Pentax or starter DSLR Questions inside

[Drewhop]

So my wife is getting into a digital media design program at COTC. I have been doing some research along with her and we keep coming up with Pentax cameras and them being great for beginners. I have read review after review and honestly I dont know what all the focus and image sensors and all of that are for.

 

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxkr/

 

A review I read and compared the images in the comparison chart to several other competitors and it looks pretty good if not better then some of the comparable cameras from Nikon/Canon/Sony

 

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxkr/page9.asp

 

What am I missing. It seems that picking up glass for the pentax can also be extremely cheap cause they seem to interchange.

 

If I am completely off base please tell me.

We are looking to stay in the 350-500 dollar range and a used camera. If she excels at photography portion of the program we will of course change to a better camera down the line but for now we are just looking for a starter DSLR with some good manual settings but quite a few auto settings until she adjusts to the learning curve.

[craig71188]

We (my wife) owns the Pentax. A large part of our decision was the fact our existing lens inventory fit it. Pentax seems to get a bad rap for using "AA" batteries (readilly available) and for a slower, noisier autofocus (true). I'm sure the Cannon/Nikon crowd will chime in - but for a basic user that wants good results, it's been a good piece for us.

 

For good used stuff, you may try these guys:

http://columbuscameragroup.com/

Been there forever - sell a lot of higher end stuff, but often have the previous generation DLSR stuff in stock used for a decent price. Often some assorted lenses as well.