Not to get the thread back to the OP's original question, but I've been thinking hard about the original question (for myself) and I'm going to sound like a total fanboy, but I just can't imagine switching systems from Pentax to anything. I have to have m42 lens compatiblility (which knocks out Nikon). If Ricoh announced that they had stopped making DSLRs and lenses tomorrow, I wouldn't feel a real need to switch until my Pentax body died or software had moved on to the point that it couldn't read my Pentax RAW files.
Like the OP, I want a real viewfinder and I probably don't want a smaller sensor (mostly because I like wide and the smaller the sensor the harder it is to "go wide" with the focal length crop factor.) If LENSES are important, but you don't want HEAVY (two of the original poster's prerequisites) then I don't think you can do better than Pentax. They have nice light zooms and small light primes (Limiteds). The K-5 body is not overly large or heavy. Honestly, if the K-5 body is too heavy for you then I would hold off buying a camera and doing a little weight training. The K-5 body is 670 grams (with battery). You only save 34 grams by going to the entry level K-500. By contrast, the original Spotmatic in 1960 weighed 621 grams. As was mentioned, you can get a K-5 body for under your $600 figure, probably with a kit lens even. The beauty of the Pentax is, if money is tight you can still get superb manual focus optics for not a lot of money. Very little money if you want to go back to the superb Takumars, although they will weigh more than more modern plastic-bodied lenses like the F and FA series. When you have money, you can get a Really Good lens, either a Pentax or a Sigma EX, or some Tamrons. The low light performance of the K-5 will blow you away, particularly if you are coming from Canon. On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 1:38 PM, Zos Xavius <zosxav...@gmail.com> wrote: > Who knows. My guess is that its the same sensor with a new image > processing engine. > > On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 11:54 PM, Boris Liberman <bori...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On 9/9/2013 11:50 PM, Zos Xavius wrote: >>> >>> Yuh. k-7 and k20D have the same sensor. A samsung sensor. Its true >>> there is no standard for aps-c. Generally canon is a 1.6x crop and >>> nikon/sony/everyone else is a 1.5x crop. I don't know about you, but >>> I'm rather glad I'm not a canon crop-sensor user and not just because >>> of the reduced FoV..... >> >> >> I have to respectfully disagree, Zos. My understanding is that the addition >> of 720p video at the very least ought to have changed the electronics in the >> sensor assembly. >> >> >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- Nothing is sure but death and Pentaxes. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.