The K-S1 and the 18-135 lens

flektogon wrote:

Hi Lawrence,

For sure the K-S2 is different from the K-S1. Except the IQ, which is identical in both cameras. For me the K-S1 is an absolutely satisfying camera. I still keep my previous (and first DSLR) Pentax, the K-x. I use it now permanently with the Pentax-A 70-210/4 manual lens. The remaining lenses (DA 35/2.8 Ltd., DA 16-45/4 and Tamron 90/2.8 Macro) I use with the K-S1. I do not use the manual mode, except maybe for the night shots. I use almost exclusively the P mode, which always yields the correct exposed pictures. If I want to change the shutter speed/aperture combination, that one wheel is what I need. If I want to apply some EV compensation, again that one wheel (and the appropriate button) is what I need. The camera is not waterproof, what I do not care as if it rains I stay at home . Half a year it is snowing here, in Ottawa, anyway.

Well, you have a pretty nice collection of the cameras, but I am trying to avoid it. I would feel very sorry for the cameras, which I used in past and now they would be neglected. Definitely I wouldn't want to have both, the K-S1 and K-S2. They would be so jealous, one on the other. If I wanted to add another camera, I would go rather with some Olympus or Panasonic. The main reason would be that they are far better for the video shooting, which occasionally I would like to do. But not with Pentax...

Regards,

Peter

Peter,

I see you love your K-S1 so I probably insulted you a bit although the "faults" I described were in regard to the difficulties relating to the way I prefer to use a camera, i.e., in the manual mode.

I'm a retired engineer who now lives by himself in a large house with three dogs; so I have room for a collection or two and while I may have in the past anthropomorphized a boat (a West Wight Potter) and perhaps a motorcycle (the Yamaha SR-500), I haven't done that with any of my cameras -- although I may have come close with the Olympus E-1.  It is difficult for me to get overly attached to a device with a very short life span, which is what most of the beginner-grade cameras seem to be.  Many of the better-built cameras, the Olympus E-1 for example, have a cult following, but (at the risk of insulting you once again), it doesn't seem to me that the K-S1 was built to last as long as an E-1.

Then as to leaving a camera in the P mode, Vivian Maier comes to mind.  It was her artistic eye that made her great, not her camera.  So your leaving your K-S1 in P would be very like Maier having but one mode in her (I think) Brownie.  I have tried the various modes, and haven't been able to resist playing with all that's available in the Manual Mode.  Although once I'm on a hike and have to keep an eye on three dogs, especially the youngest one, I don't experiment too much.

One more reason for acquiring the K-S2:  I have plans in the works to move to Northern Idaho in a year or so -- Sandpoint up near the Canadian border where the weather is harsher than it is here in Southern California.  It seems to me that the K-S2 might be a better choice than the K-S1 up there -- or maybe I should put that in the form of a question: why do you prefer a camera without weather protection?  I think you said that when the weather is bad you don't go out, but surely one can find beauty during the winter up there.  I hope to find it in Sandpoint if indeed I manage to move there.

Lawrence