More on my D300 vs K20D decision

[a few images]

Javier, start sending me your castaways! :)

[d_syd]

Well, a few of you hit on a point- waiting could only have an upside. Either I will be rocked by a new model release, or at the very least the prices of existing models will go down more. In the meantime I can keep having fun with my existing gear.

 

I guess I never considered D70 to D80 much of an upgrade- but the more I read, the more I realize it would be a very practical way to get up to 10MP and gain other perks as well without having to blow $1800 on a D300. That and waiting for the K20D price to fall further is actually a great suggestion.

 

I like the jpegs out of my K100D but I am disappointed it has a stuck pixel that sorta forces me to shoot RAW, unless I want to spend half my life hunting and cloning out the dreaded green dot.

 

There's no rush, but since time seems to be running out on remaining stock K10Ds (thinking along the same lines- get the affordable best of both worlds by upgrading both systems to yesterday's bodies), I wanted to get others' opinions now. Between the K10 and K20 though there's quite a bit pulling me toward waiting and getting the K20, though if I already had the K10 I'm not sure it'd be enough to make me want to upgrade.

[jgredline]

''Robert Clark , Jun 04, 2008; 09:36 a.m.

 

"licks the nikon's butt in image quality" Mmm. Is that meant to be a positive thing?''

 

My Bad, this is what happens when you don't proof read what you write as is the case with me always.... ''Kicks'' is what I meant to say. LOL. That is funny though.

[14mm 2.8l]

Pentax pumped the price of K10D back up off its all time low of $509 to just about $800 and $900 on their website. For me, I passed on K10D at $509 and having it re-inflate back up to $800 made it a non option. This irritating and predictable business model pentax persues is why I've spent big money on canon equiptment the past 4 months. I Just got tired of waiting for promised and usually overdue product from pentax that then always launches high I guess to stick it to the true pentaxians and believers of K Mount. I did that once, Once was enough. Now I'll wait a year after issue of any new pentax item to see where the price really is.

 

Anyways CMOS sensor is where the market is headed so why bother with Pentax last CCD Pentaprism dslr model for just a couple hundered less than K20D has already dropped down to? Who knows if Pentax even fixes K10D now in June 2007? Well I should say : Who knows if Pentax affordably fixes K10D thesedays since it uses old Sony made CCD sensor and K20D uses new Samsung made CMOS sensor. And Pentax is no longer owned by pentax but instead Hoya Corp. New owner, new rules? I was told at demodays Pentax will not release any future firmware updates for K10D so in my mind they've abadoned support for it inleiu of this years new models.

 

I still haven't figured out if Justin drowned his K10D or it simply died or ?And thats why he has a K20D Loaner or if Pentax gave him a K20D to testdrive and chat about. If he's become a "pentax pro" and is now able to get loaner pentax goods from Colorado then I'd assume he'd talk about all the differences in image quality, improved shake reduction, 14mp versus 10mp, ect... concerning K20D vs K10D.

 

Last point concerning Nikon D300, doesn't nikon include the ability for owners to map out dead pixels? I know my Canon 5D has a 4 step procedure to map out dead pixels and its three year old technology so you might look into the possibility that D80 can map out dead pixels too since this ability to ignore dead pixels has been around for a few years now.

 

Lindy

[jgredline]

''Lindy Stone [Frequent poster] , Jun 04, 2008; 12:23 p.m.

 

Pentax pumped the price of K10D back up off its all time low of $509 to just about $800 and $900 on their website. For me, I passed on K10D at $509 and having it re-inflate back up to $800 made it a non option. This irritating and predictable business model pentax persues is why I've spent big money on canon equiptment the past 4 months. I Just got tired of waiting for promised and usually overdue product from pentax that then always launches high I guess to stick it to the true pentaxians and believers of K Mount. ''

 

I agree. Pentax has done a terrible job in marketing and in research. While they ask the Pros what they want, they need to be asking us amateurs what we want as well...They also do need to get out what they road mapped in the way of lenses. Why they would come out with this 17-70 F/4.0 and even the 50-300 is beyond me. The market is loaded with those types of Lenses. But anyway, this is heading via the ''hijacking the thread route'' so it's time to pipe down. :)

[thebs]

It's really hard not to recommend the D300. In fact, it's really the only Nikon I'd buy (other than the D3, of course). Especially if you do long-range sport photography.

 

I bought my K100D because I wanted a complete system for less than the D300 body alone. Heck, one can get the K20D and one of the DA* teles for the same price.

[d_syd]

Nothing like a bunch of cheap accessories to rejuvenate your interest in existing gear (at least long enough to wait out new releases and/or price drops on current models)!

 

To solve my K100D stuck pixel problem I tried a little program called Flameout. It's free to try and only $14.95 to buy. Simple enough, seemed to do the trick, and runs batches really quickly.

 

Then between eekbay and the nearest camera shop, bought a bunch of other cheap goodies, mostly to help with new macro fascination/experimentation/education

[jay_d5]

My research corroborates Fredrik's statement on resolution versus dynamic range. The k20d does have a feature that increases dynamic range, but I'm skeptical about how many stops you'll actually get. One owner online (albeit not an authority) said he was able to get only 0.4 stops. I have also noticed that the colors from the k20d and k10d appear to be muted. One could possibly fix that in photoshop or through in camera presets, but I would check on the color output and dynamic range to see if they meet your needs.

 

I would go for the k20d over the k10d if you plan on shooting jpegs, as the output from the k10d in jpeg form in naturally very soft.