Voigtlander Bessa R, Nikkor-S.C 5cm f1.4 LTM, HP5+
My decision to move away from Pentax that is. Despite selling the *istDS and my Vivitar 24/2 KA (and not successfully selling the K2 or SMC-P 55/2), I made the move back to Pentax with the K-x. Did a pretty much straight-up trade for the E-30 (also got rid of the ZD ED 70-300 as it’s mostly redundant without the E-30) and got the store to give me the better DA 18-55 II kit lens rather than the cheaper-built DA L version as I don’t get along with plastic mounts and wanted the Quick-Shift Focus feature and a lens hood.
The K-x is a little stunner of a camera. It’s a small camera intended for just above the entry-level DSLR pricepoint. Overall there’s nothing particularly special about it spec-wise except the 4.7fps continuous drive mode. It’s a pentamirror finder, single-wheel camera with a smallish 5 RAW frame buffer, 230k 2.7″ LCD, 720×24p HD Video and 12MP. But there’s a little surprise lurking inside. Pentax finally produced a camera with good high ISO performance. In fact, they managed to produce what is currently the best performing APS-C camera with regards to high ISO noise, performance at ISO 6400 is excellent and 12,800 is usable. Compared to the E-30, you get two extra stops, both in limit (the E-30 only goes to 3200) and in performance (K-x is similar in performance at 12,800 to the E-30 at 3200). It was this which finally pushed me to get rid of the otherwise quite satisfactory E-30 and go back to Pentax.
I’ll admit I had looked at Sony instead. But the closest comparable model (the A500) offers less performance for over $200 more money in a much larger package with an inferior viewfinder. Not much of a decision there.
