Hi from Panama.
Often times people ask about camera recommendations and how to go about and learn photography without breaking the bank. Knowing what I know now, I tell you, no camera comes close at a bargain price (which should be the way to start photography) than getting a used Pentax K5, and making sure you spend good money in the now overly discounted used market of high quality Pentax lenses, like the Pentax DA* 16-50mm f2.8 that I now own. This camera/lens combo is weather sealed, built like a tank, and can make company in your photography learning process. Going to the beach with the kids, no problem. A little splash of pool water on your Pentax, no big deal. Hiking the top of the mountain at freezing cold temperatures, piece of cake.
The Pentax line of cameras (and I have owned a few) also has one great feature: the ergonomics. Every button is located right where it should be, you can practically operate the whole camera with one hand, and barely go to the menu system, which by the way, it is highly customizable.
I have procured this 16 MP camera lens/combo because I want the kind of gear that can take some abuse, while getting great quality pictures, rather than regretting ruining more expensive gear. In a couple of months I'll hike to the top of the Baru volcano, the highest point of altitude here in Panamá, I'd try to do some astrophotography and hopefully some beautiful landscape shots. This camera combo, plus the Rokinon 14mm 2.8 (and the GPS device), hopefully would be all I need.
For that purpose, I thought I'd test the newly arrived and quite used Pentax DA* 16-50mm f2.8 on a panamanian sunrise near our Panama bay, and man, it is quite an upgrade from the much cheaper kit lens I tried before. This lens is sharp corner to corner. Check out what I got, practically no distortion.
Another thing I loved about this camera/lens combo, and about the whole going old school theme, is what I can still learn by accident. Indeed, I have been spoiled by my lovely Fujifilm cameras for some time, and I am so much in love with the Fuji film simulations, but yesterday, after testing the Pentax combo in the streets (again, not exactly a street camera, but does the work of appearing like a tourist) I realized that Lightroom does not support, as far as I know, the Pentax color presets, so that forced me to explore some of those new LIghtroom presets, and, huh, how can I put it, never thought I'd be saying this, but some of those looked quite cool. Not saying that I found the end of my search of color, but this accident provoked enough curiosity to explore the feature further. For the moment, check out what pictures came out of this camera, and dare tell me you don't find the old school combo quite interesting for those budget conscious photography hobbyists. By the way, the little girl playing with a Pentax ME film camera is my niece, and she also love photography :-)
