Should I stay with Pentax?

Adam Rich wrote:

Pentax is the only brand of DSLR I have ever had. I own a K100D, K-x, and a K50. Unfortunately, the K50 is dying the sad slow solenoid death, and I am debating on what to do next. I only have a handful of non-kit lenses, the Sigma 170-500mm and a Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8. I have been debating whether I should move to another camera system or stay with Pentax. I need to make a decision fairly soon as I am taking a big trip over thanksgiving and would like to have a good camera. I really don't have the money to spend much more than $1500. I thought I could possibly get a used K3 Mark III, or I could jump into another system's basic camera with a kit lens or two. But I figured I would ask you guys that have way more experience with these cameras than I do what you feel is the best way to go.

Here's an out of the box idea .

Have you considered a Pentax film body ? The MZ-S was the last , and arguably best film body they made ( I can speak to this as I had one for a while ) . I thought long and hard about keeping that camera , or my last LX , in the end I kept the LX because it had been one  of my main tools for over 20 years and I was more attached to it .

It is a modern AF body which will work with your lenses and supports P-TTL flash ; there is also an optional grip which takes additional batteries and has controls for portrait aspect shooting - this grip is an ergonomic delight as the camera is just perfectly sculpted to fit in your hand .

I don't think I'm allowed to link to eBay on here , but I just looked and these cameras , typically mint examples from Japan , are selling for between £200 and £300 .

Get one of these to be going on with , and a load of film - and enjoy your trip .

You can decide on another digital body later , and will probably always keep the film body to use alongside whatever else you have .

You will never lose money on it - values of these will only go up over time .