I am looking to upgrade from a point and shoot to a DSLR. I was looking at the Pentax K100D. My questions are. What do you think of this camera? What are your recommendations keeping budget in mind? Thank You
I'm not sure if I've seen a Pentax user on this forum yet. However that doesn't mean that they aren't good. One thing to consider is the range of lenses for an SLR. That is probably the main reason Nikon and Canon still have the followers they do - they have a lot more lenses out there that will work with the modern dSLR, and thereby the used market has more to choose from. I think that one item is what Sony is trying to overcome - while their Alpha series uses Minolta's old lenses, but there isn't that many used lenses out there compared to Nikon and Canon. With that being said, it appears that Pentax has the basic group of lenses that you will find yourself needing to buy once you get past the basics with a "kit lens" that comes with the base package. That is where the bulk of your dSLR expense will come from - lenses after the fact. You'll want one for low light, for telephoto, etc. Pentax uses a sensor-shift shake reduction method, which is still a point of controversy between Nikon/Canon/Sigma users v. everyone else. The advantage of a sensor-shift shake reduction is that you don't need to buy an expensive lens to get image stabilization - it's automatic for every lens! The disadvantage is that a sensor shift can only go "so far" because of the need to still capture the image (you don't want to cut off part of the image) and work within the sensor area inside the camera (space is limited). This is more apparent on the telephoto shots because the longer the lens is, the more the image will move with the same amount of shake compared to a non-telephoto shot. In the end, I would go with the system that gives you images that look good to you, feels good in your hands, and is in your budget. You may also want to look at the Nikon D40, Canon's Digital Rebel, maybe one of Olympus' 4/3 system cameras - Olympus seems to be quietly bumping up their lens choices, which is why they choose the 4/3 sensor. Their lenses are smaller and lighter for the equivalent of the old 35mm system. (sensor size is another discussion altogether)
