I owned a K-50 last year, but only briefly. I was shifting from the K-5 setup to a newer but less complex body style, and I missed the K-5 features that I could control on the body (e.g. metering mode). While the Info screen makes it a pretty easy change I couldn't get comfortable.. and soon I moved on.
This time around I'm coming off a few months of K-r and K-s1 experience before picking up a red-hot K-50. The K-s1 is definitely a step ahead for many features, but the ergonomics are no improvement. Its selling point is compactness - and less buttons is generally good when you have fewer places to put them!
The K-r was a classic K-5 feature set in a body with fewer external controls - and really so is the K-50. So this time I'm moving forward in the same 'enthusiast' category instead of down from a higher grade of body. Therefore it's no surprise it feels like I'm taking a step forward in pretty much every way. I have my weather seals back, and an AFs / AFc setting on the body - a feature I really liked even though the latest Pentax bodies have removed it!
It's funny how the same camera can feel so very different depending on where you've been in the recent past! And oh my is it red. Curiously that depends very much on the image one sees, and the settings used on the camera that shot it. White balance, exposure, Custom Image setting all do their part, so online images show everything from an orange-red to a deep crimson. If it looks like the image above, I'll be quite pleased.. but please don't be orange-red!
