Russ wrote:
There's been a couple of K7's on the classifieds here in the last few days. One for £155 and the other for £200, so definitely affordable if you keep away from the over inflated prices on Ebay.
The big improvement the K7 has over the K20D is its continuous shooting rate. The K20D is really slloooowwww......... While the K7 is super speedy. That's the hugely better processor at work in the K7. The K7 is outwardly identical to the K5 as well. Uses all the same accessories which is handy. As prices are roughly the same, avoiding Ebay, for the K20D and K7, its well worth seeking out the K7 for the right price.

It's been a while since i owned my K10D but i met up with another member for a photo session and he had a K10D. You forget what a difference 0.5" makes to the screen size. The 2.5" screens looked amazing when they first came out. Now look puny. How on earth did we get by with 1.5" and 1.8" screens? But the K10D was still a lovely camera to hold and use. And pics at iso 100-400 looked amazing. Still not bad at 800.

screwdriver wrote:
Sorry Mac, the cheapest way to get a camera with this sensor is a K-01, there's a lot wrong about the K-01, it looks and handles like a brick, you have to grip it to hold it, you discover muscles in your hand you never knew you you had.

There's no viewfinder only a rear screen which can be impossible to see in bright sunlight, holding the camera at arm's length to see the screen is not the best for camera stability etc. etc., but the image quality is every bit as good as the K5.

Along with other mirrorless cameras it has some good points too.

Old manual focus lenses work well with the K-01, focus peaking highlights the part of the image that is in focus, it's quick and easy to use - if you can see the screen.

Fix an old K mount bellows and a 50mm lens and you have a virtually perfect bug hunting kit, especially if you use flash to 'freeze' the exposure in 1/1000th of a second or faster, even the flash can be a cheap manual one as once you have the correct exposure the shallow DOF means that the camera and flash are always the same distance from the subject, you focus by moving the whole contraption backwards and forwards using the focus peaking and when the part of the subject you want is in focus you press the shutter release, every shot is a winner.

Fix it to a telescope and you have a perfect birding or Astro photography setup.

I paid £235 for my K-01 body only, a real bargain as image quality really is right up there with the best cameras, build quality is good, it looks like it's made from a machined solid block of aluminium.

screwdriver wrote:
The game changer for image quality was the K5 and subsequent models. The Sony Exmor sensor really is an improvement over earlier sensors, wider dynamic range, much lower noise even in low light.

It's a game changer because of the low noise, this means you can use smaller aperture lenses (cheaper) in low light, the K5 is virtually noise free at 1600 ISO which means you can up the ISO to get reasonable shutter speeds in low light situations, or when you want to increase shutter speed, when using a telephoto lens in less than ideal lighting such as this shot taken with an ISO of 3200 which enabled the 1/125th shutter speed in shadow conditions at f9 so even a cheap Sigma 70 - 300 lens bought off eBay for £36.00 performs well.

[

Botanical_Gdns_0199 by Chris_Judge, on Flickr].

The Pentax K30 and the K-01 both use the same sensor.

DrOrloff wrote:
Just had a quick look at ebay completed listings. Kx or Kr can be had for very good money, that's what I'd be buying on a low budget, great image quality if that's a priority.

ilovesaabs wrote:
Notice you have K110D as well Mac, which would suggest a transition to the K200D an inexpensive and easy transition if cost is a major consideration. If you have additional money set aside - then the K20D is an excellent camera, but the K-5 is becoming good value.

pentaxian450 wrote:
Mac, I have a very lightly used (was used as a back up to the K-7's) K20D with grip and two batteries for sale. If you're interested, let me know, and we can arrange to meet so you can see if it suits you.