Back to my basic questions...I've peeked at your photos. With your night photos on your recent DW trip...are those with the K20? If so what lens?
All the photos posted on my site from my most recent (April 2008) trip were with the K20D. The night photos varied... many were with the 31mm F1.8, many were with the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8... a few were with other lenses. For many of those type of shots, most lenses will work well because you're often stopping down to F8 or so, where even cheapie lenses generally do pretty good. The quality difference will probably be in the bokeh, color rendition, aperture blades (how many streaks you see in the coronas around the lights), etc.
Yep heard of them... Betamax was even the better video tape format but it died. I'm not wishing Pentax to die, but I don't see them as being a pillar in the future dslr market... the simple fact is they are probably in fifth position at the moment... and as much as I like to cheer for the underdog, business is rarely like a Disney movie where the little guy wins. There is a risk in buying into any brand of camera, I just see a little more risk with Pentax than I would with some of the other brand.... lord for all I know Red might manage to eliminate nikon or canon when they enter the market with there monstro based camera... who knows.
I don't know why you would think that. As I said, most rankings I've seen show Pentax fairly solidly in third place worldwide, and they pretty easily sell as many cameras as they can make. Sheer quantity doesn't mean success, look at how easily giant companies can stumble and go from market leaders to bankrupt. Times change, too - as far as I know, Pentax still has the record for the best-selling SLR of all time (K1000), and has been on top of the market in the past. They're also the
only company to ever successfully compete in both 35mm and medium-format cameras. (Anyone who thinks Pentax doesn't do truly professional cameras is forgetting their well-respected medium-format line.) Don't worry just because you don't see a K200D for sale in Office Max, they're doing pretty well regardless.
And again - if you never patronize the "little guy", then all the little guys of the world will disappear - and that's bad for everyone. Fortunately, not everyone is staying away, hence there's more third-party lens support now than, say, a year or two ago.
good points, I think you are right the average person buying a dslr today, would prefer the lightweight plastic lenses over the old solid ones, how often do we hear people on here saying 2.8 lenses are too heavy, they would never carry one...
The shot I posted earlier of the lens on my camera is a 135mm F3.5 - not all that big at all, and my 105mm F2.8 is probably 2/3rds the size, and my 55mm F1.8 is maybe only slightly larger than my current 50mm F1.4. Completely diminutive compared to a zoom lens of similar speed, and lighter even with all-metal construction. Granted, that's more of a prime vs zoom thing, but hey, the primes are what you want when using these old lenses... Joe Auto-Mode would probably not buy more than the kit lens and maybe a cheapie telephoto zoom, anyway.
BTW I misspoke earlier, it's the Rokkor 58mm F1.2, not the 50mm F1.2, that some people are interested in. (Partly because it can be converted directly to an EOS mount without a ton of difficulty.)
