New DSLR - Pentax K5

[HinFrance]

I'll take a wild stab in the dark that the Nikkor cost a wee bit more . .

[Sue Allen]

Mine did'nt cost much more as I bought it just before prices rocketed 2 years ago -£289 then but £400 ish now. Pentax does lose out a bit when it comes to good longer zooms - nice primes like the 200mm and 300mm if you've got the means though. Think I might just hang on to my 70-300 vr for now [given what I'd get for it on ebay] - on a cheap Nikon body it would be nice back up for next summer. Looks like a third party zoom for the K-5 - possibly wait to try and get another Sigma 50-150 f2.8 s/hand as that's been my lens of choice over the past year. The Pentax 60-250 looks very nice but even s/hand they're somewhat expensive!

[HinFrance]

I'm sure you're right about the 3rd party zoom, especially as most of the Sigmas seem to come with image stabilisation giving you the best of both worlds.

[Mr Bump]

Originally Posted by HinFrance

I'm sure you're right about the 3rd party zoom, especially as most of the Sigmas seem to come with image stabilisation giving you the best of both worlds.

That's an interesting comment H. For some reason I thought the Pentax and Sony versions of the Sigma HSM lenses had the image stabilisation facility disabled. Does that mean there is the option to use the lens-based system or Pentax's integral SR system?

The points raised by you and Sue above regarding suitable lenses are exactly what is making me hold back on a K-5 purchase at present. My head still tells me to go with the D7000 even though I am convinced the K-5 is the better choice for my needs. I will await the availability of the new Pentax 18-135 before making my final decision. If that lens gets good reports it will be perfect for my travel requirements. I would then pick up used Pentax primes for general use.

[HinFrance]

Some do, some don't. You have to check the lens specifications to find out.

The Pentax Forums review of the 18-135 is out now. Pretty shallow review IMHO. It's weatherproof and has a new DC (rather than SDM) focus motor. Optically it seems to be 'OK', but not enough to make me want to buy it over the much cheaper Siggy 18-125 HSM (which happens to be one of the ones with no IS for Sony and Pentax fittings ).

[GeoffWessex]

I see the Pentax 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 is now available - what a great kit lens for the K-5! Apparently it has very quiet, faster focusing, and a far superior lens to the standard 18-55mm kit lens. $540 in USA, but probably at least 500 quid in the UK.

Details here.

[Mr Bump]

Thanks for the link H and Geoff. An interesting first review of the 18-135 but I will wait for more.

I too have considered the Sigma 18-125 which is a very good lens in many ways but I gravitate towards the Pentax lens for a few reasons - and inevitably its high launch price will drop in time.

Like Sue Allen I have concerns about the reliability of Pentax's SDM motor and their 12-month guarantee. The new 18-135 marks a move by Pentax to the proven AF motor type used extensively by their competitors, which is no bad thing. The fact that we can probably look forward to lenses of DA* quality with the improved AF system makes me feel a lot better about going with Pentax. I just hope that Hoya gives them all the backing they need.

I wonder, also, whether Pentax will be able to shoehorn the new AF drive into the superb Limited lenses, which they were unable to do with the SDM motor.

[Eyeayen]

After holding the Nikon I also held the Pentax K5, it felt nice, I've used both Nikon and Canon before and got on okay however the menu system on the Pentax seemed long winded and not as nice to use as either Canon or Nikon have in the past. That said I didn't spend long with it, I didn't have a manual and I've used the other 2 before so it was something I wasn't at all used to.

[Sue Allen]

Have'nt held the D7000 but reports seem to indicate it's very like the D90 so it should be well designed and easy to use. Having used Nikon,Canon, Fuji, Olympus and Pentax, I think it's mainly a matter of getting into the swing of whatever you use and after a while it should become second nature. I think the design that Nikon developed into the D300s is probably the best for me - it was just that bit too big to be 100% perfect. Olympus E-1 was another great body. The K-5 is'nt that different from the D300 in terms of basic controls - all the things you might want to change quickly are pretty easy to access. The more I handle it the more I love the shape, feel and size.
With sunshine all day today it was a case of spending 3 hours this morning walking westward along the riverside and after a bit of lunch another 1 and a half hours this afternoon eastwards - not that much about to photograph so plenty of photos of my dog and any available birds! Also a case of triallling the 55-300 lens - a bit of pre focussing helps with the hunting of the af and it is optically very good for lens of its type. Very light too, attached to the K-5 it's a very lightweight birding combo. With plenty of light I was able to use reasonable shutter and aperture settings - TAV is a really useful option. Think I need to invest in some fast SD cards as it did seem to take a fair time to write the images to the very basic card I was using.
Pictures may have lost some quality in re-sizing and uploading but I can only say I was very pleased when I downloaded the originals onto my laptop - shot in JPEG using the 'natural' setting - cropped and minimal tweaking - nothing special...but then I don't claim to be an 'artist' or 'tog' [god how I hate that word!!!]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greypoi...th/5216020706/

[HinFrance]

Sue, Just had a peek at your 55-300 stream. As you say, surprisingly sharp. Is it the DA-L ED or the DA-ED?

Very impressed with the clarity and colours. I think I'll set my K5 to natural when it finally turns up. And perhaps save up for this 55-300 - I currently have a couple of Tamrons that go to 300, but the 28-300 is so soft at the long end it's practically unusable; the 70-300 is not much better.

Eyeayen - I borrowed a Canon 500D for a week in the summer. I couldn't find anything I wanted in the (to me) horrifically illogical and confusing menus, so ended up using it on auto most of the time The main problem I had with is was the multipoint focusing - it would often focus on something I wasn't interested in and I could for the life of me work out how to switch to spot focusing - I'm not even sure if it has that feature.