Pentax Thinking about Pentax again...

[theoldsmithy]

I am seriously considering trading in my M43 gear (not that I have a huge amount these days) and getting back into Pentax. I always loved the colours and the handling of the cameras, and there are some serious bargains to be had now. A K5 for £150 for example, and many lenses at or below £100 even from dealers. I would love a 21mm Limited but that would probably blow too much of my budget, so I've been looking at the 16-45 f4. It seems like a really good step up from a kit lens and gives me the 24mm eq focal length. What are people's views on that lens?
And am I mad if I ditch the M43 stuff?

 

[Charzes44]

I am seriously considering trading in my M43 gear (not that I have a huge amount these days) and getting back into Pentax. I always loved the colours and the handling of the cameras, and there are some serious bargains to be had now. A K5 for £150 for example, and many lenses at or below £100 even from dealers. I would love a 21mm Limited but that would probably blow too much of my budget, so I've been looking at the 16-45 f4. It seems like a really good step up from a kit lens and gives me the 24mm eq focal length. What are people's views on that lens?
And am I mad if I ditch the M43 stuff?

I know nothing of Pentax Martin, or most other brands for that matter. What I do know though, you must use equipment that you find joyful to use. If Pentax 'does it for you', then you would be mad not to ditch your M43 stuff!

 

[rayvonn]

I am seriously considering trading in my M43 gear (not that I have a huge amount these days) and getting back into Pentax. I always loved the colours and the handling of the cameras, and there are some serious bargains to be had now. A K5 for £150 for example, and many lenses at or below £100 even from dealers. I would love a 21mm Limited but that would probably blow too much of my budget, so I've been looking at the 16-45 f4. It seems like a really good step up from a kit lens and gives me the 24mm eq focal length. What are people's views on that lens?
And am I mad if I ditch the M43 stuff?

Who knows, you might end up going back to m43 but don't worry about it, change is good every now and again especially if you're feeling it. How you feel when using the gear is so important and definitely contributes to image output.

there are some serious bargains to be had now.

Too true. Plus there's pentaxforums.com, an excellent and useful resource in conjunction with this place.

 

[William Lewis]

If it's any consolation, I've been eyeing a K-5 with an eventual set of DA50/1.8, DA35/2.4, DA21/3.2 & then the 20-40 zoom as well. I keep putting it in my Ebay watchlist, deleting it, and then putting it back in there... I'll probably break down and get one and a 35/2.4 for my Christmas present to myself.

 

[gryphon1911]

If you look around, you can find good prices on used Limited lenses. I think I got my 21mm for $175 USD. I do like using the K-5 and K-3. I've been experimenting with some older zooms as well....all can be found for a reasonable sum. Nothing wrong with a little experimentation into another system. Not sure how much longer I may stay with the Pentax stuff I have, but it is still fun to use at the moment. Especially around here, fall/winter hitting, the DSLR bodies work better in handling than some of the mirrorless cameras when you have to layer up and wear gloves and such.

 

[agentlossing]

I believe there's a good sale on the 35mm f2.4 on Ricoh US's refurbished page. That's the first lens I'd recommend for an APS-C Pentax "fact-finding mission" kit. It's not super fast to focus, and it gives plastic a whole new meaning, but it renders really warm, vivid images.

 

[JensM]

I have taken the Pentax road for a secondary system.

However much I like it, I really cant see myself bothering to carry anything other than M43 for a day to day possibly shooting something along the way system and with the Pentax prices in the local second hand market, I dont mind having some "golden oldies" around for the odd outing.

I think I got my ltd 21mm for £115 from Japan, so there are deals to be had out there. Also oogling a 16-45 which is currently in the local classifieds, as well as Ltd 70mm at the same place. By all accounts I have found, the 16-45 is a good one, even if it is a bit odd in FOV, the closest thing I have found to the FOVs would be in the Lumix 12-32, which gives you about the same with the 16-45 being a tad longer in the long end.

 

[MiguelATF]

I am seriously considering trading in my M43 gear (not that I have a huge amount these days) and getting back into Pentax. I always loved the colours and the handling of the cameras, and there are some serious bargains to be had now. A K5 for £150 for example, and many lenses at or below £100 even from dealers. I would love a 21mm Limited but that would probably blow too much of my budget, so I've been looking at the 16-45 f4. It seems like a really good step up from a kit lens and gives me the 24mm eq focal length. What are people's views on that lens?
And am I mad if I ditch the M43 stuff?

You're definitely not mad if you ditch the M43 stuff.
I'll echo what a few other people have said, also - the prices of some of the DA Ltds, especially the DA 21, might be much more reasonable than you suppose...especially if you are patient, and willing to wait for a good copy to turn up within certain budget parameters. And it (the DA21) has to be one of the all-time great lenses, period. With regards to the differences between a DA21 and the 16-45mm, which is a lower-priced zoom, it might be hard in some circumstances to distinguish between photos taken with the two lenses. But (and I'm more of a Pentax prime lens addict personally) my take is that certain prime Ltds lenses are simply just THAT much better than zooms, so it all depends on what you prefer - convenience... or compact size and stunning image characteristics.
With regards to the cameras, there seems to be an endless debate among Pentaxians about which of the K-5's is truly the best. One side of the argument insists that since the K-5iis has no AA (anti-aliasing) filter, its images are just THAT much nicer than those of the other K-5s. The other side of the debate maintains that it's just splitting hairs, and that, truly, all of the K-5s, including the original, are simply outstanding cameras. The K-70 is also a truly fine camera - and doesn't suffer from the occasional dreaded ApertureBlockFailure ABF which its predecessor the K-S2 did. Ditto for the earlier and smaller K-S1 - which by the way is my current Pentax DSLR of choice, though I had to get the solenoid on mine replaced-repaired after it failed. And if you don't mind slightly slower processing times and less high ISO capabilities, the earlier CCD sensor cameras, especially the K10d and its less espensive sibling the K200d, can be picked up for astoundingly cheap prices - and for many applications are still superb cameras.

I've kind of gone back and forth between M43 cameras and Pentaxes and the one thing which I tend to forget sometimes is how different the experience of looking through an optical pentaprism is - from looking through an EVF. I personally like both, but if you've been using one for awhile, one tends to forget, for example, how much 'dimmer' some optical viewfinders can seem after using relatively bright mirrorless EVFs.

Back to your original question, I think the 16-45 is a fine lens. Weirdly enough, so is the larger (and also relatively affordable) Tamrom 17-50mm lens which has a fixed f2.8 maximum aperture which I found really helpful; it was my kit zoom of choice for a number of years along with the K200d that I used for many a moon. The other thing about Pentaxland which continues to surprise me is the massive amount of truly excellent -and affordable - older glass, both Pentax and 3rd party. Not that many high-speed f1.4 or f2 lenses - but large amounts of superb and inexpensive f2.8 primes, including the vintage 24mm macro focusing Vivitar I recently bought. If you lurk around PentaxForums you can discover all kinds of interesting info about cool lenses - including quite a few F and FA series ones, both primes and zooms, which are both stunningly good and, to me at least, surprisingly affordable.

Sorry for rambling on and on but, no, I don't think you're mad if you ditch the M43 stuff.
Conversely, if you could find a nice K-5 plus an inexpensive lens - and still hang on to your favorite M43 bodies or lenses - then you might have the luxury of shooting with both... and taking more time to see which one or ones you truly gravitate towards. Warning, though: these are hard questions to answer, let alone make decisions on. I happen to like both my relatively ancient Pentax DSLR - and my only semi-ancient Lumix & Olympuses...so I'm not the best person to advise you on making a choice.
Good luck though, Martin... looking forwards to seeing how you proceed

 

[phigmov]

I've really enjoyed my Pentax journey. Particularly the 100mm f2.8 Macro which can be had for a steal. K-5's and K-3's can be had for pretty good prices now. Personally I'd steer clear of the K-30/70 stuff - I'm sure they're great but I had a K-01 and I believe the shutter unit was similar for those cameras - suffered the dreaded sticky solenoid issue. The single-digit Pentaxes are where its at and are pretty much bullet-proof. The lenses are good and there are a lot of bargains to be had + fun adapting m42 lenses too (also can be had for a steal).
About the only thing I miss in my Pentax lens line-up is the wide-end. I have it covered pretty well on m43 and Nikon so haven't looked into wide Pentax glass beyond 22-24mm equiv; the Pentax 15mm f4 is real nice but I'd like wider and can't really justify the expense across another system, so I've stuck with macros & normal-primes. Actually, thinking about it, I have the Sigma 10-20 which is pretty nice and does cover my ultra-wide needs just fine. I just don't use it much. On reflection, my snobbery against 3rd party lens manufacturers was probably set right by some of the nice (& budget friendly) Sigma glass available for aps-c sensor cameras (which Pentax benefits from).
I'll probably keep an eye out for a kit zoom at some stage to give the weather-sealing a good work-out.

 

[agentlossing]

I've kind of gone back and forth between M43 cameras and Pentaxes and the one thing which I tend to forget sometimes is how different the experience of looking through an optical pentaprism is - from looking through an EVF. I personally like both, but if you've been using one for awhile, one tends to forget, for example, how much 'dimmer' some optical viewfinders can seem after using relatively bright mirrorless EVFs.

This is probably the main thing that turned me away from APS-C but towards the K-1. I love the optical pentaprism experience, but don't like the size and brightness level of APS-C cameras. It's a function of simple physics: smaller image circle, smaller mirror... So even if the smaller sensor receives the same ratio of light, my own eyeball receives "more" from the full frame equipment than the APS-C equipment. Hopefully there aren't any inaccuracies in this statement.

 

[Iron]

What are people's views on that lens?

I haven't tried this lens yet but I've read good things about them.

And am I mad if I ditch the M43 stuff?

No, not really. While MFT is a really good and adequate system, we must use the tools that we love. We just have to choose the one that works for us best.

 

[theoldsmithy]

I believe there's a good sale on the 35mm f2.4 on Ricoh US's refurbished page. That's the first lens I'd recommend for an APS-C Pentax "fact-finding mission" kit. It's not super fast to focus, and it gives plastic a whole new meaning, but it renders really warm, vivid images.

Yes, I owned the 35/2.4 a few years ago and thought it was a great little lens. I may well get another one.

 

[scottR]

I am seriously considering trading in my M43 gear (not that I have a huge amount these days) and getting back into Pentax. I always loved the colours and the handling of the cameras, and there are some serious bargains to be had now. A K5 for £150 for example, and many lenses at or below £100 even from dealers. I would love a 21mm Limited but that would probably blow too much of my budget, so I've been looking at the 16-45 f4. It seems like a really good step up from a kit lens and gives me the 24mm eq focal length. What are people's views on that lens?
And am I mad if I ditch the M43 stuff?

Martin...if my older pentax's had easy wifi transfer to phone(i barely use my laptop anymore!) Then i would more than likely be still shooting a k5iis or K3..its like they were built for my hands...and incredibly tough.
I always pumped for the underdog whos files ...in my opinion trounced nikon/canon in low light and DR.
There are also bargains to be had now that mirrorless has finally overtaken DSLR.
Although olympus E M1 came close to fitting the bill

 

[TNcasual]

I think mft/Pentax FF is a great one-two punch of complementary systems. I don't have any experience with Pentax APSC, but I am sure it would do almost everthing mft can do.

Switching up things every now and then is a great way to keep the creative juices flowing.

 

[Aviator]

I use Micro 4/3 as my main system, but as many users here I like to experiment with more than one camera or system. While browsing in the forum I became curious about Pentax, (I never shot a digital Pentax before) and that is how I got a K-1 and then a K-5 IIs.

The cameras feel great in hand, you can immediately feel "quality" while grabbing them, the buttons and dials are are close to perfection, I use a lot the little LCD screen, the grip is fantastic, if anything I would add a joystick to both and a tiltable screen to the K-5 IIs.

Transitioning from an OVF to an EVF was easy, transitioning back from EVF to OVF was a little bit hard at the beginning, but with some time I became used to the OVF again. And I have learned to like it more than I thought at the beginning! I'm not bothered by the smaller OVF in the K-5 IIs, honestly it is not an issue for me (I wear glasses).

The image quality of the K-1 for a 2016 camera is second to none (as I expected), but the real surprise turned out to be the K-5 IIs, when you consider the camera was released in 2012 there is nothing to complaint about! 11 years later and the image quality is excellent for the vast majority of users. The .PEF or .DNG files are very malleable in post, delivering very crisp and vivid results, and the camera has an ace up its sleeve: an ISO 80 setting that I always use as a start point. The Pentax colours, along with Olympus, are right on top of the market. Another great Pentax feature that is present in the Micro 4/3 ecosystem is IBIS, Pentax calls it SR (Shake Reduction) and while not as effective as with Micro 4/3, it is no slouch. One feature that I still really want to try with both cameras is the unique Pentax Astrotracer.

At the moment, I have two "modern" DA lenses, the 20-40/2.8-4 Limited and 70/2.4 Limited, both of them superb, they render just the way I like it, which IS NOT "clinical-ultra sharp-sterile" images. With my K-1 I only use vintage K and M42 lenses.

The "Achilles heel" of my Pentax K-5 IIs is shown when you compare the AF, simply because there is no comparison, period. Single AF in Micro 4/3 is ultra fast and accurate, this is not always the case with the K-5 IIs. That doesn't mean that AF is unusable, but the reality is that I don't trust it entirely how I trust Micro 43 in that regard. (But hey! Keep in mind that the K-5 IIs was released in 2012, so it is a little bit like comparing apples to oranges and it wouldn't be fair).
The good news is that there is a walk-around, which is to AF in live view, that seems to give me the desired results most of the time. The K-3 III might be a different story, but I have no experience with it (maybe one day ).

To conclude I will put it this way: I don't see myself shifting away entirely from Olympus/Lumix to another brand, because as I have said before, Micro 4/3 for my usage is the perfect balance between, size, cost, reliability and results. But at the same time, the Pentax "experiment" fed by my curiosity turned out to be a very pleasant experience, it is undeniable that for the money Pentax gives you so many features not present in the competition. That is why, unlike I did time ago with Canon and Fujifilm, I don't see myself selling my Pentax equipment and lenses any time soon, on the contrary it is likely that I will add another lens soon.