Any love for the Pentax K10D ?

[spystyle]

I'm thinking of the Pentax K10D...

I love M42 lenses

I want to try Auto ISO

I want to try in body image stabilization

I like the word "Pentax"

[Ben_V]

The K10 is a very capable camera and using older lenses is a breeze. The Shake Reduction works nicely even with old M42 lenses. I never used Auto ISO, as the ISO setting is one of those parameters, I want to have full control, but ofcourse I can imagine situations, where it comes in handy. What I especially like about the K10 (and the K20, which sports some further improvements, well worth the addiotnal investment) is:
- the really big and bright viewfinder
- the very intuitive controls and easy to navigate menues
- compatibility to all older Pentax and thrid party lenses, with whatever variety of the K-mount
- the very reliable AF (though slower in continous mode, than CaNiOly)
- the very high quality fixed focal length lenses - they are just marvellous
- the build quality. There is no other camera in that price range, that is nearly as solidly build.

Ben

[spystyle]

Excellent points Ben

It almost seems like an M42 lover's dream camera come true And the price is attainable

Very tempting!

Right now I have a Canon 10D for use with the manual lenses... but I am considering swapping it out for the K10D

I think this camera would be especially handy for budget telephoto - like the common 300/4.5 M42 lens on a body with image stabilization - great for shooting birds ... or surveillance?

Yes, the K10D has made my list of cameras to keep an eye out for, maybe I'll wait a while until the price comes down too. K10D and Leica have recently made my list

Have fun!
Craig

[Normie1]

The K10 is a great camera, I love mine and currently looking at the K20D. Maybe I will maybe not.................Who knows

[Normie1]

there was a K10D on Craigslist a while back and the person wanted 300.00 for it with an 18-55. I called him and he had sold it, I ask him why and he told me it was to hard to use, only had 890 shots on it, what a good one to buy. OH WELL

[spystyle]

Oh I hate it when I miss a good deal

[georgep]

Love mine. I bought it because I had a Pentax film camera and was always happy with the quality for the camera and the lenses. I haven't changed my mind. The only snag is that those old Pentax lens have stopped being a bargin on eBay. Still, the range is fantastic and if you are going to take the trouble to use an adapter and shoot manually with M42 mounts, their are millions of opportunities. I try to stick with K-A mounts, because I am too lazy to play with the exposures.

Take the plunge - the Pentax water is fine,

George P.

[OzzyJim]

Love my k10D - Dropped it from 3 1/2 - 4ft ft onto hard road surface with a 28-80mm lens and circ polarizer. it bounced a few times sounding like a bucket of bolts, picked it up and kept shooting. The only ill effects were had to turn stabilisation back on and 2 small marks on the body!.

James

[prometeus]

Originally Posted by Normie1

The K10 is a great camera, I love mine and currently looking at the K20D. Maybe I will maybe not.................Who knows

I would rather buy extra glass then a body....


And to spystyle I really do love my k10d

[jazzshots]

I love my K10D but the 20 has some great features added, so I use that as my primary & K10D as my secondary. My only complipant is they only shoot 3fps and have some difficulty in low light situations.
But they are not hard to use.

[spystyle]

Can you elaborate on the difficulty in low light situations?

[jazzshots]

I shoot concerts, if it is low lighting, sometimes they have problems focusing. And if you raise the ISO to some of the highesr 1600-3200-you do get alot of noise. (Noise is expected at those settings)

[spystyle]

I have the Nikon D40 and the noise at ISO 1600 is hardly noticeable. It's quite amazing for a $225 camera. Do you use a f/2.8 or better lens at these concerts? If not that would certainly be a step in the right direction. I'd probably use a 50/1.4 if I had to shoot a low light concert.

I shot an elementary school violin concert (probably a lot brighter than your concert) and used f/2.8 primes - M42 primes adapted to a Canon 10D. I like M42 so much, also in body vibration reduction, that's what had me looking at a Pentax body.

Here is an ISO 1600 pic straight out of the D40 - not touched by Photoshop or any program at all ... Just rotated with my image browser.

Click it once to view at full size then again to shrink to fit your screen.

As you can see the noise is not bad at all.

That's not an exceptional pic showcasing what the D40 can do, just a snapshot to show the noise at ISO 1600.

Unfortunately the D40 doesn't have in body VR and it won't meter M42 glass...

But I'm not "collecting" anymore, now I have a 3 lens "system" ... Though I am temped to try a Pentax anyway!

Post a pic of ISO 1600 from a Pentax

Cheers,
Craig

[jazzshots]

I mainly use a 2.8 but also have a 50mm 1.4 & a 77mm 1.7.
Here is (a not good shot) but an example of 2.8 at 1600
hope it's big enough to see

[spystyle]

That kinda small for pixel peeping, also no EXIF data - but if I had to guess from that photo - the K10D has a little more noise at ISO 1600 than some similar priced cameras and has trouble with balancing yellow lights (common) - My Canon 10D was the worst with balancing yellow lights (and my Fuji S2 the best) for my Canon I have to bring a white balancing cap and create custom white balances.

My D40 isn't too great under yellow lights but it has a custom function button, I set that button to alter white balance and keep incandescent to +3. So I can balance the yellow lights with a single button on my D40.

The Pentax has such great features though, in body VR, auto ISO, and compatibility with 50 years of lenses! Wow So nice for the M42 lens collector ...

I have a question about using M42 lenses on a Pentax dSLR - when you achieve focus with a manual lens does the viewfinder's focus point light up like this :



Or does the viewfinder's focus point not light up to indicate focus, like this :



On the 2nd pic the little dot at the bottom left indicates focus has been achieved. On the first pic the viewfinder's focus point blinks when focus has been achieved.

The first pic is a Canon with an M42 adapter with "AF chip"

The 2nd pic is my Nikon D40 with an AF lens (it only autofocuses with AF-S lenses so AF and AF-D are manual focus)

I really like the Canon with AF chip, it's really fast for manual focus lenses.

Cheers,
Craig

[jazzshots]

Craig,
Don't get me wrong I really like my cameras.
I don't have any M42's. But when I put on manual focus-I get the red light/square in the middle of screen (focus area) then in view finder when focus is achieved you get that green button-except it's much bigger than yours & easier to see.
The reviews say the Canon & Nikon are faster than the Pentax, I stick with it because all my lenses are for Pentax-from all previous cameras (film & Digital).

[swampler]

Originally Posted by spystyle

My Canon 10D was the worst with balancing yellow lights (and my Fuji S2 the best) for my Canon I have to bring a white balancing cap and create custom white balances.

Craig,

I can't remember if you still have the 10D or not, but it (like all Canon DSLRs) only looks yellow when using AWB under tungsten lights. If you select the tungsten preset, then you don't get the yellow white balance.

[spystyle]

On my Canon 10D the tungsten preset wasn't enough in many cases, I still had to do a custom white balance. It's not a big deal though, it's an old camera

[bogiesbad]

Craig,
I love my K10D but it is the first and only DSLR I have experienced. I bought it for the weatherproofing and lensability. The controls and their placement are perfect for me and they are somewhat customizable. It has great IQ but not the best in low light. The shake reduction is also a great feature. I use the in-focus alert for MF lenses but it has a bit of back-focus...not to worry there is a de-bug program I plan to use this evening to correct that. I plan to get a new focus screen w/split-prism to aid in MF...my eyes are getting old. There is also a great battery grip available that is on my list of must gets. You can dial in the color temp which made using an old Vivitar 285HV flash easy.
Just got my first M42...Vivitar (Tokina) 35-105 3.5 for $20.20 shipped
I know your love of M42's...you just sold a boatload a couple months back I believe. The number of cheap lenses for sale is endless.
The Pentax Forums is a great place with friendly members like over here and I have learned much from there. There is a good lens review section and an overactive marketplace.The Marketplace is my first click each day.

BTW thanks for the K

[spystyle]

I have a buddy that conspires with me to make the move to Pentax and M42 - he was just telling me today that the K100D (K10D's little brother?) can be had for a reasonable 200 clams ...

As for the ability in low light - with 50/1.4 M42 lenses available for $50 or less, who cares? Use a great lens for low light work and the need for extreme ISO goes away and if DOF is too shallow move back - with distance DOF increases.

Not to mention all the f/1.8 and f/2.8 lenses available in M42 mount for $10-$20 each. The old glass is fast.

Oh I am tempted to jump on the Pentax bandwagon... You'd be in denial to say that Nikon and Canon don't screw us by making us buy lenses we already bought, only this time around with image stabilization ... Pentax has it built right in to the body!

Also most Nikon camera bodies are not backwards compatible ... So if you have a Nikon D70S for example, and you are given an old Nikon 100/2.5 manual lens - your camera won't meter with it. Plunging you back into pre-1940 technology of trying to guess-meter your exposure. But a Pentax, Canon, Olympus, or Sony camera would meter that lens ... You'd just need to buy a $30 adapter to attach it, but that adapter could be used for multiple lenses. I know as I shoot Nikon manual lenses on a Canon.

That is an example of "backwards compatible". Pentax is backwards compatible all the way to 1949 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M42_lens_mount)

That's really something ...

Cheers,
Craig