One whole week with my K10D

[petrana_batik]

Just finished a week long shooting trip with my newly acquired K10D and 3

limited lenses (21/40/70).

 

I must say I'm quite impressed with the setup. There are quirks and shortcomings

here and there, but the system held up beautifully for what I had bought it for

(street photography). Here's my short list of experiences.

 

1) Battery life. OMG! What a fantastic surprise! My D200 normally devours a

battery in 200-300 shots. I originally bought 3 extra batteries for the K10D. I

also bought the supplementing grip so I would never need to worry about power,

as I regularly travel without the charger. I've shot roughly 1200 shots about

40% with the grip, the battery meter STILL shows full. I didn?t rotate the

batteries, the other 2 extra batteries were not used at all. Superb battery life.

 

2) SR. WORKS well. I routinely pulled the shutter speeds to 1/20? with the 70,

and the K10D nearly always delivered. Couldn?t get it such results with 1/10? or

slower, but I never bothered with my monopod.

 

3) AF. Mostly precise, with some oddball performance here and there; couldn?t

pinpoint what the problem was. Perhaps the AF algorithms are a bit too anal. I

mostly (>80% of the time) used the center AF focus point, and in most situations

AF locked fast. In some scenarios, AF would not lock at all?no matter what

contrast pattern I had presented it with. Still studying this.

 

4) MF. Very capable with manual focusing, which is quite a surprise to me. I

MF?d most of the time in low light, where AF wouldn?t lock on anything (and

probably SHOULDn?t). Quick shift mechanism works well.

 

5) Size. Oh so nice! Had the entire setup in a tiny bag with me all the time.

The camera (Especially without the grip) was very nice to handle, and presented

none of the paparazi factor the D200/D2x had always granted me with. Simply

fantastic, especially with the 40/2.8!

 

6) Interface. Very easy to master, I browsed through the manual but I didn?t

seem to need it. The exotic shooting modes are interesting, although I was

mostly shooting in Aperture priority. Buttons are well placed, although it took

me a while to find out where DOF preview was hidden.

 

7) 21/3.2. Very nice surprise, and what I feel much better value than how most

online reviews rate this lens. I was very often shooting in hyperfocal distance

with this one, and since most of that style of shooting had limited me to f/8 or

so, the images this lens had delivered were extremely sharp.

 

8) 40/2.8. Lived up to its reputation. TINY package. I?ve owned bigger lens

caps. Super performance up close, very good far away. It does flare though.

 

9) 70/2.4. Wonderful, simply WONDERFUL. I can?t fault this lens. Even the snaps

I had taken at the airport turned out to be wonderful. It?s already great wide

open, and I normally used it that way for portraits or for DOF isolated subjects.

 

10) High ISO. Kept it to 800 and below, and no problems there. These are

relatively fast lenses, so I didn?t need to shoot at higher ISO.

 

11) Metering. Kept it on the equivalent to Matrix (I forgot what the Pentax eq.

term is). Tried some spot, worked as it should. AE lock button very nicely

positioned, and often used.

 

12) Onboard flash. I actually put it to very good use for fill flash in slow sync.

 

Overall, very happy.

I?ll post some sample shots soon.

[mountainvisions]

Very nice post. Glad to see you had a great experience with such a wonderful camera and system. And I'm looking forward to seeing that translated into the images you post.

 

The battery life is excellent. I believe better than the specs which make it seem much lower than the Nikon counterparts. However, I found I was getting over 500 shots without any issues per battery, and that was with regular LCD review to clear cardspace while shooting sports.

 

You've further convinced me that the 21 and 70 are in my future.

 

My only complaint is actually something you view as a strong point. The AE-L button and exp comp seem to be in poor locations for my hand. But that just shows how subjective button placement is.

[audun_sjoeseth1]

Yes, the K10D and the Pentax system is great in spite of some missing lenses so far.

 

The 70/2.4 is wonderful, I love it. The 16-45/4 is a great preformer too. :)

[a few images]

Re: Battery Life

 

Some major reviewer (won't mention names) says that the K10D has less than average battery life. I read his review prior to purchasing my K10D along with extra batteries.. MY GOD, that dude could not be more wrong! 1200 photos is not a problem on one battery, sometimes a little less depending on flash use and itensity but nowhere near what he claimed (like 480 or something).. I think he might be a Canon Spokesperson or something. Kudos to Pentax on battery life AND the non AA battery used. It's great!

[godfrey]

Glad you're enjoying your K10D.

 

I chose the FA43 Limited over the DA40 Limited, but have a DA40 on loan for a bit. For my

hands, the DA40 is simply too small: I can't comfortably use the focusing ring. The FA43,

DA21 and DA70 are all excellent in this regard, all about the same size and close in weight

(the 43 is the heaviest of them). I just wish the 43 had Quickshift. (I haven't really come to

any conclusions about the DA40's rendering qualities yet. In scenes which I shot with both

the 40 and 43 lens, they seem more alike than different ... but the 43 does seem to have a

small advantage.)

 

BTW, Justin: I have the exposure compensation control set to direct access on the front

edial in Program, Av and Tv modes, so where the EC button is doesn't make any difference

to me at all. The AE-Lock button is in an ok location for my thumb ... I just have to

remember to use it: I tend to tweak the EC rather than just point, lock, reframe... ;-)

 

Godfrey

[petrana_batik]

These are just raw snaps..

70/2.4 DA:<div></div>

[petrana_batik]

40/2.8:<div></div>

[petrana_batik]

21/3.2 DA:<div></div>

[mountainvisions]

Godfrey,

 

I have the EC set the same. I find it's great, but occassionally forget I am shooting in Av or Tv and change the ISO.

 

The EC button really just annoys me because my finger gravitates to it for the AF. I don't fault Pentax, just my hands. The D really fit me perfectly with the grip. The K10D with a w/o grip is a bit awkard. But it's still highly usable considering I really don't use AE-L that much unless I decide to switch exposure balance from shutter to aperture when shooting manual.

 

Probably if I was designing the camera (for me and my hands) I'd move the AE-L just a few mm to the left and maybe move the EC to the left and parralel to the thumb wheel making the AF button solitary and a bit bigger.

[audun_sjoeseth1]

I think the DA 21/3.2, the DA 35/2.8 macro and the DA 70/2.4 will be a great set of lenses.... :)

[michael_kuhne]

Thank you for this post of your satisfaction with these unique and excellent products. And thanks for the sample shots of your fine results! As I also own the 21mm and a couple other Limited lenses, I am not surprised- but it is good to hear from another who shares enthusiasm for these compact wonders. Yes, once a person experiences this portability/quality combination, it becomes clear that size matters!

[mountainvisions]

Actually I take back what I said about the EC.

 

I had the EC set to the control wheels but when the firmware update came out, I switch the control wheels to ISO in Tv and Av modes.

 

This allows me to utilize one of the negative points of the pentax k10D, lack of direct ISO control (i'm being sarcastic since the K10D has 3 modes of ISO control 1) control wheels 2) OK button and control wheel 3) Fn button)

 

Sometimes the reviews just aren't accurate. I can't see how changing ISO on any camera could be easier then giving it it's own e-dial.

[godfrey]

Just out of curiousity: Why are you doing so much controlling of ISO? I have my cameras set

to Auto-ISO 100-400 range 90% of the time.

 

Godfrey