[res3567]

It isn't that Pentax has some magical glass that just blows everything away -- the good Pentax glass is no worse or better than the good Nikon glass or the good Canon glass.

Most Pentax owners are photographers who happen to own a Pentax. But there are some who are near-fanatical and heaven forbid reality should interfere with their ideas.

Believe it or not, not all "Canikon" owners are just people who haven't discovered the wonders of the K mount yet. Some are happy with what they have, and have their reasons for choosing the brand they're using.

Very, very well said!

[mischivo]

Went out on a two day kayak trip, brought the K20D with me, was just able to get it in the storage compartment. So no, I wouldnt want a D3x or 5D. or rather, sure I take it. sell it and buy alot of lenses :P

Funny story, landed on a beach on wednesday. Sat down in the sand and put my k20d and the DA*55 beside me in the sand. After a while a woman walks up to me and say "you are not very bright are you" "excuse me" i said. "That camera and lens are gona be broken soon" then I replied "ah you see, its all sealed against dust and weather" I smile at her and she looks at the camera and turns around and walks away.

Moments like that I love my little darling. To bad it wasnt my k-7 but shipping to sweden seem to be the slowest in the world.

Unfortunately, the woman was right. The camera is "resistant", not "proof". Leaving a camera out in the sand is pretty foolish, no matter what camera it is. My watch is dust and water proof, but I wouldn't leave it out exposed to the sand. Once the sand gets into the joint or small crevices, it's bound to wreak havoc and scratch things. Unless I haven't read the fine print, a K-7 isn't made of diamonds, so grit and sand can easily lodge in the scroll wheels and scratch stuff up. Perhaps you got lucky that time, but taking her advice is a wiser approach. Just because you think you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Otherwise, using your logic, you could've buried the thing in the sand for safe-keeping while you're swimming.

[pingflood]

Unfortunately, the woman was right. The camera is "resistant", not "proof". Leaving a camera out in the sand is pretty foolish, no matter what camera it is. My watch is dust and water proof, but I wouldn't leave it out exposed to the sand. Once the sand gets into the joint or small crevices, it's bound to wreak havoc and scratch things. Unless I haven't read the fine print, a K-7 isn't made of diamonds, so grit and sand can easily lodge in the scroll wheels and scratch stuff up. Perhaps you got lucky that time, but taking her advice is a wiser approach. Just because you think you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Otherwise, using your logic, you could've buried the thing in the sand for safe-keeping while you're swimming.

Yeah, I have some seriously weathersealed gear but I would never put it in sand for no good reason. I am still getting sand out of the hotshoe from last time I was out on the beach in heavy winds... and the filter thread...

[cloudswimmer]

1. Finally if money is not an issue, would you still keep the Pentax k-7 or go for the DX3 or 5DMKII or even the GH1 as a new true all rounder?

None of the above.If money were no object I'd buy a Heidelberg Tango drum scanner for my 8x10

[edl]

Yeah, you can find an m42-to-anything adapter, just about. But what about K-mount glass?

I'm struck by your assertion that $1100 is a small price to pay for tiny differences in edge case performance. I get your comment about system - Nikon and Canon do have much 'deeper' systems - but what performance are you talking about on the D700?

You can't use M42 glass on Nikon unless you want to perform surgery on the lens to get infinity focus. I know they make adapters with glass inside them, but those are inferior.

Is there a specific piece of K glass that you feel is clearly superior to Canon, Nikon, or anyone else's glass? The only lens that sticks in my mind is Canon's 85/1.2 on FF. In all fairness I haven't used the LTD primes though.

$1100 to me seems a small price to pay for full-frame, class leading AF, high ISO performance, TTL flash consistency, ability to control multiple strobes. There are also technical benefits to FF, such as finer DOF control and higher DR. But then again, I think camera bodies are relatively cheap today. Do you remember when the Canon 10D sold for $1495? I thought that was a great price in 2003.

Don't get me wrong, I like my Pentax stuff. I make excellent 8x12's and good 12x18's with my K20D + Tamron 28-75/2.8, which set me back all of $850 new. The K20D has great bang for the buck, especially when I purchased it last year. But if we're talking about the OP's topic (K7), I stand by my original assertions (which you didn't dispute).

[Linh]

1. For Canon and Nikon loyalists and for the new comers who are not Pentax loyalists I aks those who already have the Pentax K-7 why should we go for the K-7 instead of Nikons or Canons or even the Lumix GH1?
2. The New Canon rebel for example alows auto focus in video mode by pressing the exposure lock button. It works but slow. The nikon does not have it at all. For those who have the K-7, how easy or difficult is it to do the video focusing compared to the Canons or Nikons.
3. Finally if money is not an issue, would you still keep the Pentax k-7 or go for the DX3 or 5DMKII or even the GH1 as a new true all rounder?

1: not a loyalist, but the K20D's AF didn't seem up to par, and it was important for me for events. the K7 might change that, but the 16-50/50-135 QC I seem to read about scares me a bit. that and I'm waiting for the K7 to drop in price, I need to buy two, heh.

2: I'd buy a GH1 if I wanted SLR recording.

3: K7 vs 5dmkII, hard to say. up in the air for me really.

in the end, I'm considering switching from canon because I'm looking for something I can use semi-professionally, as well as keeping it small and light. The 21/40/70 pancake combo would be awesome for just walking around/travel. I can't get that with my 20D/40D.

on the flip side, I might just buy an E-P1 instead to compliment my canon system.

[nostatic]

1: not a loyalist, but the K20D's AF didn't seem up to par, and it was important for me for events. the K7 might change that, but the 16-50/50-135 QC I seem to read about scares me a bit. that and I'm waiting for the K7 to drop in price, I need to buy two, heh.

2: I'd buy a GH1 if I wanted SLR recording.

3: K7 vs 5dmkII, hard to say. up in the air for me really.

in the end, I'm considering switching from canon because I'm looking for something I can use semi-professionally, as well as keeping it small and light. The 21/40/70 pancake combo would be awesome for just walking around/travel. I can't get that with my 20D/40D.

on the flip side, I might just buy an E-P1 instead to compliment my canon system.

50-135* is an amazing lens with very low failure rate. Worth the price of admission imho.

E-P1 is a very nice camera, but you will not get "clean" files out of it unless you're shooting iso 200. It does however have quite nice noise/grain to my eyes (I like noise rendered well) - but it is not as high quality a file as you get from K20d/K7. Also it handles very differently than a dSLR. I love using it but it is a completely different camera than my K20d. And pixel peepers and performance mongers will hate the E-P1 for a variety of reasons.

21/40/70 on a K7 is the smallest/lightest/highest quality setup you can get. Period. You can get more performance in certain areas but you'll give up portability. Everything is a tradeoff. I'll likely add a K7 back to the stable and carry with some combination of 15/31/35/43/77 primes. And keep the E-P1 - as I said, that is a different animal.

[Linh]

50-135* is an amazing lens with very low failure rate. Worth the price of admission imho.

A very nice lens indeed, I have the tokina canon mount version =)

E-P1 is a very nice camera, but you will not get "clean" files out of it unless you're shooting iso 200. It does however have quite nice noise/grain to my eyes (I like noise rendered well) - but it is not as high quality a file as you get from K20d/K7. Also it handles very differently than a dSLR. I love using it but it is a completely different camera than my K20d. And pixel peepers and performance mongers will hate the E-P1 for a variety of reasons.

21/40/70 on a K7 is the smallest/lightest/highest quality setup you can get. Period. You can get more performance in certain areas but you'll give up portability. Everything is a tradeoff. I'll likely add a K7 back to the stable and carry with some combination of 15/31/35/43/77 primes. And keep the E-P1 - as I said, that is a different animal.

oh yeah, definitely different, but serves my purpose of small and light, while spending the least on my end. In an ideal world, I'd just have all three systems... ha

[nostatic]

A very nice lens indeed, I have the tokina canon mount version =)



oh yeah, definitely different, but serves my purpose of small and light, while spending the least on my end. In an ideal world, I'd just have all three systems... ha

Have you handled it? It isn't necessarily "light" and small is relative.

E-P1 w/17 K20d w/31

[B Grace]

It's a bit ironic that the new Olympus digi-cam should pop up in a thread about Canon and Nikon cameras on a Pentax forum. It's an interesting camera but I'm afraid it presents a tangible link back to the days of yore when we tried half-frame 35mm cameras and few folks kept them very long. The quality of the enlargements was poor. Sure APS-C digital is good but 35mm digital is better. An 8x10 camera with a digital back, now, that would be intoxicating.

Back to the original question, why abandon Canon/Nikon for Pentax? Why indeed? I use both D40x and K200D kits and for a couple of months both cameras were current. I have no desire to throw money at keeping either kit current so I'll be hanging on to both cameras for awhile and it's nice that I'm quite pleased with both. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus and Sony cameras are all simply different in their unique ways.

If the manufacturers and media placed more of their focus on the differences in image quality than on price perhaps more folks could find a kit they would be pleased with and not want to trade every few months.

[Linh]

Have you handled it? It isn't necessarily "light" and small is relative.

E-P1 w/17 K20d w/31

it's lighter and smaller than my 40D+17-50. I understand it's relative, and that's exactly what I'm comparing it to. I'm not trying to compare it to an SD880IS or anything

[gremlindesign]

The best reason to pick Pentax over any brand is its sensor, or rather its sensor's movement. Yes, other systems have Sensor-Shake style IS, but no other system has as many options to mount in front of that sensor. There's over 25 million K-Mount lenses on this little blue marble, and few systems can boast such nice glass. My favorite lens of any brand is still my M 50mm f1.7, and i clean and repair all brands gear where i work.
I was always told you base your camera around your lenses, and IMO Pentax makes the best at a very nice price.

[Linh]

The best reason to pick Pentax over any brand is its sensor, or rather its sensor's movement. Yes, other systems have Sensor-Shake style IS, but no other system has as many options to mount in front of that sensor. There's over 25 million K-Mount lenses on this little blue marble, and few systems can boast such nice glass. My favorite lens of any brand is still my M 50mm f1.7, and i clean and repair all brands gear where i work.
I was always told you base your camera around your lenses, and IMO Pentax makes the best at a very nice price.

err, don't you mean it's glass, not it's sensor? Or maybe, it's mount. I can pick out a few other DSLR's sensors I'd rather have over Pentax =)

[creampuff]

Have you handled it? It isn't necessarily "light" and small is relative.

E-P1 w/17 K20d w/31

http://nostatic.com/photos/opcompare.jpg

Yeah, small is relative...
Here's a photo by my buddy frank of an Oly E-P1 user... I wouldn't exactly call this combo compact or pocketable.

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5281259&postcount=550

[defiant]

What I thought it was stupid that the OP was comparing a K7 to a 5DmkII, they are in completely different leagues

I wasn't saying out of all the cameras in the world, which would you get, I was saying out of those 2 choices, which would you get? If someone came up to me and offered to give me a K7 or a 5DmkII, I'd take the canon.

And assuming money was no issue, as was stated in the original post, I'd be able to afford all the Canon L glass.

Hang on a sec - when the OP said assume money wasn't an issue, he was referencing only bodies. There was no mention about money not being an issue for anything else like lenses