success. That's also a bonus. A wash? Maybe, maybe not.
Please note that the Nikon lens which does have VR is the tele-zoom, where it is a bigger bonus that at wide/normal focal lengths.
At any rate, my long ago experience with (film) SLR cameras was at a time when the only stabilisation available came from steady hands or a beanbag/monopod/tripod.
I like Pentax because they make cameras for photographers and because their selection of good prime glass is unequalled. I also like them because, like Nikon, they are primarily an optics company. I have, BTW, a pair of Pentax 8 x 42 SP binoculars which are superb - unequalled by any other company in my experience at the price level. And yes, I also like Pentax because they are "different"
Hell, I've got a top loading CD player, that's bizarre in this day and age.
I like Nikon because their viewfinder/LCD is the best in the business, because they are also primarily an optics company, and because they resisted the "pixel wars" with the D300/D700 and instead chose to optimise the low light/AF/speed aspects of their cameras. Canon lost me completely when they upped the 5D II pixel count above 20m without doing anything to improve their AF and stuck in an HD video camera. If that's the route they're going in, I don't want to know.
But when I look at what's coming out now from Pentax in the way of glass, I start to wonder. The new Pentax 60-250 f4 DA Zoom is being priced for future delivery in Australia at $2850. The Nikkor 70-200 2.8 VR is $2750.
It makes me stop and think, mainly because I'm so used to seeing Pentax lenses for about half the price of their Nikon equivalents, I suppose.