Well, it's been a busy week or two of contemplation and action. The family budget is overdone on several fronts, and clearly photography has been one of them. A few deals fell into place which allowed me to realign my priorities, so I have a substantially "new" kit of used Pentax gear: K200d, 50-200wr, tamron 18-200 and primes.
Yes, the K-7 and 18-135wr are gone, which freed up funds to grab a used K200d, 18-200 and a 135mm f/3.5M - and still put a bunch of money back in the bank. One more decision point is coming soon on the micro-43 front, after which another deposit will be made. If more cuts are necessary, the K200/18200 package will go and I will survive with the Lumix gear (and Pentax primes).
While the Pentax cameras are 'better' in the pure sense, with features and durability the m4:3 do not match, the G1 has enough features and the ones that are most important to how I take pictures. Each has its own unique way of doing things, and the G/GH series do things I like. Interestingly, the K200d does things more to my liking than the K-7, which was very difficult to use with my left eye due to all those buttons that my nose and right eye were crowding! I suspect I've come full circle (or perhaps a Möbius loop?) and am using the same sensor I was using a year ago in my Sony A200. Oh well, I took some excellent images with that camera!
I very much doubt my images will suffer in this transition, and the bank balance will suffer much less. No more deficit spending in the imaging dep't!
