Serious guidance required, please.

It as been a very long time since I last posted.
The reason is simple. I went over to Canon last December. The main reasons for selling my K-r were as follows.

1. Alleged front and back focus problems with all of Pentax cameras.

2. Poor or slow auto focus.

3. Continual hunting during focusing.

4. Problems when using camera in tungsten and or low light circumstances.

At the time there appeared not to be any general consensus of agreement in answers to these problems. So, being of a novice in matters DSLR I jumped ship and currently own a Canon 650D.

While I have managed to move on from fully automatic mode, I now feel confident enough to use Av and Tv most of the time, I would really like to make use of the K-30 with it's array of 'scene options'. I will never become fully aquainted with 'manual' mode. For these reasons I am thinking of coming back to Pentax and also that I have always favoured Pentax since my Pentax ME cameras many years ago.

I am wondering whether or not the above mentioned alleged problems have been sorted out by now. All genuine assistance will be gratefully accepted.

There were no such problems, otherwise the Pentax marque wouldn't have been viable. It just goes to show how careless comments on the web can influence new users.

The key issue was whether or not you experienced such problems, if you didn't it doesn't matter what others say to the contrary.

I tested the K-r for EPZ and found it to be excellent. No focusing problems, no hunting, AF was fast and it was great also in low light.

Clearly you are unhappy now with your Canon, which I can't comment on, but if you did buy a K30 then you should be able to buy it with confidence. It's a great camera.

It's just a shame you never got to enjoy your K-r.

Hi Jan

It was a common problem in the wonderful world of Hi Fi. If you didn`t have a Linn Sondek and Quad amps and preamp how could you possibly listen to the awful noise produced by anything less.

Same with photography, the K30 is a champion bit of kit as is the rest of the Pentax range. If they were as bad as you believed then you wouldn`t be on this forum as there wouldn`t be any point in Pentax. As John obviously says "Pentax would not be viable." No doubt some things can be measured but not perceived by the Human eye.

Enjoy photography, if it pleases you, you have succeeded if it doesn`t please you try different settings/position and don`t forget that the largest errors are made by the operator not the camera. I hope you buy a K30/K50 `cos you will not be disappointed.

Please just get out there and enjoy the takings! It`s not a dress rehearsal it`s the only life in which you are going to hold a camera.

Ahhh memories...... I still miss my Linn - sold it to pay for my first wedding - what a waste - should have kept the Linn - it made a much more pleasing noise than the ex and would have lasted much longer than the marriage did

Carl

I did a mutiny in 2012 and jumped ship to Canon. Thought it was a better move to start a fresh with the biggest camera producer rather than update my K10D with another Pentax. Trouble is i didn't realise how accustomed to Pentax i had become, just didn't gel with the 500D and then the 40D let me down. I hadn't invested any large sums in new lenses, so dusted off the K10D and had a riot. Forgot what a great camera it was, despite its age.
Fast forward to 2013 and i changed the K10D for the K30. Wow what a difference. The K10D was lovely but boy is it way off the K30 for noise, speed, operation. Whole new ball game. And the K30 felt a whole load better than the 500D (which always felt a bit low rent).
The 650D obviously has a few things the K30 doesn't, like the articulated screen and superior movie mode. So you made need to decide your priorities. And Canon have a much larger choice of new lenses.
Personally i wouldn't swap from Pentax. The K30 feels like a proper camera in the hand, with a proper size grip and well built. And the lenses Pentax (Sigma, Tamron) do offer are cracking.

That's an issue with any DSLR and is fixed by applying AF Adjustment parameters. Pentax haev such a facilty. I believe some Canon models do not. I'd never buy a DSLR without the ability to adjust AF per lens


I wouldn't call it poor or slow, but he original K-5 AF left something to be desired in comparison to other makes and has been improved in the K-5II

Nope.

Well only for AF, which severely front focussed in low light,especially tungsten in early K-5s. Firmwar 1.03 went a long way to improving this, but I had to have my first K-5 replaced becuase of this problem. The K-5II apparently has vastly improved low light focussing.


No reason not to return to Pentax.

My appreciation to those of you who have given assistance. Although I like my 650D, I still feel that I should really have a Pentax. To enable this I will need to offload some lenses and the 650D, which may take some time.

My next post will probably be to inform the forum that I have reverted back to a Pentax. Thank you all.

I have both 650D & K-30 which i suggest you to buy one the K-30. 650D is just an entry level as they promoted but not for K-30 (which Pentax promote the same) . K-30 has a lot of advance features like time lapse photography, adjustable "K" of white balance, SR system which no need to worry about VR or IS system inside the lens of other brands. It's such a great camera.

Please come back to be Pentaxian. Please ! Please !

Can't comment on the merits of other brands. Other than Pentax I only ever used a Nikon FM2 in film days. But I can recommend the K30. I love mine to bits. They said it was an entry level camera when it came out but its way better than an entry level model.
I wanted a second camera to the K5 that would perform better than my much loved K10.
It did that and more. I use the K30 alongside the K5 as an equal partner, not a second body. Its so good that when Pentax brought out its successor they didn't even change the camera, they just gave the body a bit of a face lift.
Now you can pick up a K30 for much less than I paid for mine when the model was first released. What's not to like about it?
David

PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout

It looks like a long wait to return to Pentax. I have now had my Canon 'stuff' for sale for about a fortnight without one enquiry. I am offering it at a rather low price as well. Never mind.

I am now a little closer to getting a K-30 and am having to choose between the twin lens kit of 18-55 WR with the 50-200 WR or the 18-55 non WR with the 55-300 non WR kit.

I would appreciate opinions of whether it might be better to go for the kit with the 55-300 lens as I like to do shots of birds in flight etc. What difference does the gap between 200 to 300 make, if any at all?:

It can't make no difference at all, but in terms of birds the longer lens will be far more useful.

I've got the WR kit lens and a non WR longer reach lens, after much input and discussion from other helpful forum users here.

Personally I think you'd want the WR version of the 18-55 lens. This is the lens you're likely to turn to (if you're on a budget like me) for landscape shots, which is typically when you're going to benefit from the WR aspect.

I looked at the 650D ( or the 600D) from Canon originally also but then along came the K-30. The Canons have better video capabilities, both out of the box and with the amazing magic lantern add on firmware. Canon has benefited greatly from this open source development project that works on their hardware.

I decided I wanted a good Image Quality camera for Stills primarily, so the Pentax won that battle hands down. For the price point it simply leagues ahead of any other compatible 'entry level' consumer type offerings, despite being anything but entry level by their standards.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on the question.

The K-r is a prize winning camera, but if you're looking for a replacement, the K-30 will exceed everything else at that price point, or the K-50 or K-500 if you want the latest replacements for the K-r.

Worth noting that the latest 55-300 is WR (in shops soon)!

I love my K-30. Can highly recommend. The image quality is fantastic. I can't really comment on the AF because I almost exclusively use manual focus lenses.


What exactly are the issues with the movie mode on the k-30? I've used it quite a bit and found it to be excellent.

I know that some people don't like it because there is no external mic jack and that there is no button to activate video recording from photo mode (you have to select a different option from the wheel menu on the top). But neither of those have ever bothered me.

If I want to record video then I am generally in video mode. I'm not often in a situation where I am taking photos and then suddenly want to record video.

If you are a serious videographer then you will be most likely be using external sound (with an XLR mic) anyway. I've made various films with a friend of mine (he uses a Canon 7D) and the k-30 stands up very well against it.

We made this for a choreographer friend:

http://www.electriccopyfilms.com/andtimeyet.htm

Best viewed in HD. The footage is probably 70% Canon 7D and 30% K-30. I can't pick one from the other in the final product. In this case we were not recording sound anyway so the mic issue didn't even come up.

One big advantage of the pentax is having shake reduction on all lenses during video. I tend to use older lenses so the having shake reduction when shooting hand held is a real boon.

Are there any other problems that people have had using the k-30 (or other pentax cameras) for video?