Moving up perhaps?

koosjr

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Photography is but one of my hobbies - perhaps the one I like the most. As it is, sometimes I have lots of time for it and for long times I don't.

I still use the Fuji S5500 camera and it was a great camera to learn the real mechanics of photography as everything could be done manual. I took a couple of great shots with it.

However, I found the ceiling of this model and it makes my life difficult with some type of photography as it is slow in many aspects - especially shutter lag.

This year, my Dad bought the Fuji S9000 and it is a huge improvement. Shutter lag is zero and I really like the manual zoom. Aperture is worse than for the S5500 though. I used the S9000 as well, but now being much more experienced, I found the limits within a few occasions. Fuji however, likes to market this model to compete with an entry level DSLR - that is pushing it!

This week, I had the chance to play with a Canon EOS 350 D and I must say, I was impressed. The entry level DSLR cameras seems to be a couple of levels ahead of the best fixed lens models.

My Dad still have an old Pentax MX Super with a Vivitar Series-1 70-210mm f3.5 lens. There is a 2 x teleconverter, as well as two prime lenses, a 28mm Cosina f2.8 and 35mm Pentax. None of them are autofocus of course.

If I buy myself a Pentax K100D, do you think with the above lenses I would at least do better than the best new fixed lens models in terms of lens quality? My gut feel says yes. (I know the lenses will have 1.5x factor on the new camera and will probably take it with the lens kits to get wide angle.)

I am not concerned about the autofocus as the type of photography I like will not have that much benefit from it.

If I am going for other lenses later, I will definitely look at Sigma for example. I don't make a living from it so I cannot justify paying for my camera goodies as much as for my car!

So, is it worth the investment going for a DSLR body with the lenses I have?
 
I'm not sure if Pentax MF lenses will fit/work on the digital bodies...but if they do...then that would certainly be a benefit to getting the K100D.

To me, what makes a DSLR so much better than 99.9% of fix lens digi-cams...is the size of the sensor. A DSLR has a much bigger sensor, which makes for much better image quality...especially at higher ISO settings. There are many other benefits...like the ability to use different lenses.
 
In theory any K-mount Pentax lens (in other words all the ones that fit on the MX Super) will fit on a K100d. In practice I have used lots of lenses and the only one that didn't fit on the K100d was a Vivitar prime... I unscrewed a small piece of plastic from this lens and then it fit just fine. I think all of the lenses you mentioned should fit on the K100d.

If they fit then they will all work. Exactly how they work is a different matter. With A-series lenses (ones with an 'A' option on the aperture ring) the aperture can be set by the camera and therefore the camera will meter properly and the lens can be used in Aperture or Shutter Priority mode. If there is no 'A' on the aperture ring then you will need to use Manual mode and set the aperture on the lens itself, and the lens will need to be stopped down to meter (By using DOF preview). While a bit limiting this at least means that all your lenses should be useable.

As for image quality, it should be good with both the primes and the zoom; as Mike said the larger sensor pretty much guarantees that. You might want to get the standard 18-55mm kit lens with the K100d as well; like all kit lenses it's not going to stun you with its sharpness but stopped down it's very respectable for the extremely low price, will allow for wide-angle shots, focuses pretty close (listed at 25cm but I think it may be even less), can be focused manually even when the camera is set to AF, and the lens hood even has a little removable bit so you can turn a circular filter... just generally very good for a lens that I've seen going for £75...
 

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