Yeah, Some advice would be great.

llewlovesdrift · Dec 9, 2006

Hey guys,

Well, I've been slowly stepping up with my photography recently. Ive been doing shots for newspapers, I have a job working in-store in a camera/developing shot and I do wedding photography when my boss cant make it. I bought my first SLR a few months back, a Pentax K100D, and I loved it, still do. But I just want something with more resolution, and a bit more professional.

I walked into the shop last week and in the top of the cabinet was the answer. Pentax K10D. 10.2MP and alot of other good stuff. Sticker price AU$$1520. With a 18-125mm

NOW, What i thought I could do was sell my K100D, was sell it with the 18-55 that I have, and take the 28-90 off the broken Pentax out the back and sell it for $1000 before it loses too much value. But do you think its worth it?

I wish I wasnt 16 so I could take a loan out or something, but advice would be appreciated.

Don Simon · Dec 9, 2006

Hi. Er, first of all, I'm confused. What is it you want to sell for $1000? The K100D and 18-55? The lens from the broken camera? Both? Anyway I really, really very much doubt you'll get $1000 for them. As in it's not going to happen. The camera with 18-55mm lens currently sells for around $750 AUS, so I'm not sure how you could get an extra $250 selling it used.

Secondly, what do you mean by "a bit more professional"? What exactly is it that you need that the K100d doesn't do? If it's a question of continuous shooting (i.e. if the buffer fills up too soon) then yes, an upgrade to the K10d is definitely worth it. But if it's about image quality, don't upgrade. Why am I saying that? Because you're going from a camera with a cheap 18-55mm zoom to a camera with a cheap 18-125mm zoom... in both cases the image quality and types of shot that you could achieve are being severely limited by the quality of the lens. That is a much more important factor than the difference between 6 and 10mp. Keeping the K100d and buying a better quality zoom (like the Pentax 16-45mm) or even better a prime lens, will give you a much more noticeable improvement in the quality of your images than upgrading to the K100d. Another very good investment (in fact essential for the work you want to do) would be a dedicated flash.

JIP · Dec 9, 2006

If you want something a bit more professional and are considering selling everything you have right now to step up you might want to seriously consider changing systems. You say you do wedding photography when your boss can't make it you should see what system they are using I would be willing to bet it is not Pentax it will be Canon or Nikon. Now I know this will offend alot of people and probably spark a big discussion of brands and whatnot but if you want to "step up" to something "more professional" than you current Pentax the best way to go would be to get into a Nikon D200 or the Canon equivalent as a starter body and go from there.

markc · Dec 9, 2006

I still shoot with my 6MP Canon 10D. It did just about everything I wanted when I bought it and while the extra MP of a newer camera would be nice, I don't need it, even printing at 12x18.

It's fairly common to want to buy new equipment to help you boost your learning curve, and it's a really strong temptation, but from what I've experienced and seen, it can be more of a distraction and is often a disappointing route. If you really want to spend money, I'd put it into some better glass. Unfortunately the true way towards getting better is time and practice.

fmw · Dec 9, 2006

markc said:
I still shoot with my 6MP Canon 10D. It did just about everything I wanted when I bought it and while the extra MP of a newer camera would be nice, I don't need it, even printing at 12x18.

It's fairly common to want to buy new equipment to help you boost your learning curve, and it's a really strong temptation, but from what I've experienced and seen, it can be more of a distraction and is often a disappointing route. If you really want to spend money, I'd put it into some better glass. Unfortunately the true way towards getting better is time and practice.

Amen to that. I have a 6 mp camera and a 10mp camera. Image quality is about the same. The jump to 10mp is subtle at best. Spend your money on lenses. You can take them with you when you upgrade camera bodies.

Don Simon · Dec 9, 2006

JIP said:
If you want something a bit more professional and are considering selling everything you have right now to step up you might want to seriously consider changing systems. You say you do wedding photography when your boss can't make it you should see what system they are using I would be willing to bet it is not Pentax it will be Canon or Nikon. Now I know this will offend alot of people and probably spark a big discussion of brands and whatnot but if you want to "step up" to something "more professional" than you current Pentax the best way to go would be to get into a Nikon D200 or the Canon equivalent as a starter body and go from there.

You could do that, however Pentax has fast primes and most of the lenses you could want for wedding photography, as well as flashes; I think it would be a while before you found their system too limiting. If you're currently using cheap kit zooms then there's plenty of more "professional" quality gear within the Pentax line-up. One thing that could be an issue is lens availability (i.e. you probably have to wait longer for some lenses and you can't rent them) but since you're just starting out now I don't imagine you're getting a lot of assignments where you suddenly without warning need a particular lens. In the meantime the K100d is very useable even at higher ISOs and has the shake reduction system that can be quite helpful for indoor shots without flash, and the K10d you're considering buying has (among other things) weather sealing, which is otherwise available only on the more expensive cameras like the D200... I know this will offend a lot of people and probably spark a big discussion of brands :wink:

but IMO at this level Pentax might offer the best value for the money...

My advice for the short term would be to see if you can get your hands on a couple of prime lenses. These have very good resale value so even if you do decide Pentax isn't professional enough you won't have lost anything there.

llewlovesdrift · Dec 10, 2006

Thanks for the replies.

I'd thought about upgrading my lenses, but it was off-putting researching a lense that costs more than the camera itself. Seems kinda like putting a persain rug in the shed. But i'll definatly look at a lense upgrade/s.

Thanks.

markc · Dec 10, 2006

llewlovesdrift said:
Thanks for the replies.

I'd thought about upgrading my lenses, but it was off-putting researching a lense that costs more than the camera itself. Seems kinda like putting a persain rug in the shed. But i'll definatly look at a lense upgrade/s.

Thanks.

Understandable, but think of the camera body like the body of a car; you want it to be sturdy (and features are nice), but the engine is doing most of the work. In photography, it's the glass that does all of the resolving.