Well I'm dSLR free - for a week at least. The K-50 is an excellent camera but not the step diagonally upward that I had hoped from the K-5; it turns out that I really
do use some of those external buttons, most notably the AE metering switch. One bit of good news from this is that I am now mostly cured of the K-s1 bug, as that newest model has neither AE switch nor custom button to assign that to. I really like the small size of the K-s1 but really it's best not to retrain myself to work with a poorer ergonomic fit.
The K-3 has dropped in price recently which made it
very appealing, but it has many more features than I seek plus a few interface tweaks I don't really want to learn. In the end I bid the right amount on
a K-5 IIs with bonus battery grip
And split-image focusing screen. The win came as quite a surprise, in fact, as my bid was the only one submitted; had this not won I had vague plans of waiting until November for a K-3.
I learned later that another PK-Forum member had been chatting with the seller about the camera, but once my bid went in all conversation had to end. Perhaps he will get my K-3 in 'revenge'! :^)
I have no real interest in the extra bulk of a grip, but since it's coming anyway I shall give it a try now and then. Since it holds a battery and not a motorized film-winder it really won't weigh much, but more bulk is less appealing most of the time. However, the focusing screen breathes new life into my manual-prime lenses, especially the 85mm f/2 speedster
.
I need to hide a few sale-webpages from myself now - but my favorite Pentax camera is returning to my hands, hooray!
