jimp

I put in for my rebate for a K100D Super on January 24th 2008 and just received it last week. So, that's not quite 2 months. Eh, I've waited longer. At least it arrived.

Also, check out the consumer protection laws in your state or country on defective merchandise and warranty repairs. In Massachusetts, USA, for example, a store's return policy does not apply to defective merchandise. Even if a store says that merchandise can only be returned within a specific period of time and for store credit, defective merchandise can always be returned for a full refund within the admittedly fuzzy "implied warranty of merchantability" time period. In addition, some U.S. states actually extend by law warranty coverage for items that are repaired under warranty. So, if the lightmeter (or whatever) breaks 9 months into a one-year warranty and is repaired, the warranty on the lightmeter resets to a year from the date of repair. Know your rights!

After reading this thread, I'm reminded of what is supposed to have happened to American Motors Corp. George Romney insisted that there be very few car platform options, as the company's "best chance for survival lay in smaller cars that had a high degree of interchangeability in parts to keep tooling costs and production complexity to a minimum." After Romney left, Roy Abernethy took over and decided that the company needed to compete head-on with its bigger rivals to expand market share, so he introduced more platforms with less common parts. Unfortunately, it turned out that Romney was right and that AMC couldn't amortize the design and tooling costs across enough of these new models and parts to become profitable. AMC finally had to join with Renault to stop from going bankrupt, and ceased to exist entirely with the Chrysler buy-out in 1987.

 

The lesson? Small companies need to have a laser-like focus on the bottom line. Pentax just may not sell enough cameras to allow it to invest in an entirely new set of tooling (or to keep the K100D's tooling and dies in production) for a model that will have a very low profit margin. And, they may think that taking the existing K200D and cheapening it may just lower the perception of the brand in the marketplace without significantly lowering production costs enough to earn enough of a profit.

 

Ultimatley, I doubt that Pentax can sell a cheaper DSLR than the K200D without hurting their bottom line.

Well, for all practical purposes I believe that the only difference between the K100D and the Super is that the Super can use SDM system supersonic motor lenses. While that's a good feature, there's lots of good Pentax lenses without a built-in focusing motor. Since I paid $550 for a K100D Super with the kit lens, a bag, and a UV filter from B&H, I think you got a pretty good deal.

 

BTW, I checked out the Canon Rebel (plasticy), the Nikon D40 (clunky), and the Olympus 410 (focus by wire and tunnel-like viewfinder) before I settled on the K100D Super. I'm very happy with my choice.

I used to have the same problem you have. Expensive scans, scratches, low resolution scans, etc, etc. Now, I scan my 35mm film at home using a Konica Minolta DiMage Scan Dual IV. Even though it doesn't have ICE or GEM, I can usually get very good scans out of it (max 3200 dpi), but sometimes old, dirty negatives and slides are problematic. Even so, I'm so much happier with this than with the run-around of trying to find someone else to do it for me.

 

Heck, you can get a Plustek 7200i (with 7200 dpi resolution!) with infrared dust removal for under $400. It's not the best, but all the reviews I've read say it's pretty darned good. That's like 27 rolls of scanned film at $15 a roll. In short, my recommendation is to save yourself a lot of aggravation and get a film scanner.

Thanks for all the info. I knew I'd get good answers here. I was surprised to find out that there is a thriving cottage industry providing focusing screens for DLSR cameras. I'll have to research that more. I was also surprised to find out that Nikon eyepieces will fit the Pentax viwefinder. And coming directly from a manual focus SLR, I wasn't aware of the trap focus feature. Thanks, all.

I like manual focusing, and I'm slowly fulfilling my longstanding desire to have

a full collection of Pentax-made prime lenses (at least from 28mm to 200mm) to

use with my P30T and new K100D Super digital SLR. Most of these will end up

being MF lenses, I'm sure, because I need working aperture rings for the P30T.

 

However, I find that sometimes I have trouble manual focusing the K100D. I find

that the screen is "snappy" enough, but the lack of any MF focusing aid like a

split image viewfinder or a microprism makes it hard for me sometimes. I

remember using my old Praktica MTL camera with its plain ground glass

successfully, but either that was more "ground" than the K100D or my eyes are

older. Though I wish I could change out the screen for one that is more

MF-friendly, I know I can't. (Another argument in favor of the K10D?)

 

This leads me to consider the Pentax Viewfinder Loupe. It's pretty cheap and

claims to make focusing easier. But does it? Can you see the edges of the

focus screen with it on? Does it distort the image in the viewfinder? Or is it

exactly what I'm looking for?

 

Also, does anyone have any other tips/tricks for manually focusing the K100D?

 

Thanks for any input and for all of the other useful info on this forum.