K10d first impressions in Pentax Posted January 3, 2007 Hello! I've been using a K10D for a little over a month now, and I thought it was a good time to share some opinions about the camera. This isn't really a review, but more of a collection of not so obvious things that I like and dislike about the camera.<BR><BR> First of all I should say that I /love/ this camera. It is well built, well designed, and takes fantastic pictures. It is better than my older Canon 300d in nearly every respect, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone. <BR><BR><BR> That said, here are some of the less obvious features that I like.<BR> <ul> <li>The auto ISO feature in Aperture Priority mode is one of the best features I have seen in a long time. While in Aperture priority mode, this lets you specify and an ISO range (ISO 160-640 for instance) that the camera must stay within. The camera will try to set the shutter speed to (1/focal length*1.5) AND will then use the lowest ISO speed in the range you specified. I wish every camera this feature. I rarely ever worry about what ISO speed I am using any more (except in very low light where I want full control of all parameters.) </li> <li>The viewfinder/focus screen is fantastic. On my old 300d I eventually had to buy a split prism focus screen to help me manual focus, but I honestly haven't needed to do this with the Pentax. Everything looks clear, bright, and sharp as a knife.</li> <li>I love the RAW button. I almost always shoot RAW. But there have been times when I was caught without enough space on my SD cards on a shooting trip. But, with the RAW button, I can set the camera to JPG mode, and only switch to RAW when I know that I've got my exposure and composition correct. This may not be so handy if you have a box full of 4 gig cards, but I've definitely found it useful on a couple of occasions.</li> </ul><BR> However, there are some annoyances that I would like to point out. I don't feel like any of these are severe enough to forgo considering this buying the camera, especially since they are ALL are potentially fixable with a firmware update. But I hope that maybe someone at Pentax will read this and try to fix them, and make the K10 that much better.<BR><BR> <ul> <li>The rear speed dial has two purposes. One purpose is to change aperture/shutter speed, and the other is to change the zoom level of the rear LCD. This isn't an issue when you are looking at pictures in 'play' mode. But the dial choses to work as the zoom dial on the preview image after taking a picture, even though the camera is still in 'record' mode. This is very frustrating because I commonly want to change exposure settings after looking at this preview screen and only end up changing the zoom level on the image. It would be VERY nice if I could disable the zoom feature while the camera is not in 'play' mode.</li> <li>The 'auto ISO' feature mentioned above is wonderful. However, it is rendered far less useful because the currently metered ISO speed is not displayed in either the viewfinder or on the top LCD screen. This makes it very difficult to tell what exposure you are currently at.</li> <li>While in single auto focus mode, the camera /will not/ take a picture unless it has achieved focus lock. I can think of many times when the camera couldn't quite lock focus, but I could see with my eye that it had gotten close enough to take a picture. Your only choice in this scenario is to disable auto focus (there is a button for this) or switch to manual focus mode. This isn't too big a big deal, but it would be nice to just be able to hit the shutter.</li> <li>The Lens Make/manufacturer does not appear to be saved in the EXIF data. This may not be something Pentax can fix, but it would be nice to have.</li> </ul> <BR><BR> Again this is a fantastic, reasonably priced camera that is capable of taking great pictures. <BR><BR> Also, in case you are interested, I have a collection of all the pictures I have taken at <a href=http://www.one-blind-eye.com/index.php?x=browse&category=16>www.one-blind-eye.com</a> <BR><BR>
K10d first impressions
in Pentax
Posted
Hello! I've been using a K10D for a little over a month now, and I thought it
was a good time to share some opinions about the camera. This isn't really a
review, but more of a collection of not so obvious things that I like and
dislike about the camera.<BR><BR>
First of all I should say that I /love/ this camera. It is well built, well
designed, and takes fantastic pictures. It is better than my older Canon 300d in
nearly every respect, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
<BR><BR><BR>
That said, here are some of the less obvious features that I like.<BR>
<ul>
<li>The auto ISO feature in Aperture Priority mode is one of the best features I
have seen in a long time. While in Aperture priority mode, this lets you
specify and an ISO range (ISO 160-640 for instance) that the camera must stay
within. The camera will try to set the shutter speed to (1/focal length*1.5)
AND will then use the lowest ISO speed in the range you specified. I wish every
camera this feature. I rarely ever worry about what ISO speed I am using any
more (except in very low light where I want full control of all parameters.) </li>
<li>The viewfinder/focus screen is fantastic. On my old 300d I eventually had
to buy a split prism focus screen to help me manual focus, but I honestly
haven't needed to do this with the Pentax. Everything looks clear, bright, and
sharp as a knife.</li>
<li>I love the RAW button. I almost always shoot RAW. But there have been
times when I was caught without enough space on my SD cards on a shooting trip.
But, with the RAW button, I can set the camera to JPG mode, and only switch to
RAW when I know that I've got my exposure and composition correct. This may not
be so handy if you have a box full of 4 gig cards, but I've definitely found it
useful on a couple of occasions.</li>
</ul><BR>
However, there are some annoyances that I would like to point out. I don't feel
like any of these are severe enough to forgo considering this buying the camera,
especially since they are ALL are potentially fixable with a firmware update.
But I hope that maybe someone at Pentax will read this and try to fix them, and
make the K10 that much better.<BR><BR>
<ul>
<li>The rear speed dial has two purposes. One purpose is to change
aperture/shutter speed, and the other is to change the zoom level of the rear
LCD. This isn't an issue when you are looking at pictures in 'play' mode. But
the dial choses to work as the zoom dial on the preview image after taking a
picture, even though the camera is still in 'record' mode. This is very
frustrating because I commonly want to change exposure settings after looking at
this preview screen and only end up changing the zoom level on the image. It
would be VERY nice if I could disable the zoom feature while the camera is not
in 'play' mode.</li>
<li>The 'auto ISO' feature mentioned above is wonderful. However, it is
rendered far less useful because the currently metered ISO speed is not
displayed in either the viewfinder or on the top LCD screen. This makes it very
difficult to tell what exposure you are currently at.</li>
<li>While in single auto focus mode, the camera /will not/ take a picture unless
it has achieved focus lock. I can think of many times when the camera couldn't
quite lock focus, but I could see with my eye that it had gotten close enough to
take a picture. Your only choice in this scenario is to disable auto focus
(there is a button for this) or switch to manual focus mode. This isn't too big
a big deal, but it would be nice to just be able to hit the shutter.</li>
<li>The Lens Make/manufacturer does not appear to be saved in the EXIF data.
This may not be something Pentax can fix, but it would be nice to have.</li>
</ul>
<BR><BR>
Again this is a fantastic, reasonably priced camera that is capable of taking
great pictures. <BR><BR>
Also, in case you are interested, I have a collection of all the pictures I have
taken at <a
href=http://www.one-blind-eye.com/index.php?x=browse&category=16>www.one-blind-eye.com</a>
<BR><BR>