Practical Differences between K-30 and K-5 II

As far as controls go, DPR says "On its  back the  K-30 still offers a fairly comprehensive set of controls, although not quite as many as the K-5 (the K-30 doesn't have an AF-area switch or separate AF and AE-L buttons). Nevertheless it has retained a lot, given how much less expensive it is than the Pentax flagship model".

It depends on your style of shooting; I use selective-area AF a lot a lot but hardly ever use the other two buttons but many people swear by them.

I think the K-30 allows only 3 brackets in a set; the K-5 series allow 2, 3 or 5.  While both have wide DR that means you don't need multi-shot HDR very often, in critical exposure conditions having more choices is helpful.

The K-5(II/IIs) have a top LCD.  I find this invaluable for quickly seeing some key data.  Both cameras access a lot of things via the Fn button but it's an extra step I prefer to skip and (I'd have to check) I'm not sure it's easy to get to some of the top LCD data any other way.

Holding the camera in right hand with left hand steadying, the location of the mode dial on the K-5 series is ideal.  I haven't tried the K-30 but it looks wrong because you have to move your left hand across.

Again, I haven't tried the K-30 but the placing of review and delete buttons (with delete doubling up with LV) looks cumbersome while the K-5 series is ideal.

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Gerry
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First camera 1953, first Pentax 1985, first DSLR 2006
http://www.pbase.com/gerrywinterbourne