Originally posted by twilight_samurai At least going from Pentax to Nikon is easier than going to Canon, imho, as I find the ergonomics are more similar (I made the switch to Nikon last year).
There are way more Nikon users out there than Pentax so you're bound to encounter a lot of them who are more into the hardware aspect than the end results.
You pointed out that there are a lot of buttons and things on the D7000.. isn't that a GOOD thing? Gives the user easy access to functions, rather than having to menu dive. I'm not that familiar with the D7K but on my camera (D700) there are so many custom functions that I once I had set it up to behave the way I want it to, it works fantastic.
Ok.. you've listed a whole number of things your husband wishes the D7000 could do. Though I think you wrote that he chose it over Pentax due to it's video function implementation.. can you shed some light on how that's going for him? Before he bought the D7000, he must have tried out your K5 and found it lacking in certain respects, hence making the switch..
Almost sounds like he's suffering from buyer's remorse.
The main reason he went to Nikon was to "diversify". At the time, I had a K-5 on order, so he never got the chance to check it out. I had a K7 prior, and he'd used that. It was never a case of a Pentax "lacking".
If he had bought a K-5 too, then we would have had to duplicate much of the same kit as I have. When he went to Nikon, there were some things that we both "assumed" would be standard industry practice, and of course the "hype" that surrounds owning a Nikon. Nikon is "supposed" to be the best and the benchmark if you believe all the camera people.
(As a Pentaxian, I never felt that way - but you can't ignore the hype.)
We never imagined that some things that are so natural in one make, would be so different in another.
Sure, more buttons can be a good thing, but in the case of Nikon, they are not.
Take the image playback buttons. There are separate ones for magnify/decrease.
On the Pentax, it's done via one of the thumb wheels.
On the Nikon, the lever that controls manual focus/auto focus on the left side of the camera, also controls what focus mode you use?
On the Pentax, with one hand you can push the lens release, and with the other, take the lens off. The Nikon requires you to move out of shooting position and work the lens reversed.
The Pentax has pretty much everything you need to do on the right side.
The Nikon is all over the place.
The Pentax has a seamless GPS integration via the Hot Shoe.
The Nikon uses a GPS with a cable, that keeps a water-sealed door open.
The Pentax has a better image processing engine via the program lines.
The Nikon has required a lot more tweaking to get similar results.
The Pentax, when connected to an HDMI source, plays back the images crisply and cleanly. The Nikon doesn't seem to have the HDMI playback correct, as the image is pixelated and not easy to see.
The Nikon used it's focus assist light even when it's not THAT dark out.
The Pentax seems to hardly use the assist light and has great performance.
The Nikon lacks the cool "Hyper-Program" function of Pentax.
The video button is a big deal. I can sit down and use a remote to start and stop the video or tape the remote to the video head lever as a sort of cheap LANC. The Nikon requires that you STAND behind the camera and touch the button, so you have some video that you will throw away just because you had to touch the camera to start and stop it in video mode.
We both agree that the Nikon is a great camera, and we stand by our decision to diversify. However, the D7000 is not better than a K-5 in real shooting situations.
Just as people talk down about owning a Pentax (outside of Pentaxians), the same works the other way when it comes to owning a Nikon. In the middle ground between the two extremes, the Pentax K-5 wins.
Now, of course I am a lifelong Pentaxian, and anyone can say I am influencing my husband, which may be true to an extent. However, we understand that nothing lasts forever, and we have changed brand loyalty over the years. Actually, I am the brand loyalist, my husband is not. So when he says to me that he should have bought the K-5, I remind him that we needed to diversify and keep using the competition, in case something drastic ever happens to Pentax.