Hi Eric: I'd like to endorse Paul's suggestion about the K5 & DA 40. Below is a link that shows my everyday kit. Now you have to remember that I am a woman, and as such, I've had to find a way to combine a purse and a camera kit. I start with the Domke F-5XB. The link below shows what I can carry in the bag as a purse and a camera bag. I even show a photo depicting total weight.
Now, as I said this is an everyday kit, which I virtually always have with me--even if I don't shoot anything that day. I did add the DA 21mm for the purposes of this demonstration, but normally I would only carry one lens mounted on the camera. Since I got my FA 50 back from repairs, I have that mounted. With the DA 40, you'd even have a lot more room in this bag, and the bag would be lighter. Now the gender thing is important because men usually carry wallets in back pants pockets and maybe phones in a shirt pocket, habits which would actually leave you more room in the bag. I normally have my keys in my front jeans pocket, but I put them in the bag for demonstration purposes. As I said this is an everyday bag, but if I was really restricted for travel, this is the kit I would carry: 50mm & 21mm (a pared down long and wide combo). When I travel for pleasure, I usually always take the DA* 50-135mm, so I use a different bag. But this past year, I've had to travel for work, and I used this kit set-up. Clearly, one good Fujiesque camera would be less gear and lighter; this kit won't beat that, and I do appreciate the point that even a kit like this can be burdensome sometimes. Like you, I've been thinking about a Fuji/Pentax MX-1 set-up as an alternative, but if you want to pack a DSLR with fantastic low light ISO quality, this kit works really well. Hope that helps. Here's the link: http://www.caguila.com/kit/index.html Cheers, Christine On Oct 5, 2013, at 3:47 AM, Eric Weir <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sep 21, 2013, at 6:18 PM, Paul Stenquist <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I have a great compact travel camera. I take the battery grip off my k5 and >> mount the 40/2.8 pancake. Bingo. For everyday pocket camera, it's an >> iphone5, better than many p&s pos. > > After returning from my trip, during which I had my camera in-hand all day > during daylight hours almost every day for just short of a month---my first > experience of that---my mind keeps running off in thoughts about a new > camera. Two thoughts: an "enthusiast" level compact walking around camera or > a DSLR with great low-light performance and high image quality. Was leaning > toward the Fuji X10 or X20 regarding the former till I read a review that > said they produce images that are a bit soft. Regarding the latter, I've > wanted a K-5 since is first saw some of the low-light images. New ones are > still available from Amazon. [I'd go used but KEH wants the same amount for > LN. > > My thinking at the moment is to go with Paul's solution and kill two birds > with one stone. You may remember me fretting about what kind of camera to > take on the walk part of my trip. In the end I decided to go with m *istDS > and a couple of short focal length primes, an A 28/2.8 and an A 50/1.7. I > never took the 28/2.8 off the camera. Essentially my solution was Paul's. > > So, not a done deal, yet, but leaning very strongly that way. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Eric Weir > Decatur, GA USA > [email protected] > > "With an ounce of willingness, everything can change." > > - Kim > > > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > 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 [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
