I had the opportunity to use a Pentax K10D and the 18-55mm kit lens for a week while on vacation, and I thought I’d share my impressions of the camera, and how it compares to my Nikon D200. The Pentax K10D is the top end of Pentax’s DSLR range, incorporating CCD image stabilisation, sensor dust shake-off, and compatibility with a wide range of existing Pentax lenses.

There are lots of comprehensive reviews out there, so I’ll just go through the highlights. First are the things I liked:

1. RAW Support: THe K10D can store images in either Pentax’s own proprietary PEF format or in the open DNG format. Kudos to Pentax for supporting DNG in camera, I think it’s great.
2. Shooting buffer: in RAW mode, I managed 11 shots in continuous shooting (3 fps) before the buffer filled and it slowed down. In practice, it’s more than enough, unless you’re shooting sports, in which case 3 fps isn’t fast enough anyway, so you’d be looking at a different camera.
3. Buttons: Pentax has put quite a few dedicated buttons on the camera, meaning that it’s relatively easy to get to the functions that you need to without having to go into the menu system and fiddle with the camera too long. I particularly appreciated the AF button, located on the back by the thumb, which I’ve gotten used to on my D200. One of the more interesting buttons is the “Green Button”. If you are in Manual mode, a push of the green button will set the exposure to what the automatic metering would choose, as if the camera were in Program mode. Handy.
4. 1.20 firmware update: I know, it’s geeky. After applying the firmware update, I was able to set EV in 1/3 stops if I liked, as well as have the ISO settings follow EV. This gave me ISO’s in between the normal +1 jumps (100, 200, 400, 800, 1600), allowing for finer control over the sensor’s sensitivity.
5. The kit lens’ macro ability: The kit lens is a good lens for the price (< $200), and performs as you’d expect. I appreciated the macro focus ability a lot, something I’m missing on my current lens lineup.
6. Auto ISO: This is a handy feature, which varies the ISO between a user selectable range, depending on the lighting situation. Not so handy, however, when you don’t know it’s on, and you suddenly wonder why, upon reviewing your shots for the day, some shots are at ISO 400 instead of ISO 100!
   

I only had a few dislikes worth mentioning:

1. DNG files are bigger than PEF: In the end I switched to PEF just so that I could store more shots on the card. Perversely, it seems that if you shoot DNG, you can get more shots in the buffer vs. using PEF.
2. No AF point indicator on the top LCD: I’m used to this on the D200, and I found that I missed its absence. I often preselect the focus point before I bring the camera up to my eye, and having to look through the viewfinder to either determine where the focus point was or to set the focus point slowed me down.
3. Viewfinder info display: in very bright sunlight, it was very difficult to see the LED info display. In fact, I thought the camera was off!
4. Colours: sometimes I found the colours to be a bit over saturated, or to have strange pixelation or artifacts from dark to light areas. I couldn’t reproduce it all the time, so I’m not sure what was causing it, nor did I have the time to, so don’t take this comment too seriously.
   

Other than that, I really liked the camera. If I were starting from scratch with a new camera system, the Pentax K10D would certainly be close to the top of the list. Definitely if offers a great bang for the buck, and has some features like image stabilisation and dust shake that aren’t found on any Nikon or Canon DSLR. If I didn’t already have an investment in Nikon glass, it would certainly be compelling.

technorati tags:Pentax, K10D, review, DSLR, digital, camera

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