I recently upgraded from my beloved Olympus e 510 DSLR using the 14 42mm and 40 150mm kits lenses to recieve a DSLR with better low light performance and HD video capabilities. I loved my Olympus, but image quality took a nose dive at ISO 800, and that i liked the idea of having an HD camcorder included in my camera to capture premium quality family photos and home videos within a device. I eventually concluded on the Pentax K x after first buying, and after that returning, a Canon T2i.

I recognize that the T2i costs almost twice as much for the K x, and they're not direct competitors, but I believe my experience illustrates just what a great camera and bargain the K x is as well as, in my situation a minimum of, it was a giant killer.

I initially pre ordered a T2i for your $900 MSRP seeing the glowing reviews inside the press regarding the 18MP sensor, the high ISO performance and then the killer 1080p video. Whenever i received the T2i, I was amazed at how cheap and plasticky it felt. It is not the T2i was planning to fall apart, but my Olympus felt and appeared to be a more significant quality camera, although it involved $200 lower than the T2i whenever i bought. I are aware that the T2i rrs really a Rebel, nevertheless for almost $1000, I was expecting something more solid.

Even worse was the canon eos 18 55mm kit lens, which felt such as toy versus my Olympus kit lenses. It looked cheap, along with the zoom action felt cheap, but you could hear plastic on plastic mainly because you zoomed inside and outside. Clearly there was no lens hood included, along with the optional lens hood was only an inch deep and looked ridiculous. Top element rotated when auto focusing, helping to make with a couple filters problematic, and you also been required to pull the plug on AF to manually make focus adjustments. My Olympus lenses decided not to rotate top element, and allowed regular focus override without turning off AF. And build wise, they looked and felt as being a more professional lens. But worst of the, Canon kits lens's optical performance was lacking, rendering the 18MP sensor moot.

I could settle for a budget feel of your T2i body additionally , the ugly jelly bean design, but I came to are aware that to obtain a lens that could match the performance for the body, Phoning ought to invest another $500 or even more, so that as a hobbyist I merely didn't include the budget.

The real deal breaker while using T2i though, was the utilization of Quicktime format for ones HD video. Quicktime can be described as proprietary Apple video format, even though I've got to assume truely does work well on a new Mac, the QT videos often gave PCs problems. I'd found out about this from other users, but I figured by purchasing my high end PCs and my computer knowledge, I'd personally be okay. But both my new Sony Vaio laptop with Windows 7, ATI 4650 graphics and 4GB of RAM and my pc with Or windows 7, dual core processor, 4GB of RAM, Raptor 10K HDD and nVidia 8800GT graphics would stutter on playback belonging to the 1080p files. And finding affordable programs to edit Quicktime HD video clips will be headache. I wasn't about to get yourself a new Mac mention a few have the capacity to assist film from my new camera.

So back went the T2i, and my hunt for a good solid camera continued. I was just about to the trigger about the Nikon D5000, once i discovered the Pentax K x.

The initial thing that grabbed my attention was the styling. I think overall the red was killer, but I wasn't that brave. And the camera looked dead sexy in navy blue, nevertheless I saw the white version, I seemed to be in love. A very important factor I liked about my Olympus was not wearing running shoes was different things than all the Nikons and Canon Rebels you observe almost every other parent carrying to highschool or sports functions. A totally free often get questions it from users who had no idea that Olympus even MADE DSLRs. Within this Pentax, We'd again have something out of the ordinary.

Then I started reading reviews on the K x. Among the list of advantages of the T2i is the high ISO image quality, and in accordance with the reviews and therefore the sample images I got taking a look at, the K x was in front of them from it.

And the K x also did HD video. There have been some limitations, including 720p and lack of full control over exposure while shooting video, but I didn't really mind because samples I downloaded looked great, even on my 110" 1080P home theater projector. And 720p files take less space than 1080p and require less processing capacity to playback and edit. And greatest at all, the K x uses Motion JPEG video format, which plays back great on PCs it is works with every Windows video editing program. The MJPEG format does use more disk space compared to a equivalent QT file, but harddisks and SD cards are cheap nowadays, it's the same as opposed to a so what.

Another great thing about the K x is that they have sensor based image stabilization elsewhere in the body, so any lens you stick over the camera is stabilized. My Olympus used a similar system, and I was very happy using it. The important advantage is that gardeners can be non stabilized lenses so will have them smaller, lighter, and less expensive.

I found themselves buying the K x in white along with the 18 55mm lens. The K x feels such as quality camera as opposed to the T2i, and matches my Olympus through this department. The kit lens can be a very worthy little bit of hardware.

With the bucks I saved about the Pentax, I am qualified to discover the legendary Tamron 28 75mm F2.8 lens, a Pentax 55 300mm contact lens, as well as a Sigma speedlight. The flash was new, but I became money saving deals relating to the slighty used lenses on eBay and Craigslist.

I've been using the Pentax for one couple months now, and provide taken a huge selection of pictures. My group is absolutely thrilled with the camera and couldn't be happier with the pics and vids I'm getting. The T2i did have just slightly more detail, but apart from that I'd say the K x has equal image quality. Along with the 12MP RAW image files with the K x are faster to employ than the 18MP files belonging to the T2i and undertake not as much space on SD cards, so that you don't have to concern yourself with completing nearly as fast.

That's little negative We can say for the camera. I would prefer it to use a mini HDMI port plus a standard mini USB port, and continuous auto focus could be nice in video mode, but not any other DSLR has that yet. Stereo mics would even be nice.

I suspect the image stabilization system will not be competitive with the individual in my Olympus, but I can not say of course since my 300mm is longer rrn comparison to the telephoto We while using the Olympus and tend to therefore be more likely to be shake.

I get compliments in the Pentax everywhere Time passes, and it's really been fantastic to utilise and own. We could not be happier with my purchase.

In the forthcoming I'll probably add a Sigma 30mm F1.4 prime and then a Sigma 10 20mm ultra wide zoom to my lens kit.

Just towards the record, I am endeavoring to bash on the T2i. Regarded as amazing camera that is certainly currently without peer in their budget range. However , if you're at all like me so you only have about $1000 to have, I'm sure you will get even more value by going with a less expensive but almost as capable camera just like the K x, and also the excess cash on superior quality lenses. My F2.8 constant aperture lens has become revolution in my circumstances, and i also recommend every budding photographer make room within their pay up something similar.