Sell and Upgrade? K-x to D90???

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pjd88

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Hi All,

In Novemeber I purchased a Pentax k-x plus 18-55mm and 55-300mm DA-L Lenses. I have also added a AF200fg flashgun and a old manual pentax-a 50mm 1.7 prime. This was my first DSLR and I've really enjoyed having it....

Now in May/June im going to see a bonus of around £600 that I can spend on new gear. Originally I was considering a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 or Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4 as an uprgrade to my kit lens alongside a decent flashgun something like Pentax af360 or Metz 48.

..........However I am now considering if i want to invest money into the pentax brand and only have the upgrade options of either a K-7 or K-5.

I'm worried about spending money on more pentax gear and being stuck with only two upgrade options later on. (I hope to progress my gear, as I progress my skills)

After looking around at Nikon and Canon alteratives i've worked out with selling my current setup and adding the bonus money i could buy a....

Nikon D90 with 18-105 VR, Flashgun and Nikon 70-300VR


I think Nikon would be my choice as have two other Nikon users in my family, (although if there was a better canon alternative i'm not blinded to all brands! :))

Would this be a substantial upgrade in terms of picture quality and features or would the difference in the image quality be very small?

Please help me, i'm not good at decisions! :'(
 
The d90 has the same sony cmos sensor as your pentax so it would be more of a sideways move than an upgrade body wise. Also you'd lose in body stabilisation so you'd wouldn't be able to use older lenses and get stabilisation like you can with the pentax. Just because you have £600 doesn't mean you should spend it immediately or spend all of it ;)

What lens options are not available in pentax fit that are essential? What doesn't your pentax do that you want it to?

The top line pentax has the same 16mp sensor that the nikon D7000 uses and the much cheaper sony A580. It's all very well having lots of bodies in a range but it just means you end up upgrading more often as there will always be another body with slightly better features for a little more. With sony/pentax there are fewer bodies but the differences between them are more significant. A lot of it is just clever marketing.

If you have lots of people you can borrow expensive nikon lenses from then it might be worth a switch :)
 
I was in the same boat as you last year, albeit with a sony instead and was thinking about upgrading my kit lens, but instead decided to do a complete U-turn and get a canon 7d. In all honesty I would consider the image quality of my pics is better (mostly due to better glass) but probably not x10 the price difference I have spent in the last yr on stuff (but hey I'm not complaining). If you think you'll be investing on lots of extra's then it maybe worth considering for a wider range of upgrades/used equipment from the bigger two, but not necessarily for a IQ jump, if that makes any sense!
 
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K-x versus D90

The K-5 and D7000 are sufficiently similar not to be worth swapping brands for. When/if you have £1K spare for a body things will have changed, so don't regard the K-7 and K-5 as your only options in Pentax.

For portraits and minimal post-processing requirement, you could try a Fujifilm S5 Pro and use Nikkor lenses. Pentax focusing is slowish but accurate: do you need faster focusing?
 
Thank you for all your replies.

In terms of lenses the one that springs to mind is a £99 Nikon f1.8 50mm prime as it has autofocusing and is not available that cheap in pentax fit (this is why i have a manual focus f1.7).

Also second hand gear would be much easier to find.

I would also like to carry a lens with a slightly better range of focal length than my current 18-55mm, for light travelling days out etc. i know that 'super zooms' such as the 18-200 and 18-250 are considered a comprimise in terms of IQ, therfore i have been looking for alternatives such as sigma or pentax 18-125 or a sigma 17-70mm. What attracts me to a D90 is the 18-105mm kit lens as this would probably meet my 'one lens' needs for light days out. (i.e not photography based trips) which to my knowledge has recieved good reviews.

I would also like to know how the autofocus compares in terms of speed between the d90 and k-x? and whether you can see and select autofocus points through the viewfinder. Autofocus speed is something that i have seen criticised on pentax cameras - is this true???

The k-5 would be a logical future upgrade but the price is too high for now (around £950-1000) what cameras would compare to a k-5 in other brands?

Sorry for all the questions, but i'm a bit of thinker, and have to get it all off my chest before i can sleep easy at night!

I really do appreciate all your comments :)
 
Best thing is for you to go to a local camera store with a memory card and try out a d90 (if you can manage to find one) or something close like a d7000 which maybe easier to find. That way you can test these things out like af speed and other things yourself as a lot of this comparison stuff can be very subjective in practice.
 
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