Review 4 of 9
Price Paid:
$800.00
from Circuit City Summary:
This is my first Digital SLR. I bought a Pentax ME and several lenses when I lived in Japan in the late 70's, so I went with this body in order to be able to use my fleet of lenses.
Since I have almost no experience with other digital SLR's, I don't really have a baseline, but from the experiences I've had so far, I'm thrilled with this camera. Compared to my old ME-super film body, this thing weighs a ton, but there is a whole lot more stuff in the K10D.
This was a bit of a leap of faith. In addition to the lenses, I have some powerful Sunpak flashes that were made to interface with my old Pentax body. I wasn't sure if all these accessories would work with the new camera. Basically, they do. (sometime you get lucky)
The flashes work great. All the auto synching, shutter control, etc. works as expected. The lenses are another story.
I only had one SMC lens that had an Automatic setting for the aperature (I always wondered what that was for...) That is the only lens that really integrated properly with this camera. All the others have to be operated manually. The only exposure control setting that works with the older lenses is the Hyper Manual setting. None of the others will move the aperature off it's wide-open setting. To use these lenses, I have to put the camera in manual, use the exposure preview feature to check the exposure, then manipulate the shutter speed or F-stop to get the proper exposure. Fortunately, the way the controls are set up on this camera, all these steps don't take too long, but for action shots, it's a bit complicated.
I was torn when I was researching this thing. Since this was my first digital SLR, I thought about going with a Nikon or Canon. The prices are similar. My lens and flash investment pushed me over the edge. I suppose ignorance is bliss, but I'm happy with my decision. This camera is really nice.
I'm not a professional photographer, but I take a lot of photos in my job (marketing engineer). I've taken tens of thousands of photos over the past 30 years and have taken the craft seriously. I am a Photoshop expert as well. Non-professionals like my photos, but I'm a little shy about showing them to pros. I'm a gadget guy, so I study my toys thoroughly and try to get the full use of them. I'm enjoying this one. Strengths:
I like the feel. The controls are easy to reach. The guys that did the ergonomics on this thing were obviously photographers. I shoot all my photos in RAW format, so I like the built-in DNG format. It imports directly into Photoshop. And it has an Adobe color space option, too.
For me, the fact that I can use all my old SMC lenses and dedicated flashes was a big plus.
So far, the battery seems to last forever. I've taken several hundred photos on a single charge with very little drop in the battery indicator. But I rarely use the built in flash.
The image quality is also exceptional. I only use the ASA100 sensitivity, so I'm not sure how noisy it will get at higher speeds. I've enlarged photos to 20"x30" with amazing clarity and without noticeable grain. Of course, that's using my old SMC f1.4 lens, too. Weaknesses:
It's a little heavy (compared to my old film camera body), but it doesn't seem much heavier than my sister's Canon. And it feels more solid than the Canon. The controls have a more precise feel, too. Still, once I put a telephoto lens on this thing, it starts to wear on my neck.
The Pentax 18-55mm DA lens that came with the camera is a bit of a disapointment. Compared to all my old SMC lenses, this one seems cheap (to be fair, it is cheap). It works fine, but is doesn't have that really solid feel that you get with the old SMC lenses. I guess you get what you pay for (or at least you won't get it if you don't pay for it). Similar Products Used:
None. I've been a Pentax film camera guy for 30 years and I've had a few point-and-shoot digitals, but this is my first digital SLR.
I had a pretty nice Panasonic point-and-shoot with a 10:1 zoom. My daughter had her's stolen from her luggage at the airport, so I gave mine to her. That's how I justified buying the K10D. But now I think I might have to buy another point-and-shoot for the times that I don't want to lug my big camera bag along.
Or maybe I'll put that money towards another lens... Customer Service:
No experience.
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