K-30 + DA 18-135 WR as one of the best APS-C DSLR below 1000, - €

The Pentax K-30 as DA 18-135 WR Kit was in February 2014 for 783, - purchased at Amazon.com, although the follow-up model K-50 was in the market for a long time. Searched a robust and inexpensive (under 1000) APS-C DSLR for high quality recordings and occasional films. After some reviews and ratings have been chewed through the Internet, came out K-30, only the SONY A65 in question. With horror I realized that major electronics retail chains such as Media Markt, Saturn or TOTAL perform any Pentax cameras more. The trend is clearly towards Canon, Nikon and Sony. So who is to mainstream products, will rather opt for another brand. With K-30 you will quickly become exotic in the prosumer segment. Nevertheless, the A65 had except GPS and mature movie function less to offer in my opinion, and should it be considerably more costly. The K-50, which actually represents only a facelift of the K-30, dropped out after strict calculation. From the outset only a splash / dust resistant (WR) objective was to debate, as the camera mainly on holiday and should be used outdoors. Probably would for entering a 18-55 WR kit lens rich, I wanted to make sure only the 18-135 WR on number and spare me the complicated lens changing when you are traveling. My final seal reflex camera I gave up almost 10 years ago, when the analog photography had to yield to the pressure of digital compact cameras. Accordingly, I would look at my experience from the perspective of new entry into the DSLR class.

The polycarbonate housing is very well made and gives a solid and quality impression. It is very comfortable to hold, all controls are easily accessible. Occasionally the body creaks a bit, if you want something stronger to handle tackles, but that does not bother me really. With the patch 18-135 Always-top lens, the camera is no lightweight. Some knobs and dials both can be assigned via the menu with different functions and thus contribute to the perfect operability in. The pre-defined programs like stage lights or playing children work surprisingly well and facilitate entry into the DSLR world. And when the camera is given time in ignorant hands just make time to AUTO, so the K-30 into a notch camera. The viewfinder is very bright, almost 100% covering and very informative of the key parameters you have always in view. The Live View mode was used until now only in the movies.

When photographing I am absolutely satisfied with the handling of the camera and with the quality of the recordings. This has clearly exceeded my expectations. Especially well done are user modes that I use to work with elderly manual M42 lenses. Under ISO1600 the noise is barely perceptible, thus acceptable photographs are taken in low light without a tripod. The automatic selection of the ISO level can be limited to a specific area and prevent noisy images.

What can still be improved, in my view:
No Connection for external Micro when taking videos. Also takes internal Micro to only in mono, which is not really up to date. As Sony is much further down.
Autofocus while filming lame right, inaccurate and therefore hard to use
Apart from the accompanying manual can be found no further book on camera as it is the example of Canon and Nikon rows. But the guys at PETAXIANS.DE are always ready to help if questions arise.

Since I do not want to overstate the video function and merely regard it as a nice addition, there is no point deduction. So it is a convenient and very successful (both technically and ergonomically) camera that I can fully recommend to buy. Thanks again to Amazon.com for lightning-fast delivery and perfect purchase.