Pentax lens pricing

Not sure why you think the Canon 50/1.8 is a joke (admittedly I have the 50/1.8 II). Try pricing anybody's 50/1.4 including Pentax abd you will see prices in the $300-400 range for used ones many times. Plus none of those older lenses have digital coatings so they tend to have more internal reflections that digital era ones. All of them are sharp by F2 anyway. As someone who has both Pentax and Canon systems I find them both comparable and complimentary as each is better than the other at certain activity. With Canon I went the 20D, 30D, 40D, and now the 60D route. With Pentax I went the *ist D, K10D, and currently K20D, which will likely get replaced soon. The key thing is not the cameras, which can do pretty much the same results as long as the person behind knows what they want to get out of it, but the lenses. In 40 years I have changed systems 8 times. In all that time I never changed it for the camera, but instead for the lenses. Many times I ended up with great cameras because they came out for a system I had. Some of those times I had a chance to get a lens I always coveted, but did not own a camera for. In those cases the lens was one that cost way more than any of that maker's cameras, so I bought one to use it with. Many times I ended up expanding the system and selling off my old one. Usually in the case of Pentax I kept a few items because I knew I would be back sooner or later.

Key things are:

Canon: Most extensive list of pro lenses there are (if you can afford them), and also top 3rd party lens support.

Pentax: Ability to use any lens from any era if you want to (adapter needed for screwmount lenses) and full integration electronically back to the "A" lens era of manual focus lenses. Not as good 3rd party support in the pro lens area but some older ones are around. Current digital primes are excellent but nodigital era telephotos over 300mm until the new 560/5.6 that just came out.

Canon: Image stabilization only on the lenses themselves.

Pentax: In-body stabilization for all lenses no matter how far back.

Almost every other difference between them can be overcome with skill.

Kent Gittings