Pentax K-50 (R5 000)
Sturdy build with good quality
Pentax has been flying somewhat under the radar in South Africa and doesn’t usually get the attention it deserves, as many photographer tend to flock to the better known brands with the bigger marketing budgets. It’s actually a pity, as Pentax has been around in various forms since 1957 and produce really good quality cameras. Out of interest, the name is a joining of a five-sided reflecting Pentaprism, and the Kyocera camera brand Contax. In 2005 the latter announced that they would no longer be producing the Contax cameras.
Handling
The camera body does have some heft behind it, even with the lens removed, and you’ll have to grip it slightly tighter than other cameras to control. That isn’t a bad thing, as dropping a camera can lead to a rather costly replacement. In terms of actual handling, everything is pretty much here it is supposed to be, and if it’s not, just have a look around to body and you’ll eventually find it. The lens detachment button is awkwardly placed on the other side of the lens, as opposed to other brands, but the manual adjustment rings, operational selections and power button is all where you would expect it to be. But not conforming to the usual positioning of buttons on a SLR body, the shutter button has been placed slightly back towards you, which some might find a bit strange. It seems like a trivial thing to point out, but if you are used to stretching out your finger to reach around the grip to get to the shutter, having to curl it back in an almost unnatural position take some getting used to.
Image quality
Probably one of the most important aspects of any digital camera, not only SLRs, is the imagine quality. You can have a really expensive or novel camera, but if it doesn’t deliver on the quality you will be stuck with photos that look like it was taken by a two-year old. Luckily the K-50 has a number of tricks up its sleeve in terms of a 16MP APS-C CMOS sensor. It might not seem like much, as there are smartphones that have more megapixels than that, but we can almost guarantee that the image quality won’t be as good. The K-50 also makes use of the new SAFOX IXi+ Auto Focus module which as 11 AF points. In low-light, the models works perfectly when pushing up the ISO a bit, and it goes all the way to 51 200, but do expect some noise around the 12 800 mark. But as another plus point, the rather generous viewfinder will show 100% of the image, so you will know exactly what the image will look like and if it has been framed to your liking.
Performance
Pentax’s K-50 does command a bit of respect when you use it. It might not be an extremely popular brand, but it’s definitely trying very hard to run with the rest of the pack. The few things that we can fault it on, is that the lens motor is much louder than one would expect. It’s by no means a deal breaker, but you will get a couple of looks from strangers as it spins up and down when it focuses. The other issue, which once again shouldn’t be a deal-breaker, is the fact that the LCD screen doesn’t articulate. It would have been nice if you could adjust the view angle to get a better idea of how the shot will come out, but with some creativity you can work around that. Other than that, it’s a solid weather-resistant body with some great quality shots thanks to the 18-55mm lens that is included in the package.
