I broke down and bought a white K-s1 body after refusing the siren call a few times as the price drifted lower. This is not the body or the color I would choose if all options were open, but financially this was an easy call. It was the last one in stock so acquired an extra 20% discount which dropped the price below $280. Memories of the white K-01 come to mind: it fell to about $235 when I picked it up a few years back. Today a similar price nabs a nice AA-free 20Mpx camera with full viewfinder in a baby body. Sure it has a few compromises, but if the K-r is acceptable the K-s1 definitely will serve me well!This camera brings me to the end of my Samsung days. That's a shame as the NX300 is a great little camera and the 16+30 pancake primes are most excellent. I now have the Pentax 15+40 Limited lenses though, so optically I lose very little and logistically I have just one mount to consider going forward. The nx300 sold in about three hours, so the price must have been on the slightly low side of just right.. or the ideal person read my note at just the right time!
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| Never the same- DA40 and 15, M135*, K24 A50* and M100 with zooms behind. Shot with *NX300 (* =departing soon). |
The M135 departs with the Samsung along with NX adapters. That leaves 15-24-/40-55/-100 plus 55-300 zoom, along with a spare 18-55 & a few old zooms to play with. The M100 f/2.8 just arrived from KEH (mounted on the K-r) and yet again their Ugly rating is vastly underrated; it's in great condition with only a few meaningless cleaning-marks on the front element.
The new small kit also earns a new small camera bag*, a sling type that can hold a small dSLR 4 primes and a zoom. My days of needing a pack that can hold camera and bike gear plus laptop and spare work clothes are long gone, after all. |
| image from pentaxforums.com |
Never last and surely not least: Adorama offered up a VG-grade DFA 50/2.8 1:1 macro, a well-regarded macro lens that I have not tried. If this works well the DA40 can go for more than the 50's cost, adding a smidge more money to the bank for future use. Hope it's a keeper, as it has AF + quick shift; that will result in precise and fairly speedy focus yet still allow for precise touch-up. The Tamron push-pull MF design really didn't fit my mind - so I'm thinking this will feel a lot better!
In any case the smc-A 50mm f/2 can depart; the DA40 or FA50 will do the job.
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* so much for camera bags from China. I ordered the pack above in Gold only to hear back that the seller only had black, was that OK? Hmm, the company has two separate listings for gold models but only have black - oh and a few red (but no listings show the red version). No thanks - refunded. I then found this blue one, identical to the other store and also in China. Yay? No they have no blue - just black, and a few red. This group Also has no red one showing online, so I got another refund. This time I saved $20 and just bought an insert that will pad the bottom parts of my hydration pack.
You guessed it: I bought it in red! That will match my red/black pack but at least I know what this red pack looks like!!
