Pentax K-r ??

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Caravanwalks

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Ian
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Hi I am looking to upgrade from a bridge camera to a Digital SLR, on a limited budget therefore buying secondhard.

The Pentax K-r seems to give reasonable prices on E-Bay.

I am looking for a camera that I can add other lens to take pictures of my son & daughter at Football & Netball, plus general landscapes.

Would the Pentax be a good choice, any other recommendations gratefully received. Would a Canon EOS 400D be a good equivalent.

Hope this makes sense.

Cheers
 
the pentax is newer and has better quality images not to say the canons are no good, its just older tec, a thing also to consider is the lenses, have a think what lenses you would need pentax longest lens is 300mm but third partys make longer lenses. whre as canon and nikon has a wider range of lenses, pentaxhar built in sr(shake reduction which is nice and works with any lenses, maybe also worth looking for a pentax k20d or samsung gx20(same as the pentax k20d) or k7 which probaly will be aboout the same price but have better build quality and have weather sealing which is very good,
 
scottthehat said:
the pentax is newer and has better quality images
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I think that's a bit of a sweeping statement, I'd agree with you the newer pentax sensor will offer better high ISO performance and dynamic range, but the image quality at normal ISO's is almost entirely down to the lens (assuming good technique).

But I would agree, the pentax is an excellent starting camera, and the K20D or samsung re-badged version are also well worth considering :)

If you're looking at the K20/K-7, also give some consideration to the canon 20/30/40D and nikon D200/D90, all can be had pretty cheap second hand now and have their strengths as excellent camera bodies. I'd be inclined to recommend this kind of body (older but made as semi-pro bodies) if you'll be shooting sport, the higher continuous shooting speeds and more external controls will be useful (One of the things I really loved when I moved from a fuji bridge camera to my 40D was the extra buttons and accessibility of everything, it just makes shooting nicer when speed is important).
 
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The K-r is a great camera and does things that the others cant. Best value for money I reckon!
 
Thanks everyone for their help so I have the following options:

Pentax K-r this seems to be a newer model than the K-x (is that correct?)
pentax k20d
samsung gx20

Pentax k7 - think this out of my current price range
canon 20D - 8Mp
Canon 30D - 8MP
Canon 40D - 10Mp seems to be more expensive then the Pentax and Samsung's
Nikon D200 Ebay only seem to have US sellers of this
Nikon D90 - think this out of my price range

Price wise the top three seem to win with the spec as well - Am I on the right track?
 
Personally I would take the K-r out of the three you have listed as possibilities.
The K20D/GX20 have better build quality and weatherproofing but apart from that the K-r is better in every other respect. (FPS/DR/ISO/Liveview/AF speed to name but a few).
 
scottthehat said:
mike is right but the other can still do a great job, what will you be taking pics of mainly.
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Scott, a variety of things to be honest. A bit of landscapes when out walking the dogs (it's a good excuse to stop and rest whilst the boss disappears at a pace I cannot keep up with..).

Some wildlife - mainly Zoos, and the Children at Sports events.

Probably too wide a range to focus a camera on, which is some of the reason why I have a bridge camera. I had a while back upgraded by bridge camera from a Lumix Fz7 to a FujiFilm S4000 - I am not really happy with the Fuji.

Thanks for all your help
 
ok well all the cams will do that with no probs, the kr will have the best af pentax, but the others will be ok.
heres some shots from my k20d.
IMGP7174.jpg


SJB10042a.jpg
 
Scott

Just been reading the reviews on K-r and What Digital Camera.com and they mention shutter noise any comments pls.

"In fact, noisy operation is a bit of an issue with the K-r generally as the shutter mechanism is far from quiet too. In many situations this won't be a problem, but at a wedding or when shooting wildlife, or indeed anywhere where a noisy camera might be an issue, it's worth noting that the K-r is almost certain to make itself heard."
 
What is your budget? Any of the entry level cameras out there should be just fine :)

Pentax and Sony will give you stabilisation on the camera, rather than the lenses, which means that all your lenses are stabilised.

For a beginner to DSLRs (I'm making an assumption!) your options for (new) cheaper bodies are:

Pentax k-x and k-r
Sony a580, a33 (uses an electronic viewfinder), a35 (newer and better than a33)
Nikon D3100, D5100
Canon EOS 1000D (quite old now, but cheap!), 1100D, 550D, 600D

Any of those will do the job fine :) If you go for an older second hand model you will need to make a few sacrifices e.g. lower resolution rear LCD, worse high ISO performance but the cameras should still do a job :)

Budget is definitely key here.
 
OK, well for sports you are going to want a longer lens in all likelihood, than the standard kit lens.

You are unlikely to get a new camera and two lenses for your budget. You might be able to find a k-x with the 18-55mm and 50-200mm lenses for around £350.00 new if you are lucky, this is the closest I could find:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PENTAX-Kx...Cameras_DigitalCameras_JN&hash=item3cbce7150a

More likely, you should look for a second hand kit or camera and kit lens and buy the longer lens seperately e.g:

Canon EOS 1000D + 18-55mm IS = £230ish 2nd hand
Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS = £120ish 2nd hand = £350.00 in total
 
K-r shutter is probably no noisier than any other camera in it's price bracket .. you are after all in the lower price range for a DSLR and so can't expect it to have the same quality as say the Pentax K-5 (which is very quiet). I was surprised how noisy the Canon 50D shutter is when I first got it ... still makes me flinch a bit when I use it, especially after I have been using the K-5 and then swap over.
 
manualfocus-g said:
OK, well for sports you are going to want a longer lens in all likelihood, than the standard kit lens.

You are unlikely to get a new camera and two lenses for your budget. You might be able to find a k-x with the 18-55mm and 50-200mm lenses for around £350.00 new if you are lucky, this is the closest I could find:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PENTAX-Kx...Cameras_DigitalCameras_JN&hash=item3cbce7150a

More likely, you should look for a second hand kit or camera and kit lens and buy the longer lens seperately e.g:

Canon EOS 1000D + 18-55mm IS = £230ish 2nd hand
Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS = £120ish 2nd hand = £350.00 in total
Click to expand...

I will look into that option, as well. The longer lens may have to wait for a period! I don't want to rush and make a mistake like I did with the Fuji!

Thanks again
 
Mike.P said:
K-r shutter is probably no noisier than any other camera in it's price bracket .. you are after all in the lower price range for a DSLR and so can't expect it to have the same quality as say the Pentax K-5 (which is very quiet). I was surprised how noisy the Canon 50D shutter is when I first got it ... still makes me flinch a bit when I use it, especially after I have been using the K-5 and then swap over.
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Understand thanks for making that clear. I wish I found this forum earlier:)
 
You will find that Pentax sensors deliver very good colour and contrast. I have a 1D Mk iv and a 7D but I would not not be parted from my K20. Pentax also make some top lenses like the DFA 100 macro and the 50-135.
 
Oggy said:
You will find that Pentax sensors deliver very good colour and contrast. I have a 1D Mk iv and a 7D but I would not not be parted from my K20. Pentax also make some top lenses like the DFA 100 macro and the 50-135.
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Maybe the CCD Pentax sensors like the one in K20D have something different but I can't say that the K-5 is any better than a D7k in terms of image quality of the picture. If anything I found that the RAW from D7K manages to give a tiny bit more when highlights have been blown.

Having said that plenty of other qualities not found on its peers and that 50-135 is sublime! :)
 
Mike.P said:
K20D sensor is Cmos ... K10D is Ccd

Personally I preferred the Ccd in the K10D.
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Sorry this is what i was referring to, as in the new CMOS seem to have the different rendition of colours, to my eyes the RAW from K-5/D7k is very similar.
 
i had a k-x as my first dslr, found it to be a good bit of kit. origionally i went for it as i had previously had pentax 35mm slr's and still have old lenses that will fit the dslr. as for image quality i think that it is very good, cant really comment on other cameras but was more than happy with the k-x. the shutter is a little noisey but being that i mainly shoot lanscapes it didnt really bother me. upgraded to a k5 now mainly for the weather sealing, great bit of kit and reasonably priced!

a couple of shots i took with the k-x so you can get an idea on lanscapes

IMGP6852web.jpg


IMGP6901.jpg
 
vrapan said:
Sorry this is what i was referring to, as in the new CMOS seem to have the different rendition of colours, to my eyes the RAW from K-5/D7k is very similar.
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might be wrong but i was under the impression that the d7000 & k-5 had the same sensor!?
 
tomh1982 said:
might be wrong but i was under the impression that the d7000 & k-5 had the same sensor!?
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Yes they do, and thus the very similar colours/image quality. I was saying that the whole Pentax has nicer colours is not quite something I have witnessed between my K-5 and the D7K
 
AndyWest said:
The K-r is a great camera and does things that the others cant. Best value for money I reckon!
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I am too looking at this camera but I have heard the software that comes with the camera sometimes doesn't work with a PC. can you tell me if this is the case please?
 
Mike.P said:
Not seen that one before. I don't use the Pentax software as I prefer Lightroom but I have installed it and it worked fine on my windows 7 laptop.
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I have Xp, i don't have PicBridge so I would have to use the software to upload the image's. perhaps they were using an older system. The shots look amazing :)
 
I have not had any problems with Pentax software myself but I have heard others having problems. Solution is to select "Run as administrator".
 
LouiseTopp said:
I have Xp, i don't have PicBridge so I would have to use the software to upload the image's. perhaps they were using an older system. The shots look amazing :)
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To be honest I have never used any cameras supplied software. Read of the memory card using a reader. Always found the packages to big etc. Can I still do this if I am shooting in raw?
 
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