Almost perfect | Pentax K20D 14.6MP Digital SLR Camera with Shake Reduction and 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL II Lens

Pentax With A Winner | Pentax K20D 14.6MP Digital SLR Camera with Shake Reduction and 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL II Lens

camera & photo:


	• Pentax K20D 14.6MP Digital SLR Camera with Shake Reduction and 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL II Lens Pentax Pentax, 2008 average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Pentax K20D

I have been using this camera for several weeks now and I have found the camera to be outstanding. In many ways the camera keeps surprising me with its flexibility and with the resulting image quality. There is only one complaint that I have and that is that all of the information available through the viewer is not also available on the LCD. This is only a minor annoyance. On the other hand many other capabilities keep surprising me. Although the learning curve of this camera [and other cameras of this type] is clearly steeper than a "point & shoot", the flexibility is very much appreciated. [Let me note that "point & shoot" is also an option with this camera, but I usually use the manual modes except when shooting outdoor scenery.] Part of my positive reaction is probably also due to the excellent 18-250 mm ~14x zoom lens that I bought with the camera. This lens takes you all the way from moderate wide angle to long telephoto. This camera does not use a full 35 mm detector but uses a "C type" cmos processor which is approximately 25 x 16 mm and all lens focal lengths should be multiplied by 1.5x to determine the 35 mm equivalent, therefore this lens, combined with this camera, produces an effective focal length of 27-375 mm. The positive of this is that the resulting lenses can be MUCH smaller than for a full 35 mm SLR. One of the really pleasing characteristics is the ability of this camera to take high quality images at high equivalent asa ratings up to 800 asa and with tolerable noise levels at even 1600 or, in a pinch, 3200 asa. This is important to me since I almost never use a flash. Finally, note that the "body only" antishake enables this camera body to use most older model Pentax lenses.

for more information click here

Almost perfect

This was quite an upgrade from the Samsung GX-1S (clone of *ist DS2) I used previously . Pentax have always put out nice products but haven't really been pushing the envelope until now.

The bad:

Auto white balance is still pretty poor. This has been the case with the other Pentax DSLRs. Certainly not a huge concern--especially if you shoot RAW--but a little annoying considering other manufacturers seem to manage it much better.

It has a tendency to underexpose. Normally I find myself shooting with +0.7EV compensation and rarely do I run into situations where it blows out the highlights with that setting.

The good:

Absolutely outstanding image quality. I have shot everything from 110 to large format in film, and the first thing that struck me looking at some of the K20D shots was that it looks like medium format film: the ultra-smooth gradations and gorgeous tones.

The lens focus adjustment! Both my Pentax SMCPDA 16-45mm Zoom f/4.0 ED/AL Lens for Pentax and Samsung Digital SLR Cameras and Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG Macro Telephoto Zoom Lens for Pentax and Samsung SLR Cameras required some adjustments to compensate for slight front and back focusing. Without this feature I would have been stuck with lenses that would not focus perfectly wide open.

The viewfinder. Large, bright, clear.

TAv mode. I spend 90% of my time shooting in this; Pentax treats ISO like a third variable in addition to shutter speed and aperture. Simple and brilliant. You just adjust the shutter speed and aperture with the wheels and it tells you the ISO so you can make a judgment call on a good compromise between all three.

Clever battery grip design that lets you store a spare SD card and remote.

Nice high ISO performance. I have shots at 5000 that look good, though 6400 is pretty noisy.

Hands-off noise reduction. Default is OFF, which lets you control it entirely in post-processing. Much rather have that than the water color paintings other cameras prefer to output.

Again, AMAZING image quality. I was worried that they were pushing the sensor too far with 14.6mp but they manage to control noise and retain wonderful detail. It does require good optics to get the most out of it, so I would recommend looking at some high quality glass. The 16-45/4 is one of the bargains out there; tack sharp, great color and contrast, and just around $300 new.

If Pentax could do a little better on the white balance and metering it would be absolutely perfect for me. As it stands, it is still an incredible bargain though!

for more information click here

Pentax With A Winner

I've been a photographer for twenty-five years or so, and eight years of that I was a pro. I've owned Hasselblads and Canons and Nikons and Linhofs. I've owned pentax in the past and loved them. This camera continues the tradition, offering more for your money - more quality than comparably priced cameras, more pixels, more features - you name it. It's priced like an enthusiast camera with enough "pro" features to deserve the appellation. It's no EOS 1Ds MKIII, but the full size image is breathtaking. There's resolution to spare, and the shake reduction works miracles for me. I have a handheld image shot at 1/4 sec that's sharp at 100% crop!

And the ease with which you can use the old lenses is just ridiculous. Throw even an old Pentax-M lens on it, set the camera to manual, set your aperture, touch the "Green Button", and the camera sets the programmed exposure - you can adjust from there to your heart's content. You can even specify the kind of program used by the green button - optimized for fast shutter speeds or depth of field - or the sharpest resolution settings of the appropriate lens. You can pick up used Pentax lenses all over for next to nothing, excellent glass on par with any manufacturer. Pentax glass is known for its color saturation and contrast, and this camera shows it off.

I don't want to just repeat what's already been said, but I also have to say - this is a photographer's camera. It does everything you'd want a camera to do, and then some. The "Hyper Program" is unbelievably cool - you touch the shutter, it sets the exposure, then you roll dials to adjust from there. Absolutely transparent. You can customize the functions of the wheels to a ridiculously convenient level - this can be any camera you want it to be. All in all, this is a real jewel, and the king of bang-for-the-buck.

for more information click here

Pentax K20D superb camera

I've been using this camera for nearly three weeks now and it is great! The camera feels very steady and all of the buttons and knobs are well placed. the pictures are also very good. The only issue that I've run into is that the x-sync speed isn't as high as I would like. 1/180 max sync speed isn't enough to really freeze any high speed motion. Overall though the camera is excellent and works well, even with the manual 20 year old lenses I am using. Also the battery life is good I can take more than 800 shots on one charge, without flash.

A nice upgrade from the K10D

I highly recommend this camera. After a year with the K10D, I recently upgraded to the K20D. The K10D was fabulous and I loved it. But I really wanted the LiveView mode and the higher resolution of the K20D. I was disappointed with LiveView though. It is mostly useless. It is nothing like a typical LiveView on most new compact digital cameras. On the K20D, you flip a lever to activate it, at which point auto-focus no longer works (without pressing the AF button and waiting several seconds while the screen goes black and it refocuses... on "something"). You can manually focus, but that can be a challenge based on the LiveView screen, especially in bright light (and the viewfinder is blank when LiveView is active). After taking a shot, there is a several second "blackout" period where the screen goes black. This is the #1 annoyance in my opinion, and it's the main reason I never use it. You can continue shooting while it's black, but you won't really know what you're shooting. So my use of LiveView is limited to the occasional self-portrait shot where I need to set the camera on the ground. It is sometimes "slightly" useful to frame a shot in that situation. (A flip-out screen would make it much more useful.) So aside from my complaints about LiveView, I do love everything else about this camera. The higher resolution and better quality image sensor is definitely an improvement over the K10D. At the highest resolution, pictures are much larger, of course. (I shoot in RAW, so I bought a 16GB SDHC card, which holds about 600 RAW images.) There are a few other "cool" new features (like a 21 fps low-res shooting mode), but I really haven't found any practical use for them. The picture processing engine on this K20D is faster than the K10D. In summary, if you want the higher resolution, buy the K20D. If 10MP is enough for you and you don't care about novelty features, buy the K10D. But you will be happy with either of these great new Pentax cameras. For the next model, I'm hoping for "real" always-on LiveView and a flip-out screen!

for more information click here

The PENTAX K20D digital SLR offers advanced photo enthusiasts a 14.6 megapixel CMOS image sensor and a Live View function. Customizable features include Expanded Dynamic Range function and a Custom Image function. Add to this Dust Reduction a PENTAX-developed Shake Reduction (SR) system and the Pentax Real IMage Engine (PRIME) all housed a dependable dust-proof weather-resistant body with 18-55mm II lens

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

hot