[ashisban]

Today I sold my first DSLR the Pentax K10D along with the kit lens. It had been my trustworthy companion for the last 3 years. I had already sold my other Pentax lenses and with the K10D going I am without any Pentax gear for the first time for quite some time. I was thinking about getting the K5 but the current price is too hot for me and decided with a heavy heart to part with Pentax and go for the Nikon D7000 (with the current lens promotion going on at Amazon). Although I am parting with Pentax (at least for sometime), I will always remain a loyal Pentaxian as whatever little I have learned about digital photography is courtesy of Pentax and Pentaxforums.com.

So thank you Pentax and all the members of Pentaxforums.com for your contribution towards my growth in the last three years. I wish to continue as a member of this forum unless the moderators feel otherwise

Happy Shooting and Happy New Year.

[hal_a]

i almost bought his K10D

[glee46]

Not sure why, but the price is dropping today. Might be due to the post about a problem that needs to be fixed. Which, no doubt will be and make it even better. People forget that the Hubble was all screwed up when it 1st went up. Yes, it cost some big bucks to fix it, but look at the shots we're getting today from space and beyond.

[Ex Finn.]

Happy Shooting and Happy New Yea

Happy New Year to you too.
Post your impressions after getting your new toy.

[geauxpez]

Happy New Year to you too.
Post your impressions after getting your new toy.

Yeah, post up in the "other brands" forum -- I would like to hear your thoughts. I would also like to know what kind of Nikon lens deal made the jump to a $250 cheaper (for now) body worth the difference. I have looked at their lens lineup i.e. Pentax with in-body SR & non-VR lens prices...VS VR lens prices Just curious.

Cheers!

Adam

[glee46]

I choose Pentax K5. I'm new to DSLR.. Hell, I'm new to it all. Anyway, one thing I'm old at is being a cheapskate. However, the flip side is, I want the best as well.

The Nikon D7000 scores the best in Mid-level with a 80%
Body only: @ $1,200 -$1,500

The Pentax K-5 scores the best in Semi-Professional at 83%
Body only @ $1,380 - $1,470

As of today: Price wise, Nikon wins.
2 to 6 months: Pentax will be the long term winner.

Once ya get into their lenses, then you're on the short end of a bargain in the long run.

With all that said, the Nikon D7000 is one nice package. Just looking at it makes me want to jump ship.

However, I think it's like a beautiful girl. Looks good, sounds good, but expensive to maintain & the beauty was only skin deep.

[Manel Brand]

The Nikon D7000 scores the best in Mid-level with a 80%
Body only: @ $1,200 -$1,500

The Pentax K-5 scores the best in Semi-Professional at 83%
Body only @ $1,380 - $1,470

As of today: Price wise, Nikon wins.

I don't think it does. For $180 more you got full magnesium alloy body, SR on camera, Weather Resistant body. Not much, but I wouldn't mind spend a little more cash on that.

[JACOBY]

I'll stay with Pentax. The others look good but when you add it up it's like a fancy car there goes your money. and besides that old Pentax glass is just beautiful.

[orly_andico]

I fail to see the downside with the D7000. Nikon primes are cheap (e.g. the highly rated 180mm f/2.8 ED can be had for $450.. try to find something similar in Pentax-land).

And the D7000 can meter even with their old manual focus lenses (something no Pentax DSLR can do). I find it funny that Pentax talks about all the millions of manual focus Pentax glass, but can't meter properly. My (old new) Canon 40D can meter much more accurately than my K20D with screw-mount glass! and the D7000 has the aperture-coupling cam so it can sense the aperture on their old glass (they do talk about the 24 million Nikkors out there). that aperture cam is something that disappeared from Pentax SLR's in the 1990's with the crippled KAF2 mount.

[Manel Brand]

And the D7000 can meter even with their old manual focus lenses (something no Pentax DSLR can do). I find it funny that Pentax talks about all the millions of manual focus Pentax glass, but can't meter properly.

Not a problem to report with my K10 and old M42/K/M glass, sorry; exposure using stop-down metering works just fine.

[Big Dave]

I fail to see the downside with the D7000. Nikon primes are cheap (e.g. the highly rated 180mm f/2.8 ED can be had for $450.. try to find something similar in Pentax-land).

And the D7000 can meter even with their old manual focus lenses (something no Pentax DSLR can do). I find it funny that Pentax talks about all the millions of manual focus Pentax glass, but can't meter properly. My (old new) Canon 40D can meter much more accurately than my K20D with screw-mount glass! and the D7000 has the aperture-coupling cam so it can sense the aperture on their old glass (they do talk about the 24 million Nikkors out there). that aperture cam is something that disappeared from Pentax SLR's in the 1990's with the crippled KAF2 mount.

My K20D has no problem with proper exposure with any lens that I mount on it. I use DA's, K's and Tak M42's without issue. I also mount manual Nikkor's, all while focusing to infinity. Half of the manual Nikkors out there are pre-AI and won't mount on the D7000 without damage. They all mount on Pentax. Canon is a better choice then Nikon for old manual lenses, because of the shorter registration distance allows focusing at infinity. I used Nikon for many years and I still have all of my film gear, but I switched to pentax for digital because of the greater capabilities and reasonable cost.

Dave

[Pentaxor]

I fail to see the downside with the D7000. Nikon primes are cheap (e.g. the highly rated 180mm f/2.8 ED can be had for $450.. try to find something similar in Pentax-land).

And the D7000 can meter even with their old manual focus lenses (something no Pentax DSLR can do). I find it funny that Pentax talks about all the millions of manual focus Pentax glass, but can't meter properly. My (old new) Canon 40D can meter much more accurately than my K20D with screw-mount glass! and the D7000 has the aperture-coupling cam so it can sense the aperture on their old glass (they do talk about the 24 million Nikkors out there). that aperture cam is something that disappeared from Pentax SLR's in the 1990's with the crippled KAF2 mount.

no matter how highly rated the 180mm/2.8 is, it could match the A* 200/4 which is a topnotch lens.

just in case you don't know, not all Nikon manual lenses fit nor can be adapted on the current Nikon mount without having serious or complex surgical procedure. and you can't mount M42 lenses without some distance.

as far as metering is concerned, basing on the dpreview findings, the D7000 seems to have a problem with metering rather than the K-5. there are some issues that were mentioned about the D7000 but the things that I don't like about is the lack of SR for manual focus lens, less appealing and blotchy noises at higher ISOs compared to the K-5, and the missing and ever helpful pixel mapping feature that comes handy with the K-5. you don't want your D7000 to get serviced every 4 months just for the annoying stucked sensor pixels that shows on the images.

[orly_andico]

I'm not sure about you guys but both my K10D (now sold) and K20D meter wildly out with M or K lenses.

I believe this is well-documented. It's under-exposed by two stops at f/1.4, one stop at f/2.8, it's about bang-on at f/5.6 to f/8, then over-exposed one stop at f/11.

I can't be expected to remember those %$%$#! offsets every time I press the green button.

By contrast the 40D I just picked up, sure it can't stop down those M42 lenses with the green button, but it meters accurately (within 1/3 stop) in Av and M modes. It does over-expose by about 1 stop at small apertures (f/11 and up). But I don't use old lenses at small apertures anyway on Canon because focusing gets really tough.

On Pentax, yes, you can use small apertures because the body gives mechanical stopdown. But the metering is so wacky and weird, it's not funny.

There's no point comparing the Nikon 180/2.8ED with the A* 200/4. Just look at the price differential.

My point is.. excepting the pre-Ai lenses which don't have the indexing ring, Nikon has a manual-focus range (cheap) that's even bigger than what Pentax has (for K-mount). I wasn't talking about M42. And, while both Nikon and Pentax talk about compatibility with older lenses, the reality is that Pentax metering on M- and K-lenses (and M42 for that matter) is downright incompetent, while the D7000 (and the D200, 300, 700, 3, 2, and 1 before it) all can meter properly on Ai-S lenses and later.

The remapping of bad pixels is impressive and useful (K20D has it as well) but aside from my K20D I haven't seen other cameras with bad pixels! maybe I didn't look closely enough or use those other cameras long enough.

[orly_andico]

Not a problem to report with my K10 and old M42/K/M glass, sorry; exposure using stop-down metering works just fine.

I'd be massively impressed if this were true, as I've been using K10D and K20D for over three years now and could never get this mythical metering working properly.

As I mentioned above, there is a (varying) error that is aperture-dependent. So I have to keep that error in mind, or chimp the histogram afterward and take another shot (or shots). Kind of defeats the purpose of metering..

[snofox]

I'd be massively impressed if this were true, as I've been using K10D and K20D for over three years now and could never get this mythical metering working properly.

As I mentioned above, there is a (varying) error that is aperture-dependent. So I have to keep that error in mind, or chimp the histogram afterward and take another shot (or shots). Kind of defeats the purpose of metering..

I have been using screw mount Pentax lenses that I bought in 1975 with my K200D and K20D for over two years. I have no problems with metering with those lenses on either camera. If you think that any camera is going to automatically give you a correct exposure under any circumstance, you are going to have grief with any system you buy into.

But you seem determined. The Nikon is a great camera. Good luck with it.