Moving away from Pentax... Canon, Nikon or Sony?

[Richdog]

UPDATE - I've now bought a Nikon D7000.



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As title, i'm now moving away from Pentax and have decided to sell all my stuff and invest in a new system with a view towards getting a camera that I can really grow into.

I will be buying the camera on finance, so budget is around £1000, possibly up to £1200 including a general-purpose lense with good range. To start with I want an all-round lens I can keep on 99% of the time that covers portrait and wildlife, then I will worry about expanding with more later.

My uses (only at hobby level) will mainly be:

• Portraits
• Landscape
• Wildlife
• Sports and fast-moving objects

I have been doing my research and duly looked at Canon, Nikon and Sony and can honestly say that I have a bit of a dim view of Canon as an option because I can't find anything that I really like the look of in current and upcoming ranges compared to Nikon and Sony. The 7D is still nice I know, but a bit long in the tooth now, and still very expensive. The upcoming Canon 6D seems less well specified than the Nikon D600, so I don't see it as a good upgrade path.

Nikon I feel now have the edge in models available and the upgrade path you can take (D600, D800). Cameras like the D7000 are still excellent, though I presume a D71000 or similar is due early next year so if I want to go Nikon maybe it would be worth waiting till then.

Sony seem to be really leading in terms of technology at the moment, with some great translucent mirror cameras at what appear to be very competitive prices with fast burst speeds and great movie modes to boot. The A65 looks like a good camera at a good pricepoint.

So, if you had no kit at all and could start again... which would you objectively recommend to a borderline intermediate hobbyist looking for a decent camera that will last a good while, with a good lens range and decent future upgrade path?

 

[Richdog]

Canon or Nikon.

Bit of reasoning behibd the statements would be great please, Raymond.

 

[Richdog]

Thanks Raymond for the clarification, some real food for thought there.

 

[Richdog]

I wouldn't be so quick to rule out the 7D tbh, its a great camera. It might not be cutting edge anymore but that doesn't really matter. Spend your money on lenses.

True, it is a great camera, but given the big price difference between the Canon 7D and the Nikon D7000 (almost double) I think i'd much rather get the D7000 and a good lens. In real-world usage the chances of me seeing any noticeable difference out of a 7D that costs almost double what the 7000 does are negligible.

I can get the D7000 for £580 and am looking at the Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM (which gets very good reviews as a superzoom that is pretty sharp through all focal ranges) for £360 as a starting point.

I think the D7000 just ticks all the boxes in terms of price/performance, and it's very well featured too.

 

[Richdog]

There isn't anything better than a D7000 on the market for price / performance.
If I was starting out today it would be a D7000.

Canon seem to be utterly stuck in the 'no innovation' camp and simply aren't moving forward at all with their consumer level bodies and don't have anything near Nikon's line-up for quality, specs and price.

My thoughts exactly, very unimpressed with Canon compared to Nikon lately as it stands.

 

[Richdog]

I'd look at maybe a used D700, or increase the finance to get a D800.
D800E would probably be the 'ideal' camera for the genres of photography your interested in.

Not sure if serious, but thanks anyway.

 

[Richdog]

Well, I just went and bought a D7000 with 18-105mm for £725 with 3 year Nikon warranty on Body and Lens. Will pick it up tomorrow hopefully, can't bloody wait.

 

[Richdog]

Really loving the D7000 so far!

So much easier to handle and control than my old Pentax K20, not to mention in terms of the control interface and UI... feels like it's always been in my hands!

 

[Richdog]

Did you have a look at the Pentax K5 or K5 II and lenses like the 16-50MM/F2.8 WR?? I have been looking at the D7000,K30 and the K5.

I actually know someone who changed over from the K20D to the K5,and it is a far better camera in every way.

The package really stood up well to the fine sand in Africa as the combination is weathersealed. For around £1250(16-50MM F2.8) it does not look too bad at all.

OTH,I might wait and see what the next generation of cameras will bring though.

Yup I have all the kit so of course I looked at all Pentax solutions, hence why I wanted to get away for them!

The K5 is nice (certainly better than the K20 but what do you expect, it's miles newer), but not as good AF (it has known issues especially in low light) as the D7000, and certainly not as well featured barring in-camera IS. The K5-II is a cynical excuse for a minor revision and (imo) crazy price tag with an upgraded AF system that is only marginally better than the SAFOX on the K30. The D7000 is the better camera.

I just don't see a future in Pentax, the company is struggling, and judging from the R&D news coming out of it after the merger with RICOH it's not going to produce anything spectacular in the near future, and nothing that I would consider upgrading to had I bought a K5. Nikon however is a different story, with some great FF options and certainly more goodies on the horizon.

Put simply, I feel that the D7000 at the current price blows away anything Pentax and Canon have out at the moment even 2 years after it's introduciton.

^^^
Op already got his camera.

I think that little nugget got lost in all the long-winded debate above.

 

[Richdog]

The problem is I know people with both of them,so this is why I am swaying between both ATM. I have seen amazing pictures from both cameras,and that includes work that has won awards.

Well, the Pentax K-5 and the D7000 both have exactly the same sensor, so of course they both take great pictures. My point was that the sensor on the Nikon is wrapped up in a superior package in terms of overall features and usability.

Pentax and Olympus have been predicted to fail for the last 30 years though,just like so many companies. Looking at how massive companies like Kodak and Nokia have collapsed so quickly after being top of the world,and how some smaller companies actually survived,TBH,I am not going to get over worried about things.

Then go with whatever you prefer, but ive been a Pentax owner for years and have done a hell of a lot of research, and as such have no doubt whatsoever in my decision to spend no more money on Pentax. It just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Richdog]

There is no objective way the package of sensor and control in the D7000 is better. However, the D7000 does use less power apparently, thou that could just be to do other things, I honestly don't know, but it is the only possible pro of their sensor package. In fact the K-30, which is half the price, has better image quality.

The difference in IQ will be negligible or not be noticeable in the real world after you have processed the photos. the D7000 takes amazing photos, and I think you owuld be hard ushed to tell the difference if two post-processed photos were side by side.

When I say a better "package" I meant the D7000 is better to me in terms of body, handling and UI... I prefer it to the K-5 by a long shot. It just feels more intuitive already.

 

[Richdog]

When it comes to the IQ, yes and no, as always it is the weakest link that fails. If you've got some crap plastic on the front then yes you'll never see the difference! However my point is it is better. It also costs less. Has better weather sealing / build quality. Unless you want video stuff its just all round better... whilst costing a lot less.

However, the K-5 is irratatingly small I find.

I disagree... if it's not noticeably different in IQ (it isn't imo, i've checked hundreds of comparisons) then what counts is the way the camera feels in your hands, the lens range, the future upgrade path, as well as the second hand availability etc.

Pentax just can't compete in that respect.

 

[Richdog]

Then surely you'd be looking at a K-30, as impircally the difference between the K5>D7000>K30 is pretty muc the same. So a £300 device vs the £550 device. (I wouldn't recomend anyone buy a K-5 today unless they really needed some of the fringe functionality).

I wouldn't look at Pentax K30, because as I have already said multiple times for the reasons laid out in the above posts, I wanted to move away from Pentax. There is only a £130 difference between a K30 and a D7000 body where I live, so to me the money is well worth it to me for the extra features like dual memory card slots and extra control dial etc, as well as imo a much better UI to work with.

However second hand availability isn't a problem I've found in Pentax, I actually just bought as a Tet gift an old K-x so I'm fairly watchful of it.

My experience is different, but the second hand market for Pentax is much smaller than that of Canikon for obvious reasons.

But I would disagree with the upgrade path, because ultimately what is missing? What lens is there that you just can't find in Pentax?

Choice is what is missing for me. Nikon has a wider lense range, better second hand market, and better third-party support. I've been a Pentaxian for many years, so had enough time to form my opinions.

Sure the K-5ii is a damp squib, but so is the 7D/70D. Does that mean anyone should sell their canon kit?

Not quite sure what you mean here, but I've never heard the Canon 7D described as a "damp squib" before, considering it's one of the highest rated DX DSLR's in existence...

 

[Richdog]

Still loving the D7000, taken some decent shots (for me) over the last week. Today I got hold of a Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX prim too, so looking forward to trying that baby out. Still plugging away with full manual controls and it's very satisfying to see (slowly but surely) improvements the more familiar I get with everything. It really is such a more intuitive camera than my Pentax was in my hands.

Few samples:

Sorry for my absence, my body fell ill as soon as I stopped working Still worse places to be ill where your not waited on hand and foot by your retired parents
.

Your posts are interesting, but... how do I put it delicately... any chance you can 'condense' them a little? They are kind of a wee bit long and waffly.