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Is the Pentax KP the best camera Pentax has ever made?

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Martin KP

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I am the proud owner of a Pentax KP with a 55mm to 300mm DA lens. The camera 'knows' this lens and has produced wonderful pictures even when light contrasts are extreme . I also paint on canvas and use a 50mm smc f1.8 DA on a tripod and a photographic lamp in the main light socket. Again, the results are superb. What results have other KP owners had with their lenses and what pictures have they been used for?
 
Haven't got a KP (yet?), but I can say for sure that it has some mighty, mighty big shoes to fill to come close to being the best camera Pentax has ever made. That crown, I think, is the permanent property of the Spotmatic/K1000 series of film cameras.
 
Martin KP said:
I am the proud owner of a Pentax KP with a 55mm to 300mm DA lens. The camera 'knows' this lens and has produced wonderful pictures even when light contrasts are extreme . I also paint on canvas and use a 50mm smc f1.8 DA on a tripod and a photographic lamp in the main light socket. Again, the results are superb. What results have other KP owners had with their lenses and what pictures have they been used for?
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Maybe it will be but I think k5 is the iconic of pentax dslr.
 
zakaria said:
Martin KP said:
I am the proud owner of a Pentax KP with a 55mm to 300mm DA lens. The camera 'knows' this lens and has produced wonderful pictures even when light contrasts are extreme . I also paint on canvas and use a 50mm smc f1.8 DA on a tripod and a photographic lamp in the main light socket. Again, the results are superb. What results have other KP owners had with their lenses and what pictures have they been used for?
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Maybe it will be but I think k5 is the iconic of pentax dslr.
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I'll admit I have trouble imagining a much better DSLR than my K-5iis. If Pentax would put the new sensor and some of the other incremental improvements into the K-5 body,I would give it the most serious consideration, and would probably prefer it to the KP simply because it would be a completely known quantity.

Right now the KP's strongest competitor in the contest to become my second Pentax camera body is the best secondhand (or new old stock?) K-5iis I can find.
 
Martin KP said:
I am the proud owner of a Pentax KP with a 55mm to 300mm DA lens. The camera 'knows' this lens and has produced wonderful pictures even when light contrasts are extreme . I also paint on canvas and use a 50mm smc f1.8 DA on a tripod and a photographic lamp in the main light socket. Again, the results are superb. What results have other KP owners had with their lenses and what pictures have they been used for?
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Pentax is true to its call — the SLR with pentaprism. Cameras they make are philosophically consistent with a design paradigm. The image created is closely linked to camera's usability, and user's experience, and in turn each perpetuates the other: unique usability and enhances experience leads to unique images, unable to be made with anything else.

Latest cameras, like K3(II), KP and K1 are nothing short of best the DSLR world has ever seen. The amount of tech, thought and value packed inside them is outstanding, and surpasses by far any manufacturer out there.

So I would rise your mark, and state that cameras like K1, KP and K3 (II) are best DSLRs and overall ILC digital cameras ever, done by any manufacturer.

Look at them overall (not in a single isolated feature), judge them overall, trying to follow some basic human honesty, and I cannot see how any other camera can compare.
 
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Hmmmmmmmm...................somewhat disagree. I would go with the LX and the PZ-1P. Also on the film end the Super Program was really a nice package and on digital end all of the K-5 series were not too shabby.
 
yardcoyote said:
... permanent property of the Spotmatic/K1000 series of film cameras.
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The KP is admirable and wonderfully computer-rich in capability but the H1a, Spotmatic and K1000 taught us how to use a camera and understand photography. As impressive as it is, you ain't gonna even begin to understand it all usin' a KP.

I don't necessarily believe you have to learn to drive a Ferrari by harnessing mules but ya gotta start somewhere simple an' basic or remain a prisoner of technology. I still follow old habits when I pick up my K-5's and K-3's.
 
Love my K-5IIS. But if I could find a digital camera that let me work the way I did on my K1000, I'd go back in a second. LX had too many bells and whistles for me.
 
Not trying to disagree but are you certain you did not mean the PZ-1P? It had bells and whistles galore while the LX was as basic as they come. The LX was not an AF film camera. Only offered aperture priority along with metered manual. No metering options besides center weighted and the center weighted metering metered primarily in the bottom of the screen. A great simple pro SLR in my book.

The PZ-1P does require a good understanding of the owner's manual. Believe it is still the only Pentax to offer 1/250 flash synch. Not sure what the K-1 offers since I have little interest in a FF camera.
 
chris gunn said:
Glad you like it.

I was disappointed by Pentax's estimate of the KP's performance with Astrotracer. It's not up with the K3 or even K5.
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Even aperture priority automation was more than I needed or wanted. I had my K1000 SE, and eventually a gorgeous KX I bought secondhand well into the early digital era, and while I recall being tempted by an LX a time or two, I never wanted one nearly enough to buy it. I don't recall ever picking up, much less shooting with, an AF camera/lens, until I started shopping for my first DSLR. It just seemed vaguely ridiculous to me, as did zoom lenses, for that matter.

I had my 50mm, my 55mm, my 85mm and a 40mm pancake I could borrow, and my experiences with my cameras were entirely satisfactory. I look at my cameras now and it all seems sort of crazy, but I think I'm substituting a variety of new shooting experiences for the one shooting experience I can't replace. Though I have developed some new interests as well, primarily macro, which I never did on film.
 
Martin KP said:
I am the proud owner of a Pentax KP with a 55mm to 300mm DA lens. The camera 'knows' this lens and has produced wonderful pictures even when light contrasts are extreme . I also paint on canvas and use a 50mm smc f1.8 DA on a tripod and a photographic lamp in the main light socket. Again, the results are superb. What results have other KP owners had with their lenses and what pictures have they been used for?
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I don't know what criteria we'd use. Reliability? Everybody seems to value different traits and would likely pick a different camera. And different folks have used different cameras over the years for comparison.
 
yardcoyote said:
I'll admit I have trouble imagining a much better DSLR than my K-5iis. If Pentax would put the new sensor and some of the other incremental improvements into the K-5 body,I would give it the most serious consideration, and would probably prefer it to the KP simply because it would be a completely known quantity.

Right now the KP's strongest competitor in the contest to become my second Pentax camera body is the best secondhand (or new old stock?) K-5iis I can find.
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The K5 is missing 2 features that have become vital to me: a flipping LCD and focus peaking. Otherwise, I would never think of replacing mine.
 
I agree re the flippy screen-- I have them on two of my Fujis and they are is super handy, though I don't miss them all that much most of the time on the DSLR where live view is so clunky. And focus peaking is cool too, as more work with manual lenses is definitely on my to do list. But again, don't have, don't miss.
 
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It's definitely the best digital Pentax I've used. The autofocus is unparalleled, and manual focus lenses function a lot more smoothly.
 
As far as I can judge from the specs and reviews the KP offers small benefits over my K-S2 but with the same great form factor. Best ever would be 35mm MX provided I had a limitless supply of free film and overnight processing of course
 
The Other Old Pentaxian had an MX that I shot with a lot and it was a lovely little camera. But I never liked the LED readout of the light meter nearly as much as the analog match needle in my K1000. That was so much more subtle and useful and the LEDs were hard to read in strong light.
 
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