- Name
- Miguel Tejada-Flores
Dammit, Miguel, now I have a serious case of LBA!! I want the 21mm and a 70mm pancakes, and a 100mm macro (although the Tamron 90mm would be fine, too)
GRRRR.
Like you, I couldn't bear getting rid of my older Pentax K200D body; I had two of them, made the mistake of selling the first one and had to buy a second to replace it. They are very affordable these days as I'm sure you know because of their supposedly antiquated sensors but damn are they splendid cameras. And then, wouldn't you know it, I actually sold the 2nd one - after I bought my KP (when the prices were reduced on them a bit more than a year ago). I was initially dubious whether the KP's relatively brilliant newer CMOS sensor could give me the same colors as my K200D but in fact it has equalled - and in some cases, surpassed - them ... so I only have one Pentax body now but it is in my admittedly prejudiced opinion the finest DSLR I have ever shot with.
The 70mm lens is one of Pentax's hidden gems - a tiny pancake with superb qualities. It's on my short list of lenses-to-buy-one-day. But the 21mm is semi affordable - especially if you can find a good lightly used copy - and it more or less has been glued to my KP....until I recently purchase yet another remarkable Pentax lens - the truly minimalistic DA 40mm Ltd, the smallest (a pancake too but a really thin one) of Pentaxes minmal masterpieces. The 21mm gets more use but the DA40 is quite astonishing.
For other users who aren't familiar, Pentax has a long history of engineering and making relatively compact 'pancake' lenses with superior optical qualities. Their DA Ltd series has acquired its own reputations among Pentaxians for years. You could almost say their lenses are dangerously good: once one has shot with them....it ruins you in certain ways. And, yes, I know it sounds sacreligious but I prefer Pentax glass to quite a few of the equally wonderful old Leica lenses I used to shoot with, on my relatively ancient inherited iii series.
Bottom line: whatever one has or likes to shoot with....the camera is only part of it. It's really about the lenses. Although, a nice camera doesn't hurt either, obviously.