Review on Pentax K-30 Weather-Sealed 16 MP CMOS Digital SLR (White by Mike Cody

Best camera. I switched from a Ricoh Kr-5 Super to a Pentax K-1000. I like this camera because it allows me to shoot with all my old full manual lenses and shoot almost the same as I used to with my manual cameras. I set my manual lenses to U1 mode and that's it. I didn't use the Auto or Scene modes, but the in-camera editing and fully customizable filters are indeed much better than I expected. I just love this camera. The AA backup batteries are also a real plus. Update: 9/24/14 I did the math on how much I spent on film (just under $0.30 per print including film, processing and prints) and this camera paid for itself in less than 3 months (about 1500 shots, I am close to 6000 now). After owning this camera for a year, I just love it more. The only thing that worries me is that part of the handle creaks slightly, although no video showed this. The catch-in-focus setting works best with manual and macro lenses, where you set the exposure and hold the shutter button down and the camera releases when it detects focus has been achieved. I also like the ability to save in RAW after you've taken a picture, it allows me to shoot in black and white, cross-processed or whatever, and if I'm shooting something I really like, I can commit to it decide to keep RAW so I will get a color copy if needed. Also, the green button makes Pentax very accessible for beginners (welcome to photography!). I also have 9 lenses, mostly manual but with decent specs (50mm f/2, 28mm f/2.8 macro, 135mm f/2.8 macro, etc.). .), and I've never spent more than $45 on a lens. You can get as many good, expensive lenses as you want, but I don't know of any other camera that lets you enjoy 9 lenses for less than $300! And 95% of my shots are of my 1 year old daughter, even with manual focus this camera just takes beautiful shots of my never frozen baby, in low light (ISO 25600 max, I find up to 1600 sharp enough depending on what too whatever you want, no flash if you don't want one), bright light (1/6000 second shutter speed) or just weird light (good metering, great white balance, lots of customization options). PS My experience is mostly with Pentax, Ricoh and Canon film cameras. But I also had a Rentax T3 and a Pentax K2000 and another Pentax KX. Canon also shoots great, but I've compared them and they don't seem any better or worse than Pentax, but Pentax always wins on performance.