Digital SLR recommendation for a newb - Pentax?

[Paul Ryan]

After Tom's post I will through my hat into the ring. 1st let me say I am not photography expert. I have never taught it, taken a course, or collected cameras. But I take on the average about 15k pictures per year. Most are at the lowest settings my camera will do. My job requires a minimum of 20 pictures per car I look at. On occasion I take many more, wed I took 102 of 1 car. I have used a cheap kodak M830 for 2 years. The pictures we nothing special but they got the job done. After 30k pictures it finally bit the dust, but for $90 it didn't owe me anything. I replaced it with a canon SD1200, again a cheap camera. But it takes pictures 10 times better than the kodak and does it quickly. It is a 10mp camera that has no bells and wistles. This is my work camera. But for personal use I still use my trusty old Sony DSC-S85. It is a 4.1 mp camera that will be 9 years old in oct. And it still takes pictures on auto mode as well as most of the point and shoots that are 10mp or more.

I guess what I am getting at is. That old sony even though it is 9 years old, and it is as slow as molasses in January to take the picture. Picture quality hasn't increased that much in 9 years. But my biggest gripe is it is large. It wont comfortably fit in a pocket. So it must swing from my neck when on the go, or in a case. The quality of those photos have never bothered me in 9 years and I have blown some of them up to 11x17 just for fun. So if I can buy a smaller point and shoot to have in my pocket for those unexepected moments, I would go for that. For a personal camera to take nice family photos I would take Tom's suggestions. Save yourself some money and buy a quality point and shoot. It will save you headaches and $$. And the video on those isn't terrible either. But they are made for stills not motion.

[Lee Bidwell]

Lee

In looking at the Pentax spec's and reviews, there are two things that would concern me.
1st is the minimum aperature of the lens that ships with the camera. It's pretty limited. I'm absolutely certain that it will take nice pictures, but it is going to require good lighting. An 18-55mm lens is a nice lens, but your'e going to want to push that focal length out, and have a wider aperature to capture motion in lower light, be it video, or photo. This can all be resolved with a different lens though, so it's not a show stopper. If Pentax offers a wide selection of lenses for the body, it's just a matter of choosing the one(s) that meet your needs.

2nd are the comments on focus. If I am reading the reviews correctly the camera does not disply the focus point in the view finder. This would be difficult for me, not knowing exactly where the camera is focusing prior to taking the shot.

My current camera is a Nikon D90.

Lee,

the Pentax KX is an excellent camera and probably takes the best quality pictures with the ASPC sensor at its price range. What is nice about the Pentax is you can use legacy glass on it which can be generally found at a reasonable price. Also it uses AA batteries so if you run out of juice and can't charge your batteries that is no big deal.

Having talked with a couple of my friends that are professional photographers it came highly recommended as an entry level DSLR. It is on my short list right now for my first DSLR. Unfortunately I just need money.

Alan

Thanks for the input guys. The lack of autofocus points in the viewfinder is one of the things that is holding me back. Also, the AA batteries are actually a negative for me. I'd prefer a rechargable pack. After some reading, I think I've narrowed it down to the Pentax and the Nikon D5000, leaning towards the Nikon for the reasons above. The Pentax is about 500 new, the Nikon is 700 new and available factory refurbished for 520. I know hand held power tools are great candidates for buying refurbished, but what about cameras?

How large do you mean when you say you want to print for your own frames? This will have a great impact on what you get.

I've only printed up to 8x10 from my point and shoot with good results. Above that (I printed some pics about 12x15 or so last Christmas) it gets sketchy. Cropped images are definitely no good. The only thing larger than this that I've printed was shot professionally.

How do you plan to print them? At home or use a lab? lab
How much time do you like spending infront of your computer? I don't mind spending time processing images for print. I have access to photoshop and some experience using it.
How camera literate are you? Not very. I'm a research scientist, and I work daily with micrscopes, so I have a good understanding of optics (as in high mag objectives), CCDs, etc; but I have no experience with cameras or their lenses.
How much time are you willing to invest? Like any hobby, I'm not opposed to putting in time to learn. The trouble is finding the time between the job, the family, and the numerous projects in the shop and around the house.

Most people want the same things: small, light, easy to carry, reasonable cost, and able to blow up the photo to fit half of the planet. Oh, and they want it to last until they die.

Just like wooodworking tools, it don't work that t'way.

I am quite aware of the limitations of each type of camera, and the trade-offs that come with each.

The more bells and whistles you add the less the camera will last but the more they'll charge you for it.

I hate to be mean but if you don't have a video camera around to shoot video it's perhaps dubious you're more likely to have a photo camera around to shoot video. Sometimes the facts need to be faced. And the amount of video the vast majority of DSLR's can shoot is very time limited. Yup, they're handy when they're at hand but they're not video cameras.

I'm not looking to shoot hour long high quality videos. For birthday parties and such, I'll get out the video camera. My queation was whether these SLRs can shoot acceptable short clips, or whether this feature is just a throwaway. My reason for this is that my videocamera is packed away in a bag in a closet, while I keep the photo camera sitting on a shelf near the TV. When the little guy does something cute (like the other night, walking around with a diaper on his head), I'd like to be able to grab the camera and catch a quick video.

I own more cameras than I care to admit and have been teaching photography for years, and in my humble opinion I would recommend one of the better point and shoot cameras, and here's why: the quality is good and one of their best qualities is they're small. You've already found out that MP count means nothing. I'll put my old 4.1 MP D2H against most 12 MP cameras for prints up to 8x10, which most people rarely ever print larger than. Like saw blades, pixels come in different qualities.

To cut this short, before you invest in a whopper of a camera take a look at something like the Canon G11 (I'm a Nikon guy and even I own one). The results are very good, and although it pains me to say it, that's the camera I pick up more often than the others.

There's a forum around with info about a guy who has won photo contests shooting with a disposable camera with no settings. The reason is wins is he shoots to the camera's strengths and he knows what he's doing - in part to prove it's not the camera it's the photographer. If you really want to take better photos consider taking a course, and you can even do that before getting the camera.

Best of luck traversing the camera jungle
If I can help you in any way please feel free to let me know.

Tom,
Thanks for all the advice. I definitely considered a point and shoot for a while. I actually misplaced my crappy one a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't really tried too hard to find it. I am borrowing my MIL's Panasonic point and shoot, and it's a good little camera. But, I think I'd like to step up to an SLR. Plus, my wife said, after looking enviously and her friend's pictures of her little boy, "I want one of those fancy cameras so I can get pictures like that." Who am I to argue with that ? Of course, I'll have to learn the camera and teach her to use it (don't get me wrong, she is plenty competent, but lacks a little in the area of patience), but that's half the fun.

Lee

[Jim Becker]

Look at the new Nikon D3100 that's about to be released...$699 street with an excellent lens. Even includes HD video.