K-50 16MP DSLR with DAL 18-55mm WR and DAL 50-200mm WR

All I can say is that I love my K-50. I got the 18-55 & 50-200 lenses with it. I also got the 35mm f2.4 & the 50mm f1.8. The 35mm stays on the K-50 most of the time. The 50mm is the next one. Once in a while I use the 18-55, mainly if I'm limited in room. I use the 50-200 only when I'm trying to reach something far, which is rare. Obviously, you can't really compare the images from the primes to the zooms, but the zooms are decent. Don't expect National Geographic images out of the zooms, though.

The 16MP sensor in the K-50 is pretty darn good. I had a Sony A200 prior to this camera. It had a 10MP CCD sensor that was very amazing at ISO 100 to 400. The highest I would shoot on the A200 was ISO 800, but only on rare occasions. ISO 1600 & above were basically useless. I shoot up to ISO 3200 on the K-50 without a problem. The ISO 3200 images look a lot better than the ISO 800 images from my old Sony A200. At ISO 6400, the K-50 images start looking like ISO 800 images from my old Sony A200. The K-50 has a been a very huge step up as far as image quality goes. The noise grain (luminance) is quite pleasant looking from ISO 800 to 3200. It reminds me of old-skool ISO 400 film. It does get harsher at ISO 6400.

I shoot jpeg & raw. I use the jpegs as references. If I want to get a really big print out of a particular image, I process the RAW file to regain all the fine details. I can easily get a 24x36 print out of the K-50 from ISO 100 to 800 & depending on the shot, from an ISO 1600 image. This is from a post processed RAW file. The largest I could get out of my A200 was a 20x30 from a really good ISO 100 shot, but it was more like a 16x20 at the most.

The only thing that sucks on the K-50 is the video. If you're looking to do videos, this isn't the camera you are looking for. The video features are lacking 200%. About the only video shooting you can do is from a tripod & only shooting small random scenery clips. This is strictly a stills camera. I have a Sony video camera & GoPro that I use for video, so I have no issues with the K-50. Even though the video options suck, the image quality of the stills more than makes up for it.

I'm now on the hunt for a reasonably priced Pentax K-5IIs. No AA filter & available 14 bit raw files will give a slight edge to already good looking images. Now if I could only find a cheap one.