Pentax Life

Pentax K10D rated “Excellent” (81%) by LetsGoDigital. Camera praised for its all-weather sealing, built-in shake reduction and best on the market value for money. The only complain is not about soft JPEGs but:

I thought that several buttons had not been placed logically and some settings could not be found and operated intuitively. It’s probably a question of getting used to, but it’s still an important point. Maybe Pentax should take a sly look at competitors who are bringing out more ergonomic cameras.

Another K10D review (rather short but with the couple of nice samples) provided by Howard Creech at DigitalCameraReview.com. “The K10D was clearly designed by photographers, for photographers.“

The same person has reviewed Pentax DA 70mm f2.4 Limited pancake-style prime lens. Howard is very impressed by this lens: “this is one of the nicest prime lenses I’ve ever used.” By his words 70mm limited is the perfect fit for candid street photography and travel.

Japanese blog Digital1gan takes a closer look on FA 50mm F1.4 normal prime from the film era. One post is about the lens itself and the other full of real life samples.

First of all, another big reviewer has put his hands on the K10D. Jeff Keller of DCRP has posted Pentax K10D review – and Samsung GX-10 is on the schedule.

Jeff liked K10D’s built quality and size, but complained the out of the box JPEG softness and “dull colors“:

Shooting JPEGs straight out of the box isn’t a good idea, as they’ll be soft and dull in color. You can resolve this by shooting RAW, increasing in-camera sharpening/contrast/saturation, or just using the bright image tone setting. Once you do I think you’ll be more than pleased with the K10′s output.

The effort to gain more film-like look played a bad joke on Pentax this time. Frankly, it’s more marketing than technology. Pentax should work more to spread its vision of image quality.

Russian gadgets review website iXBT published K100D test (auto translation). It’s a bit weird, because the author experienced lens installation difficulties. In his words the bayonet of K100D is too tight and got scratches after several lens changes. Also author disliked poor autofocus and continuous shooting performance, uncomfortable menu and focusing point selection.

Pentax A20 gets “Recommended (just)” from the DPReview. Simon Joinson (the review author) looks some disappointed by the A20 improvements over previous Pentax’s compact digicam flagship A10: “So does the A20 deliver the necessary improvements? The sad answer is not nearly enough.” Performance and ergonomics got the lowest marks from him (6.0 and 7.0 respectively), however the build quality rated pretty high – 8.5.

Impress Watch reviewed the new Pentax Optio M30 (auto translation) – overall impressions are good with the special praises to Auto Exposure. A load of real life samples included.

Steve’s DigiCams reviewed Pentax Optio S7 – the last model in the Pentax’s S series of ultra-compact point & shoot cameras. Steve was impressed by the image quality of such a small camera, ergonomics deserved some kudos as well. “Indoors is where this little camera shines, except when needing the flash… …it did work very well when shooting portraits from about 4 or 5 feet. People shots showed sharp facial features, good flash exposure along with great natural skin tones. Portrait photography is one of the S7′s best uses.” But the camera’s shooting performance found to be below average.

Popular hardware review website AnandTech have published Digital SLR Buyer’s Guide where almost all modern DSLRs were reviewed. Pentax K10D competes with Nikon D80, Sony A-100 and Canon Digital Rebel XTi (400D) in 10 megapixel category. K100D/K110D shares entry-level segment with Nikon D40 and Olympus E500.

All-in-all the Nikon D80 and Pentax K10D are the closest in build quality and depth of features. When you consider the K10D has very effective anti-shake built in, effective moisture sealing, and dust removal – and the Nikon has none of these features – the advantage definitely goes to Pentax. If you are a serious photographer you will be very happy with the Pentax K10D. If you are already committed to the Canon or Nikon lens system, then your choice is easier. However, while Canon pioneered the under $1000 digital camera market, the Canon Rebel XTi is by far the worst offering in the 10 megapixel range. It is cheaply built with poor ergonomics compared to other 10 megapixel offerings.

AnandTech author Wesley Fink is very excited by the Pentax K10D:

• Best Value in the 10 Megapixel category is clearly the Pentax K10D
• We suspect the Pentax will encourage other new designs that will bring Pro level construction and features to lower Digital SLR price points
• Pentax is also offering some of the most innovative and interesting lenses currently available in digital photography
• The Pentax has the best viewfinder, followed closely by the Nikon D80, then the Sony A100
• From brief comparisons the Pentax and Canon XTi are the best at controlling noise at high ISO

Another “Best Value” mark in this review deserved Pentax K110D for it’s exceptionally low $400 price and “ better than average quality and performance“.

PopPhoto guys staged unique underwater camera shootout to find out the winner in the budget waterproof point & shoot category. There are only two competitors: Pentax Optio W20 and Olympus Stylus 720SW. Both cameras costs less than $300. Pentax is $50 cheaper, but Olympus dives 5 feet deeper. Also Pentax W20 have a better underwater ergonomics, better image quality, focusing faster, and can record video in 640*480 at 30fps mode against Olympus’ 320*240 15fps.

TrustedReviews has issued dedicated review of Pentax Optio W20 this week. Their verdict is:

If you need a camera that can withstand immersion in water, your choices are basically limited to the Pentax Optio W20 or the Olympus mju 725 SW that I reviewed last week. The Pentax is cheaper, smaller, takes slightly better pictures, and looks more like a normal compact than the Olympus, but lacks the shock-proof credentials.

Phil Askey have posted full 26 page in-depth review of the Pentax K10D digital SLR. Now it’s takes far less time than in case of K100D. Well, may be the next Pentax’s camera will be reviewed as quickly as Canon’s and Nikon’s are.

While Phil enjoyed the camera and gave it “Highly Recommended” rating, he complained on poor edge sharpness in out of camera JPEGs and put 7.5 mark on K10D’s image quality (even worse than Sony A100!). But who will take $1k DSLR to shoot JPEGs only?

The old and trustworthy photo essays website Luminous Landscape has published Pentax K10D hands-on report by Michael Reichmann. The sub-title says: “Pentax Joins the Digital Big Leagues”.

Michael enjoys a lot of things: shake reduction (I found it to offer at least a two stop and sometimes three stop advantage over hand-held shooting without it), DNG, dust reduction feature, weather sealing, good AF (though I did find that it hunted a bit more in low light than what I’m used to with the Canon cameras with which I am familiar) and shooting speed, Auto ISO, post exposure in-camera RAW development. And the only serious weakness found is vertical banding on some ISO 1600 night shots.

In the second part of the article Michael makes a prediction of the future of the DSLR market: Canon and Nikon will remain the major players…

As for Pentax, the main subject of this page, the K10D could well be the beginning of their renaissance. Competition is what makes any market vibrant. Let’s hope that Pentax is successful in shaking up some of the market leaders, as well as in repositioning themselves as a potential major player. With the K10D I believe that they’ve got the product that can help them do this.

PopPhoto.com have tested Pentax K10D digital SLR:

After running the K10D through our normal battery of tests and seeing how it performs in real-world situations we can now say with certainty: Pentax has truly arrived in the DSLR category, and the K10D is a serious player in the advanced amateur DSLR game.

PopPhoto named K10D’s image quality “excellent at every ISO“; details in highlight and shadow areas – “Very high“; average resolution, as confirmed by the tests, is 1925 lines at ISO 100. But the autofocus speed reported to be slower than competitive models from Canon and Nikon. They have tested “extremely early production samples“, so AF speed test could be not correct.

The second review today is from Swedish website Fotosidan. Its in Swedish, but you can look at the Pentax K10D + DA 16-45/4 vs. Canon EF 17-40/4L on the unnamed Canon’s camera (probably 400D) side to side image quality comparison.

Thanks to Stephen Hardy for the both links.

DCRP forums member CptOfGondor have tested Sigma 24-135mm F2.8-4.5 Aspherical IF zoom lens on his Samsung GX-1L camera. Here is Part I and Part II of the review. You can see lens mounted on the Pentax film SLR and Samsung DSLR body. Also 100% crops of the shots with various focal lengths and aperture settings available. CptOfGondor rated it 8.5 out of 10:

Overall I found the lens sharpness fairly good and quite adequate for my use. 24mm at the f2.8 max was a bit soft but judging from the full size photos, I don’t think one will notice unless really big prints were made. The AF will hunt a bit but find some distinct lines/edges and its fine. I think this may also be the fact that the Samsung only as 5 AF sensors.

Popular Photography & Imaging have tested Pentax DA 21mm F3.2 Limited wide angle prime and have found it “well constructed, light and compact 21mm is an excellent choice for composed or from-the-hip snapshooting, as well as landscapes and interiors“. 21mm Lim showed excellent sharpness, below average barrel distortion and no vignetting at F/4.5. Also closest focusing distance was shorter than mentioned specifications.