Pentax K100D Digital Camera

Product Rating
4.25 of 5
4 reviews

Price Range
$500 - $500

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Product Description

Summary

Amazing camera. Bought with with the Tamron 28-200mm for 590-50. Body is solid, picture come out great. The lens compatibility with the real winer of this camera. It will works with any K mount lens make since the 70s up to today. Shake reduction is amazing.

Strength

Tons of lens for it. Shake Reduction.

Weakness

AWB. Weak Burst Mode

Summary

I purchased the K100D 2-lens package to bring back the performance of an SLR to digital photography. I already own Pentax K lenses (both K and KA) and wanted to use them again. The K100D kit comes with 4 AA alcaline batteries, so the first purchase was NiMH batteries to provide adequate power. The memory card was not included in the kit so had to be purchased as well.

Strength

The camera body fits well in the hand. The controls are easily reached and the diopter eyepiece is an added touch which eyeglass wearers will appreciate. The two digital lenses are lighter than the equivalent 35mm traditional lenses and the focal length ring is comfortable to use. The large LCD screen is clear and bright, and the magnification control that manipulates the image is easy to use. The lenses are as easily switched as their original 35mm counterparts. Once you have read the exhaustive instruction manual, the added features are easily accessed. On-camera setting explanations are well thought out and easy to understand.

Weakness

The digital lenses have a proprietary sunshade that is stored over the lens body when not in use. It interferes slightly with the focal length selection, slowing down a bit the wished-for speed of a quickly viewed shot-taking opportunity. Using older K mount lenses, the initial setup is not clearly explained in the manual, and when the 'preview' button has been selected to initiate the AE settings, the focus has to be accepted by the camera computer before it will enable the user to take the shot. The focus adjustment in that 'C' mode is very touchy, again slowing shot-taking down to a deliberate, planned method.

Summary

Bought this with the really nice 43mm f1.9 lens. Sort of a digital substitute for my rangefinder. easy as heck to use.I found most of the controls right away. I would like to know the ISO in the viewfinder but no biggie.Already printed gorgeous 8X10's with medium JPEG! So what's the big deal. Pentax has great lens that are small (like the 43mm) so you can have the camera with you daily. Isn't that what its all about anyway?Six Megapixels looks good to me.

Strength

Size
Image quality
AA batteries

Weakness

Few custom buttons
no battery grip

Summary

The K100D is a very good camera for the money. Are there more capable cameras? Yes, but for twice as much. The camera is simple and easy to use, but for experienced photographers, be warned. Due to the simple control layout, many functions can only be accessed via menus: spotmeter (the Rebel Xti has none), focus and drive functions. At the very least the spotmeter should be programmable into the AE lock button as a custom function. It would have been nice to be able to use a battery grip--this body won't accept one. Does the shake reduction work? Yes. It's not perfect, but you'll probably get some shots you never would have. It won't really work if the camera is moved in one direction. Instead, it does its best when the camera is shaken back and forth quickly. So far, battery life is on track for 500-600 shots with Nimh rechargeables. You can get a set of 4 for $10.
One of the main reasons I chose the Pentax was for the lenses. I've found the 16-45 to be excellent, and cheaper and lighter than Canon or Nikon offerings(see my review). The pancake lenses have a great reputation, as do the 50 1.4, and the 50-200. No one else has bothered to bring out anything like the 14mm prime.
Image quality in my opinion is excellent and noise is non-existent at 400. I've enlarged to 13x19, and upscaled to 240 dpi with great results. Even though it's a 6 mp camera, I think it really deserves a good lens. 200 is the lowest iso, but I haven't found that to be a problem. The view finder is decent, but if a big bright finder is important to you, get the Nikon D80. SD cards are cheap, so that's a plus for me. (I'm still not sure what the max is for the k100d is.)
I've found the autofocus to be super fast and accurate, even in low light.
To sum things up, this camera has a few limits, but will probably satisfy 99% of my needs, at least for a few years. By then, the new generation of DSLRs will probably blow away everything and be priced less than the k100d.

Strength

Ergonomics, design, ease of use, good picture quality, low noise, use of AA batteries, selection of lenses not offered by other companies, low price.

Weakness

Inability to access spotmeter/other important functions by button, no battery grip available, no backlight for top LCD