Friday, March 16, 2007

Pentax K10D review roundup

The Pentax K10D is currently the flagship of the Pentax SLR line. With a long list of great features (in-camera shake reduction, dust and weather seals, automatic sensor cleaning, compatble with all K-mount lens, etc) it is a strong competition amoung the similarly prices SLRs from other manufacturers. The question is, how does it stack up?
The consensus seems to be that the in-camera processing engine does not do the K10D justice. You will be able to squeeze much more quality from RAW than shooting in jpg mode. This is a bummer somewhat. Otherwise, it has gotten good reviews from Dpreview and DCRP. My only concern is the short supply of lenses. The fabled FA 50mm f/1.4 and FA 43mm f/1.9 Limited lenses are almost as hard to find as the Nitendo Wii. This has driven the price of SMC-A 50mm (f/1.7 and f/1.4) lenses up on eBay. Pentax has promised to make more digital-only DA lens soon. Let's hope they deliver and we get a new competitor in the DSLR field dominated by Nikon and Canon.