Nikon - NOT!

Well, for the past several weeks (or is it months?!), I've been in a massive debate with myself over whether or not to switch to another camera brand. I've researched Nikon, Leica, Canon, Olympus... and I actually had things narrowed right down to a body and three lenses. Not that I'm unhappy with my Pentax - the K10D was fabulous and the K20D is even better - it's more a matter of a few minor things I "thought" I may be missing out on.

So, truth be told, I had set my sights on the Nikon D700 and three pieces of Nikkor's most excellent glass. I even sold one K20D body and a couple of lenses to help 'supplement' the purchase. The D700 is built like a tank, has HD video capability, super-fast autofocus, superior image quality at high ISO, plus it has a full-frame sensor. What's not to love about the D700??! Then came the pricing out of the new Nikon kit... even after checking costs from dealers in the U.S., I had to stop the insanity and make myself take a serious step back.

I was looking at shelling out about.... mmmm.... well let's say SEVERAL plane tickets' worth of dollars (I love to travel and tend to measure things in how many places I could go for the cost of whatever it is I'm buying!), not to mention I'd end up with only about 1/3 of the kit I have presently. No fisheye. No Lensbaby. No macro. No battery pack. No flash. No remote. No back-up body. I'd be pared down to the boring (albeit wonderful!) basics. Plus the body and one lens alone would take up most of the room and weight in any backpack I wanted to carry somewhere.

And... when it comes to the APS-C vs full-frame sized sensors... my dream has always been to own a digital-backed, medium format camera. I drool over the Mamiyas and Hasselblads in all the ads in the magazines. So would it truly, honestly make sense for me... amateur photog, doing this mostly as a hobby, totally happy with the results I'm getting from my fully-stocked Pentax bag... to drop such serious coin on gear that is only a moderate step above what I already have, especially considering the size and weight of the current full-framers? After some soul-searching, I had to answer 'no' to that question. If I'm ever eventually going to go big, I'm going to go really big. As in 645 Pro big.  **SIGH**

Anyway, over the weeks or months or however long this dilemna has been consuming me, I've repeatedly read about and have been very drawn to Pentax's freakishly small, light, highly-revered and understated K7... still an APS-C... but one that has HD video, a faster autofocus, improved high ISO quality, in-camera image stabilization, and is weatherproof to boot (rated to -10C!). The fast AF is a huge plus - it's one of the things I thought was lacking in my K20D - and video capability was the other option I thought I should have. Also - and I'm stating the obvious here - all of the Pentax peripherals I own would work just fine with the K7. Hence, for about a fifth of the cost of the Nikon starter pack, I could to buy the Pentax K7 and round out my stash quite nicely.

So... buy a K7 I did!! Oh happy day!! As well, I splurged and bought the Pentax DA 16-50mm f/2.8 lens... a stellar purchase, if I do say so myself. I was able to get out with my new toys yesterday and took over 200 pics. Here are some photos:

 

 

 

I have to say that I am extremely impressed with the auto-focus. I know that the fast lens helps, but I had no trouble at all quickly locking on my subjects in the dreary, overcast, forest-sheltered environment. I shot in a standard Av mode all day, but I'm excited to try some of the HDR functions and other presets. As far as the lens goes, it provided awesome depth of field wide open - better than I would ever have imagined. And I was focussing on flowers and plants as close up as 3-4 inches - which is pretty darn good for a non-macro lens!

In summary, if money was no object, I'd be all over Nikon, yes indeed!! But in reality, I am not doing this for a living, so I simply can't justify the cost of abandoning the exceptional system I'm already using. After all is said and done, I am remaining... a Pentaxian!

Cheers!