It’s happened! The new K10D is Pentax's first foray into the serious-amateur digital SLR market. It's bigger, tougher and richer in features than any Pentax digital SLR before it and it certainly carries a wide enough range of features to make the 'big name' brands worried. Headline features include a stabilized ten megapixel CCD, high quality image processing pipeline, dust and weather proof seals, 11-point AF, continuous drive in 3 fps, unlimited JPEG, 9 images RAW and some unique exposure modes. Shake Reduction includes CCD-shift system with permanent magnets and electronic magnet coils which can compensate in x, y direction and rotational similarly Sony’s 'Super Steady Shot’. Body is excellent and is made of high-impact plastic with metal sub-structure. Its dust and weather resistant seals throughout and has a good hand grip. We fully expected and Pentax delivered ten million pixels for their new flagship digital SLR and it is an absolute (marketing) requirement. Interestingly this CCD has slightly different specifications than the Sony unit used in a few other ten megapixel digital SLRs. So we can be sure that it is original. It's 23.5 x 15.7 mm with 10.75 million total pixels, 2-channel read-out and max Image size - 3872 x 2592. 
All of these we can have for Body only $899 and for not bad Kit with 18-55 mm lens $999. The dimensions - 142 x 101 x 70 mm, the weight with battery - 793 g are not far from others. But how impressive its abilities are! I think Pentax K10D is a very interesting device which can fight for victory with Nikon, Canon and which can’t beat Samsung GX-10. This first SLR camera from Samsung is a Pentax’s (cheaper) clone. May be their appearance is a double blow to the digital SLR market. May be not. For those who are interested in I wrote a Post: “Today: Nikon D2Xs vs Canon EOS-1D Mark III. Tomorrow: Sony A1 vs The Great Wall!?” which include some analysis of modern Digital market tendency. But I think that Pentax K10D and Samsung GX-10 it’s the second good blow (the first is Sony A100) to SLR camera prices. And we can win! For comparison I made The summary table of DSLR cameras specifications. I think that it's userfull for choosing. Search for pros and cons in my:
- Sony A100 vs Nikon D80 worthy than Sony A100 vs DSC-H9/H7
- Canon EOS400/XTi, Nikon D40x and Pentax K10 pros& cons; SLR over SLR-like triple benefits
- SLR's price-cutting: $250's Canon XT vs. $500's Canon S5; 10 motives to spit upon SLR-like and buy cheap SLR.
I asked to several photographers for their opinions about Pentax K10D and Samsung GX-10 and they send me a lot of information. You can see brief replies below.
Pentax K10D is a really excellent digital SLR camera. I used 35mm Pentax cameras before but my first digital camera was Konika-Minolta. When Konika-Minolta stopped making SLR cameras I was looking for Sony Alpha but I was disappointed. I became interested in Canon because it always impressed me with its image quality, but Rebel XTi’ ergonomics disappointed me too. Instead Pentax K10D impressed me. It works very fast and is easy to control. It is very important for a photographer, even more so than image quality. Pentax K10D produces very nice images with excellent color, its handles well and my eyes can stay on the viewfinder all the time. Off course I have some problems with the auto-white-balance and with the image stabilizer but in other respects K10D is the best choice for me.
Samsung GX-10
I was looking for 10 MP sensor SLR with rich features set, good continues shooting and weather-sealed body but not such expensive as Nikon D200. At first I looked at the Pentax K10D but after some meditates I decided to get it. I looked at Pentax’s clone – the Samsung GX-10 with was materially cheaper. I spend in the store several hours with Samsung. It’s impressed me. It feels good, with a great build quality and a lot of useful hardware buttons and I made this purchase. Now I’m happy. I have fast autofocus, bright and clear viewfinder, good and cheap kit lens, some useful shooting modes etc. Yes, Samsung GX-10 is big, but not bigger than Nikon D200.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Pentax K10D vs. Nikon D80 or vs. D200? Samsung GX-10 as Canon killer?
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8 comments:
If you decide between Pentax K10 and Samsung GX10 you can save about $200. The Samsung is a cheap Pentax.
Yes, I think the same way. Did you buy the Samsung GX10?
Pentax K10 has a really nice build construction, useful menu and control layout. Good set of features: weather-sealed, shake reduction, full 3 fps for the entire memory card in JPEG, 22-bit A/D, native DNG support, and the list goes on and on. Still shake reduction does not seem to be as good as Pentax promised.
I'm concordant with julia, the Pentax K10D is a really good camera. And all mfrs. usually promise much more...
Samsung, Sony and Panasonic do not know how photographers work, what kinds of controls they need on their cameras or even how to ensure that cameras will be easy to use manually. Instead they rely on gimmicks and features of minimal value to a true photographer to try to entice as many consumers as possible to buy their products. Later when you try to use their products however you'll find frustrations.
I think that it’s not good to keep a loyalty to only one brand. Off course Nikon’s D200 and D80 are great and their prices are great too. But who made sensors for Nikon’s SLRs? Sony made. And Sony A100 is a result of Konika-Minolta and Sony marriage. Samsung GX-10 and GX1 are Pentax’s clones. Still in my opinion Pentax’ and KM’ guys know how photographers work. Thanks for competition we have freedom in choosing. Maybe it’s not so bad?
Canon Rebel XTi is a good camera, but only has a single, very large LCD which is not as good as the two small LCDs on the Canon XT. Canon Rebel XTi' 10 MP sensor is noted for produing noise within the image. If you are selling images to newspapers then noise is not a problem, but if you are trying to take picture to sell at a sporting event then you will want the better image of the Canon 30D or the XT / EOS350D.
Pentax and the others are not in the same league as Nikon and Canon. In order to be a Canon or Nikon killer:
They need to make full-frame cameras and even their consumer end line will be full frame in two/three years.
Manufacture a huge collection of professional lenses (Canon and Nikon currently sell 50 lenses apiece at least)
And when they implement features, they implement them well: The VR on Nikon and Canon gets four stops because it's in-lens. Which also means it works when you're shooting slide/film.)
What matters is does the camera and the collection of kit work for what you want to do? For most people, I say it really doesn't matter what you buy. Just buy something that will not involve re-buying the same equipment every few years like lenses. My advice is to buy full-frame lenses because mini sensors for cameras will soon go the way of the do-do as they max out at around 13-15 MP.
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