I got two great deals on a prospective second camera companion for the S5.
First came a K-01, aka the mirrorless Pentax. Nearly universally panned for style and a few awkward details, it's a fine example of bad timing to market.* With a bargain 18-50re lens (also white), it's fairly quiet and has the sweet-16Mpx aps/c sensor that made the K5 and D7000 famous.
I was almost immediately caught by an online discount offer for a white Oly e-p5. With Sony's 16Mpx μ43 sensor that propelled the eM5 to glory, but in a smaller body crammed with features. Sadly, no white lenses are available..
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| White body but silver top on the e-P5. Each has its normal lens attached: smc-A 50/2 and TTartisan 23/1.4. |
As I put them against each other, neither has a viewfinder; the e-P5 does have a hotshoe evf available bit it isn't .. pretty. Both have a flash, unlike the S5, and the K-01 can use an external microphone.
Each has its special feature mix, and each has its awkward moments: Pentax put lipstick on a brick but previous Pentax users like me adjust fine, while Olympus menus are challenging to anyone who didn't practice with an eM5 first.
Both have sensor stabilized bodies, neither has wx seals. The e-P5 has two control dials, the K-01 just one. The Oly autofocus was speedy in its day, with years of mirrorless practice over Pentax, but neither is great when light levels drop. And both are lightly used: the k-01 has just over 10k clicks, the e-P5 under 2600!
As a former user of both systems, I have more comfort with the Pentax environment. My best-liked cameras were the K-5ii and e-M1. It's a tough call at first blush, but I don't feel rushed.
As to lenses in hand,
- I have 27-300eq in two Pentax AF zooms, plus their fine DA40xs, 70/2.4 Limited and 35/2.8 macro primes - and a few K-mount oldies (28, 50, 85, 135 and manual zooms).
- For μ43 I have 20-600eq in a Laowa 10mm, Lumix 12-32 + 14-140 and four-thirds Oly 70-300. Also, the Pentax gear can be adapted, but with no electronic contacts. A few fast native primes with no contacts rounds out that kit.
Second blush - among the lenses I listed was one important omission. I have two native K-mount macros, the 35/2.8 Limited and Sigma 50/2.8 in manual focus. These can both be adapted to the Pen, but only the 35 Limited can autofocus and expose. Since I have many slides and negatives to copy, that could prove important. Also worth noting is a K-01 effect to reverse all colors in an image, handy for color negatives. It also has 3-shot HDR for difficult high-contrast shots.. which means Kodachrome slides. While the eP5 has great extras including stabilized video, those points might be overwhelming.
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| Sigma 50 and Pentax DA35 Limited, plus PK-L adapter |
On the other hand, the Sigma 50/2.8 is also useable on the S5. The 35 Limited is almost so, with only mild vignetting when shooting 4:3 aspect images; at 3:2 native ratio the aps-c macro has distinctly black corners.So the best image should come with the S5 then K-01 whichever lens is used. But.. most people duplicating slides and negatives this way claim that 14-16Mpx is plenty good enough to resolve the grain of most old film images. More resolution and detail doesn't really help the image in that case! To settle it for myself, I'll need to shoot a couple of sample slides with the K-01 and S5, decently focused and similarly lit, and see what I see. I might as well test drive the eP5 while the setup is there.
* It was too large (2025 models are larger), retained the K mount (genius to some), and CDAF was too slow (true) - but a K-02 could easily be made with sensor PDAF, a viewfinder, and the KAF4 mount with electronic aperture control.
