First slr

[Benardine]

Hello!
I need your help.I'm going to buy my first slr and money is not the problem.I was thinking between pentax k-7 and pentax k-x. Some say that pentaprism and pentamirrors make a big difference, but on the other hand pentax k-x is smaller, lighter and the price is better.I need slr which i will use for 5-6 years.I'm good at photography and i understand the most of the tehnical things...Which one is better to buy first? What do you think? Does anyone has pentax k-x or pentax k7?
Thanks for your help! )))

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

Did u google it, and do a comparison to find out the answer to ur question..."Which is better"...

 

[FemFugler]

Compare cameras

Sorry i'm not of more help. I know there's people here with Pentax, hopefully they come along.
Good luck.

 

[Jeremy Z]

Welcome Bernadine to TPF!

I have a previous generation Pentax K100D. It was the best one I could afford at the time.

You too, should buy the best one you can afford, which is the one with the pentaprism. You're smart to be considering Pentax too, IMO. So many people have already narrowed it down to Nikon or Canon and ruled out Pentax and Sony just because they are not the biggest; it is a shame.

The Pentax kit lenses are nicer, and the anti-shake is body-integral, so you don't have to buy it over and over.

To me, having a pentaprism instead of a pentamirror is like having better lights in my garage. You will thank yourself every time you look through it. By going with an SLR, you've already decided that quality is more important than size & weight. Don't compromise now!

Next, buy a good book on photography. I like John Hedgecoe's books. Learning about composition and the interaction between aperture, shutter speeds, and ISO is probably the best thing you can do for your photography. I'd rather have this knowledge and a humble point & shoot camera than a nice SLR and bumbling around.

 

[Benardine]

Thank you Jeremy so much, especialy for the book!You know, I'm from Croatia and is very hard to find there some good book about photography.I would like to ask you one more thing.Is k-7 for professionals or it is also suited for someone like me(hobby)?

 

[FattyMcJ]

Welcome Bernadine to TPF!

I have a previous generation Pentax K100D. It was the best one I could afford at the time.

You too, should buy the best one you can afford, which is the one with the pentaprism. You're smart to be considering Pentax too, IMO. So many people have already narrowed it down to Nikon or Canon and ruled out Pentax and Sony just because they are not the biggest; it is a shame.

The Pentax kit lenses are nicer, and the anti-shake is body-integral, so you don't have to buy it over and over.

To me, having a pentaprism instead of a pentamirror is like having better lights in my garage. You will thank yourself every time you look through it. By going with an SLR, you've already decided that quality is more important than size & weight. Don't compromise now!

Next, buy a good book on photography. I like John Hedgecoe's books. Learning about composition and the interaction between aperture, shutter speeds, and ISO is probably the best thing you can do for your photography. I'd rather have this knowledge and a humble point & shoot camera than a nice SLR and bumbling around.

+1 for accurate & good info! I love my K-x

Thank you Jeremy so much, especialy for the book!You know, I'm from Croatia and is very hard to find there some good book about photography.I would like to ask you one more thing.Is k-7 for professionals or it is also suited for someone like me(hobby)?

The K-7 is above the K-x as an entry level camera WITH pro features (most visibly the top LCD screen). I think it's the perfect "hobbyist looking to go pro eventually" camera.

It's a fantastic camera, I just wish it had the same sensor as the K-x. It comes down to a matter of needs, I needed the high ISO performance of the K-x and DIDN'T need (yet) the added features of the K-7. The idea is to grow with the K-x, and upgrade in a year or two (keeping the K-x as a backup body). You may want to think along the same lines if you're serious into shooting events and such.

Yes, the K-7 will last you MANY years and you'll be very happy with it throughout those years.

Also check out PentaxForums.com - The Largest Pentax-Dedicated Photography Forum Community- Home for lots of more info on the K-x & K-7!

 

[Vinny]

Here's my opinion as a non Pentax owner, I recentantly bought a NIkon.

I saw a used K20 and thought it was really nice but a little too expensive to buy at the place I was shopping, I believe the K7 is it's replacement. The K7 is weather and dust resistant but the Kx is not. As was said the K7 has a penta prism, Kx has a penta mirror. I think the Kx has newer electronics (and features) than the K7. Kx is a smallish camera. Pentax has been around forever and has had great optics. If your "sold" on Pentax the K7 is the way to go. Having the info screen on top is a really nice feature; being a little weather resistant and dust resistant is also a nice feature. There are not too many camera stores where I live and the only place I saw Pentax was at the store with the used K20 and they didn't show me anything else.

There are a few reasons I didn't pick Penatx and these are just my opinions:

Lack of local dealers - I really don't like spending $1000 + over the internet "just in case".
Lack of inexpensive lenses - I've read many articles that said a great lens in the hands of a lousy photographer doesn't do the lens justice ... well I don't think I'm lousy but I can't justify a expensive lens for now (maybe ever). The lenses that I purchased were deemed pretty good and didn't cost me a lot of money. Also, it was mentioned a few times that used lenses for Nikon are more readily available than other brands.
And probably the last reason is that all the online research that I did praised whatever camera I was interested in (Pentax, Canon and Sony) but always indicated that the Nikon was a little better in this or that. But with that said I probably couldn't tell the difference at all, these were a "laboratory" tests.

All in all I have to say that if Pentax was more widely availabe around me and I could have tried it side by side I might have been a Pentax owner instead of a Nikon owner.