time to go digital

Throw a late one in here. How about the Pentax K7 as no one seems to have mentioned it yet. All recommendations have gone to the popular Nikon / Canon followers.

The Pentax has the best image sensor. With a fully sealed body on a metal chassis it should take plenty of (ab)use.

As the image stabliser is built into the camera body you have use of it without needing to acquire expensive and heavy lenses with it fitted. A further bonus is that all old K mount Pentax lenses will fit the new body. Plenty of cheap quality second hand lenses to choose from out there.

As for what to pay ignore the list price as there are plenty of very good deals out there. Most people just look at either Nikon or Canon as they have the advertising budget to keep there name in front and hence sales to people who just go with the popular choice.

When I bought my D300s in a very reputable photography equipment shop here in Oz they mentioned that they have a lot of problems with Pentax and his desk have 3 new cameras to send back to the importer.
He mentioned that the reliability of the camera was not good for a photographer that need it for his job.
Back in the 70's Pentax used to be very good camera, I am not sure if now have the budget to come in time with a good camera for the pros.

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Originally Posted by 3toes

Throw a late one in here. How about the Pentax K7 as no one seems to have mentioned it yet. All recommendations have gone to the popular Nikon / Canon followers.

The Pentax has the best image sensor. With a fully sealed body on a metal chassis it should take plenty of (ab)use.

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I bought Sony 4 years ago on this logic. At the time the best camera I could get for the money I had to spend was the A100. Since then I've seen that Sony have not added to their model range the way I expected. I have also see the aftermarket lens companies occasionally bring out lenses in Canon/Nikon mounts only. Add these together and I'll jump platforms to get into a product family that I can keep adding to. At the moment I really want to buy a 10-20mm zoom. But as there isn't the life in my lens mount to justify this I'll keep the money to switch. Otherwise I'll be buying the lens and then I'll have to buy whatever Sony deem to ship as an A700 replacement. I'm sure it will be great, but I've been waiting too long and would worry that the next replacement may also be 4 years away.

If you want to buy a decent camera for now you could consider the various 2nd tier families. As you point out the K7 is at a great spot in the market. But if you want something that will be a hobby for the next 10 years I think that you should look elsewhere to be sure of always having an upgrade path. On the used market there is always decent mid-range canon & nikon gear for sale. The volume keeps the prices down and means you can hunt for the best. With the other brands you don't get that.

Sony bought the Minolta brand and haven't done much (to interest me) with it until the last 6 months.

Hoya merged with Pentax and it seems to have been a great kick for the brand with many interesting developments since. But how long will it last for? Will Hoya remain interested in cameras for the long run? I think Sony lost interest in all mid market and above cameras until quite recently. Acquistions and mergers can really stall innovation for a long time.

Cheers, Steve