Pentax K10D reviews from US and Sweden
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.
December 12th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Of course AF speed will be slower, as other cameras have AF motors in the lenses themselves, which is faster. When Pentax finally comes out with similar lenses then a real comparison can be done.
And high ISO noise is of course higher with CCD sensors than Canon’s CMOS sensors. Everyone should have expected this.
December 12th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Popphoto also tested the A100’s focus speed with the kit lens as incredibly fast (less than 1 second even at EV -1, compared to K10D with kit at 2+ secs), and Sony/Minolta doesn’t use in-lens motors either, at least not for anything below 200mm.
December 13th, 2006 at 2:11 am
I am really waiting for the review at dpreview.com, they’ve been holding it for ages. I am very, very much interested in the K10D, at the moment I’m using a Canon 10D. The the 10D seems to have all that the my camera lacks, ie weather sealing, nearly 100gms less weight, multiple exposures (unimportant for many, but I would use that a lot), a very nice viewfinder, ISO priority and the possibility of using some great quality pancake lenses. Canon’s lenses are all big, I do a lot of street photography and a lightweight, inconspicuous camera is what I’m after.
I’m just waiting to see how it performs at high ISO. I am not expecting Canon 5D performance, but a kind of noise that is closer to the look of film grain rather then the blotchy noise my 10D does at ISO 1600. The noise on the NIkon D80 samples locks very analogue, I am hoping for something similar.
If thats the case I will gladly become a Pentax user.
December 13th, 2006 at 5:18 am
There are a lot of high ISO noise tests over the internet. Take a look at the Pentax K10D page at PBase.com. I posted some links at this blog too.