Pentax K1

The Pentax K1 is a solid professional grade full-frame (FF) 36 MPx DSLR with an impeccable pedigree at a bargain price point. There are only three makers of FF DSLRs - Canon, Nikon and Pentax, yet Pentax are almost never heard of due to lack of advertising. Shops generally have them only to order.

The K1 is the equivalent and rival of a Canon EOS 5D or Nikon 810/850, but has an advantage that image stabilisation is in the camera body, not the lens, so it works with legacy manual lenses as well as modern ones. The image quality has been measured as better than its rivals, but all have resolutions well beyond what the human eye can detect in the benchmark 8x10 print. However autofocus is said to be slower - for fast focus you really need a CanonEOS 1D or Nikon D5 (and pay the shocking price). Same story with video, but if I wanted video I'd use a video camera. The K1 has a "pixelshift" mode which increases its resolution for static tripod shots by a factor of 3 or 4. It is excellent for landscape, portrait, studio and general work.

There is an adequate (for me) and expanding range of FF zoom and prime lenses for it - the prime lenses from the Pentax APS-C range can be used too, and of course legacy Pentax 35mm film lenses.