OUCH Modest camera blows away what you I been content with ?

[dee]

That modest 2014 20mp Pentax KS1 , mid range , simply leaves my 2011 16mp Sony A35 in the dust in respect of IQ ,the crystal clear pentaprism finder/rear screen . Especially as the quirky styling and solid build really appeals to me.
If I had the finance , i would invest £220 in another body for mono and colour consecutively [new/discontinued] .
I did this with the Leica Dig3 / Panasonic L1 AND the Sony A290/A390 , because i admit that the quirks of ASD call out for a pair ... I won't go into it , but 'another' seems to reinforce the fleeting reality of any item ...[ NOTHING is fully tangible in ASdee land ]

I don't NEED the IQ etc , after all I am content with a kit zoom and some 1990s lenses for both Minolta and Pentax , but it makes me wonder what, in the past , I have been missing in not saving for a top quality DSLR or similar , and the rate of improvement in digital cameras .

The ' holiday camera ' Fuji X-Pro 1 of early 2013, bought mid 2016, is excellent as an alternative to a DSLR and has fine IQ , but did not jump out at me compared to the Sony A35 .

It's impossible to ascertain the advancements of a camera from playing in a store - I would look at later models ,but it did not click .

Retirement has forced to kick the habit of new 'toys' in whatever field - cameras , teddy bears , model Buses , Sindy Dolls , comics , records etc , so that heavily reduced , Pentax and Fuji X-Pro were a gift which I am now content to accept as my final fling ... though a couple of Barnacks could finance one more !!!

Have you experience this realisation ?

dee

[John Farrell]

My Canon 60D can do anything I realistically want, photographically. I use the G12 more though. If I want to play with film, I have a cabinet full of assorted 35mm cameras. These days the only toys I buy are like the Silette L I paid $8 for yesterday.

[dee]

The Canon 60D is much more advanced than my older cameras - maybe the Pentax KS1 will bring me a little closer !
The X-Pro 1 is the carry all camera .

[yashica1943]

I bought a new (white) Pentax KS-1 about a year ago because I have a lot of old Pentax lenses, plus a couple of Tamron Adaptall mounts to fit. I paid £235 for the Pentax. It is a brilliant camera and I prefer it in some ways to my Nikon D5200.
I use it for street photography, sometimes, because it is white onlookers think that it is a toy and ignore it.

Last week I took a series of pictures of the coast where the tide was out and the sun was in the frame and reflecting in the water that was left. I couldn't have done that with the Nikon and its standard 18-55 mm because there would have been too much flare.
I do not like the aF/Mf switch and the on/off/video switch on the KS-1, that's about it.
Three years ago I won a serious club competition with a 10x8 print made from an image made with my £130 3.2 mp Pentax Optio 30 compact camera that I bought in 2004. Seriously underrated, some modest cameras.