[Sir Nobax]

Hey there photographing headfi'ers!
I was looking for a not too expensive manual focussing Dig. Camera, as i really love to do the focussing myself. However, this didnt work out i guess, the only convincing camera was the Fujifilm S9600, i saw this one for €390,- and i was quite satisfied with the search results and reviews i found about it.

As i didnt have the money at that time (and i still dont) i couldnt buy it, however meanwhile the camera had a PRICE RAISE, it now costs €415,- wich is as much as the Pentax K110D (same as K100D without IS) with the 18-55mm Kit lens [size=xx-small](3.00x zoom, 27-83mm for 35mm)[/size].

The Pentax creates better pictures, even though it has 6MP (vs 9MP for the Fuji), at least its certainly good enough for me. The kit lens aint that bad either (except for the 'dark' corners, but that aint too serious). Also a big plus for the manual focus addict i am, it sports a optical viewfinder, instead of the 235k pixel counting EVF.

The thing that bothers me however is the fact that lenses aint cheap (IMO, for the workless student i am), and that i dont know how good a 18-55mm lens is for Macro's (+- 5cm). Same for zoomed nature photo's, as i guess the kit lens wont work for things like bird photo's, how 'cheap' can you get a zoomlens for the Pentax?

The €415,- i want to spend is the ULTIMATE MAXIMUM, another lens some (read: MANY MANY) months later wont be a problem, but i REALLY cannot spend more on a camera.

Does anybody have experience with the Pentax, or at least a comparable lens?

 

[mrarroyo]

About 3 months ago I picked up a magazine that had compiled a large number of entry digital slr's and the Pentax scored rather high. I wish I could remember which magazine it was.

 

[dj_mocok]

Why would you compare/choose a prosumer (Fuji 9600) over the Pentax DSLR?
It's a no brainer, of course get the DSLR considering the price for both are similar.

Well, unless you desperately need the movie recording feature of a prosumer. In terms of size, that Fuji is also chunky, so no pocketable advantage here. (and if you like long zoom, you can also buy the entry level zoom lens or get some second hand third party zoom off eBay or something)

I'm not familiar with Pentax camera, but within that price range, the only camera (with kit lens) that I know that still have good image quality is the Nikon D40 and kit.

edit: I just realised you also want a macro and zoom, in that case, unfortunately if you don't wanna spend that much, maybe a good prosumer camera is your best option. (since if you go DSLR, you have to get 3 lenses for all the things you need then - macro, normal, and telephoto). Well at least 2, one macro and one telephoto.

 

[Spareribs]

18-55 mm lens is great. Even a simple 50 mm lens is great and in many ways, all you need.

The funny thing is that these days, people are so out of touch with camera lenses. I personally don’t know of anyone who knows that camera lenses are actually a separate detachable thing.