Hello Everyone in Pentax land! For the past two months, I have been spending many happy hours reading and learning in PentaxForums. I have noticed that people are so very friendly and helpful! This is a great community! I am so impressed that people take the time to provide suggestions, comments, advice, photo critiques, website links, and so much more! What a great place to be! Special thanks to the moderators too!
I would now like to introduce myself, and also ask for some advice re my intended Pentax purchase.
I have shot film from 1970s to 2005 (SLR, Canon A1 and Canon AT1). I worked very hard for a few decades shooting landscapes and travel photos in film (mainly slides, which I will now be scanning). I have also done some macro (flowers) and abstract.
I started digital in 2005 with a good Canon PowerShot G5 (5mp), then later got a few Canon point & shoot Digital Elphs because they were so small and convenient. As a single mother in recent years, I found that most of my photos were of my son and my dog, and I had few opportunities to do creative work. Last year while I was camping, I upgraded to a lovely Panasonic Lumix ZS40 (30x optical zoom, Leica lens, wifi, GPS) but it is still just a point & shoot, although truly a convenient and versatile travel camera. My dog is getting very good at posing for me, although I have far too many photos of his backside as we hike the trails!!
I now want to upgrade to a DSLR, and decided in May 2015, after exhaustive (and exhausting!!) research to buy Pentax. Actually, I first found out about Pentax cameras while standing in the mist at Niagara Falls (Ontario side) some months ago, as I was trying to shield my Panasonic Lumix from the spray of water! I started chatting with a couple who were also taking photos, and they told me that they just love their Pentax K-5, including the weather resistant feature!
After much consideration, I would absolutely love to buy a Pentax K-3 II (or a K-3), and an SMC Pentax-DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR lens. However, my dreams are so far beyond my budget that it is ridiculous! I would appreciate some advice regarding how I should approach moving over to Pentax.
I live in Ontario, Canada, about one hour west of Toronto. I am quite comfortable buying used items, and am lucky enough to live near several cities where I can purchase used goods either privately or through camera stores. I would also be very happy to purchase used items from the members of the Pentax Forums. I am discouraged by the plummeting value of the Canadian dollar, which makes it more difficult for me purchase goods from the USA, but I would still consider purchasing goods from Pentax Forums members in the USA.
First, I would like to find out (although this may be a silly question) if any of my old Canon lenses can be adapted to work with a Pentax DSLR. I have read that any of the Pentax lenses, including those developed for film cameras, can be used on the Pentax DSLRs. I have a Canon 50 mm 1.4, a Tamron 24-48 3.5, a Tamron 28-200 3.8, a Vivitar 70-210 3.5 Macro. I am quite used to manual focusing, so that is not a issue.
Second, I would like to ask if I should invest in an older DSLR, such as K-7 or K-5, or even K-50, and one older inexpensive zoom lens to get me started. I have read that the lenses are more important than the camera, and that lenses last a very long time, whereas camera technology is outdated quickly. With this in mind, perhaps I can purchase a few used lenses over the next couple of years, and then upgrade my camera. Or am I viewing this backwards?
ANY and all advice would be much appreciated. I am sorry to trouble people with my request for advice, but I have searched and read extensively on this forum, and have not found information directly related to my two questions. Thus I am now asking for assistance if people could kindly spare a few minutes to help me. Thank you so very much!
