Where to now? Upgrading my K5

Hello good people,

I'm in a bit of a pickle as I've decided to upgrade my trusty K5 in the near future however I have absolutely no idea what to do. It's served me well and still is however I constantly wish I could tether it either via cable or wireless (yep, I'm aware of PK_Tether etc.). I shoot products/jewellery, portraits/studio and occasionally interiors and being able to review the images on an external monitor/tablet would be a godsend.

Current lenses:
DA 50 1.8
DA 35 2.4
DA 55-300
Tamron 28-75 2.8
Kit

I love Pentax but seems like Canikon would be so much easier to tether...and then there's the K1 and K3II! Figured if I was willing to shell out on a 6D/D750, I think the budget right now is around £700-800 OR save up a bit more and decide later. Do you guys and girls have any suggestions or things I should consider before upgrading/switching?

Any help is appreciated!

All the best,
K

The K3II is a likely good fit for you. All the bells and whistles, plus physical controls like the K5, but with higher resolution and pixelshift, AA filter simulator and more!

I think there's a 'Flu-card' for remote viewing with the K3II.

The newer KP could do the job very well as well, plus it has WiFi for connecting, but it's above your price range.

A little story which I heard today from a canon user there is a slight problem with tethering a canon the camera connector breaks and it costs over £200 to fix by all accounts there is no warning so you could be half way through a shoot and it break

Do the K-70 or K-S2 have wifi app connection options?

Regardless I was going to ask what you need the tethering for? Reason being, have you considered an external monitor connected by hdmi?

@McGregNi Thanks! I've read about the Flu-Card and people only complain re their transfer speed and general pita so wasn't convinced it would do that good of a job. Unless someone has any real life experience with it? I didn't even think of KP if I'm honest - might need to do some homework although it looks like K3 might be the better option, like you said.

@stu65 £200 for a connector replacement?! Ouch! Saying this, I wonder how often it breaks? Is it the case with all Canons or a particular model?

@richandfleour Doesn't K-3 have better AF in low light? On my K5 it can be a nightmare so I tend to manually focus which can be challenging. I want tethering for macro work/focus stacking, studio work (fashion/portraits) and it seems it would be a neat thing to have for interior shooting, especially in tighter places (looking around for a wide lens but as I'm not sure which camera/system to go for, I'm still holding back).

I've been looking at comparisons between K1, 6D, K3 and D750/810 and K1 wows! Honestly, I seriously considered switching to 6D until I saw those ISO/DR tests and it just made my decision this much more difficult!

Newer cameras will have focus peaking and digital zoom in live view, making manual focussing much more easier. For manual focus lenses, or subject matter where the exact focus point is very important, I'd suggest manual focussing like this, with the camera on a tripod and the subject matter stationary.

You can then review on the camera, zooming into to 100% to confirm the focus point. A larger hdmi monitor could assist greatly with this process I would have thought?

I don't see autofocuss as being the right tool for the above use case. Actually if it is static content, then pixel shift becomes another feature you might want to consider. I believe this is on the K-70, K3 ii, K-1 and KP models.

I bought an external hdmi connected monitor from a member a little while back. I do a lot of manual focus macro work and my old eyes are not too clever any more. The monitor is a wonderful tool and would certainly be suitable for jewellery shots and the like

Yep, agreed. As much as I like the optical viewfinder, the digital approach is far more accurate.
Enable focus peaking and digital zoom in live view, scroll around the screen until you're on the area you are interested in and manually focus specifically on that point.
Being live view, you're seeing exactly what the sensor will see when the final shot is taken, and an external monitor removes the need to squint at a tiny rear screen.
You can zoom and review the image once taken in the same way, pressing the playback button and zooming right in to confirm focus/depth of field etc in your required area.

Might solve your problem, and being a straight cable, you don't have to fluff around with networking/wifi etc either.

Good morning gents,

@richandfleur My current setup for jewellery is sound for now as I do use PK_Tether and Lightroom's hot folder - works fine until PK_Tether decides to freeze my camera and I have to reset everything. I never auto focus when photographing jewellery though - messes up my stacks. Admittedly I haven't thought of the advantages of Pixel Shift but have now seen the examples and it actually makes sense! I can see how this would be great for the work I do, thanks! Another reason why I wanted tether was for studio shots/portraits hence why I was hoping for a little more than the workarounds. Unfortunately, CameraRanger isn't compatible with Pentaxes and Lightroom isn't too happy with anything other than K-1 and MF.

@davidwozhere That might be a good idea actually. Can see the advantage of this for macro work however might be a bit tricky to do interior shoots seen as I'd be wired. It's a start though - might pick one up and give it a go.

Has anybody used Ricoh's IT2? Lightroom's website states that one would need this software in order to use their plugin with K1 - is there no way around this? Spending £200 on something that's available for free for other systems seems a bit ludicrous!

Have looked at KP now and think if I was willing to spend money on KP, I might as well save up and get K1 instead (if I'm not going to get a K3 that is!). The only reason I was considering a system switch is the darn tethering! Come on Ricoh!

K

Why do you actually want to upgrade it if it's all working for you with what you have? I could understand if you'd seen something else that tickled your fancy and you're checking compatibility etc. but that doesn't seem to be the case. Keep the working setup you have for your jewellery shoots and get something newer for other things where tethering isn't an issue.
Then having got something else you could test it out to see if it would do a better job than the K-5. It might not!

Afternoon,

I wanted to upgrade mainly for tethering (studio, portraits, interiors). Tethering K5 at home studio works fine, but bit of a hassle when shooting on location. I figured it may be a good time to justify a change so looked at the cameras I listed. I was about to get a 100mm macro + wide zoom but thought I'd ask for opinions before I do that in case I decided to upgrade to newer model/different system. As I mentioned, I do not need to do it now and I'm happy to wait for any good deals but would much rather know my options/others opinions before the time comes.

K

As with all these things there's pluses and minuses. I guess tethering is always going to be a hassle on location whichever system you opt for so it depends how essential tethering is. The K-1 has a great optical viewfinder so I would never consider lugging PCs and things to basically do the same job. If tethering is essential for what you do and you don't use the optical viewfinder is Pentax the way forward? You might be better off with a mirrorless, eg Sony Alpha. Don't though ask me what that would be like for tethering as I haven't a clue!

As above, what aspect of the tether do you need?

An hdmi monitor will allow you to focus easily (much more precisely than an optical video finder) and review back zoomed into to confirm focus.

Personally I'd find eye tracking AF much more useful for portraits, but Pentax doesn't have that yet.

Evening gents,

Just a quick answer before bed. I wanted tether mainly for the client (studio) so they can review what I'm getting. Macro work - I'd be happy to make do and adapt. On location/properties - so that I can see what I'm looking at and won't have to disturb the camera on a tripod and I can control it wirelessly.

Saying this, I may have found a simple work around for studio - pktriggercord (supports K3 and newer models now) and Bridge, albeit won't be able to introduce a basic import edit. I've also found a 'work in progress' wireless app for Pentax cameras with WiFi so possibility of K1 other than FluCard?

I'll be honest - I haven't even thought of looking into Sony's so might have a quick look.

Just wanted to say thank you for all your replies and suggestions, much appreciated. It's always been hard for me to make gear decisions!

For anyone interested: I think I've narrowed it down to K3 II or 6D.

How much of a step up from K5 would K3 II be? I'm sure someone already asked that but in a nutshell? If I was to go with 6D, I'd probably need to sell all my gear although I have a feeling I'd keep it for a while until I slowly grab all the lenses I need/want for 6D. I had a look at Fuji XT-1 and although body can be had for around the same price as K3, lenses are a bit dearer! Definitely not for my current budget.

Tanks in advance
K