Canon EOS400/XTi, Nikon D40x and Pentax K10 pros& cons; SLR over SLR-like triple benefits

Collecting and analyzing all good and bad features of newest and most interesting SLR cameras such as: Canon EOS400D / Rebel XTi, Nikon D80, D40x, Sony A100 and Pentax K10D, I planned to put them in one post. But these devices have so rich abilities that it’s impossible. A great amount of SLR’s information in the Net, my own experience and users opinions can’t place in one item. There is too much material and it shows that users’ admiration of SLR cameras is enormous. Therefore I have been reviewing SLR characteristic properties thoroughly and decided to devote a few posts to this photo issue. Don’t take seriously some SLR’s drawbacks because one is worth ten SLR-like advantages. For engineering information look at The summary table of DSLR cameras specifications post.
Canon Rebel XTi / EOS400D
($660-725 body only)
The good:
- Excellent image quality, good color, exposure accuracy and contrast, excellent image details, fast and responsive, flexible image parameters
- Very low noise, even at high ISO
- Dust reduction technology
- Large 2.5" LCD display
- Large buffer memory
- Fast and accurate autofocus, flash-based AF-assist lamp, very good low light focusing
- Full manual control, nice white balance control , robust performance, especially in terms of continuous shooting
- Light weight
The bad:
- No Image Stabilization
- No spot metering
- Consumer-style build, hard hand grip, feels too "plastic"
- Second status LCD has been eliminated
- Weak battery life
- Slow kit lens, better to buy body only
- Poor exposure of backlit subjects
Conclusion: Canon EOS400D / Rebel XTi can be a great device as a first SLR and not bad upgrade for your old SLR especially if you have a gross of Canon’s lenses. It’s a fully featured camera that yields excellent image quality. As for ergonomic problems, I’ll recommend to test its weight, hands grip and your feelings before buying.
Pentax K10D
($739-920 body only; $788-1031 with 18mm-55mm lens)
The good:
- Excellent image quality
- Image stabilization system which works with all Pentax lenses
- Well-designed and solidly built body, easy to hold
- Weatherproof seals
- CCD dust reduction system
- Good quality in kit lens
- Excellent metering accuracy, good focus speed, Innovative exposure modes and choice of program line, digital white balance and depth of field preview
- Unique sensitivity and shutter/aperture priority modes
- Very fast performance; great continuous shooting mode
- Accurate low light focusing (though sluggish if you don't use the AF-assist lamp)
- Large, bright and sharp 2.5” LCD, info display with super-bright backlight on top of camera
- Support for two RAW formats
- No redeye
- Optional battery grip
The bad:
- Occasional autofocus hunting
- Very warm color balance in low-lighting and warm outdoors, auto white balance had a hard time with household incandescent lighting
- Shadow detail lacking in JPEG images
- Slightly high contrast, especially outdoors in full sun
- The mirror/shutter slap is not as sweet as it might be
- Above average noise at ISO 1600
- Battery life a bit below average
Conclusion: A great feature set such as image stabilization, dust reduction and weatherproof seals along with Pro-level customization and excellent photo quality make the Pentax K10D a very interesting SLR camera. In combination with not very high (as D80) price it's a good choice. But in my opinion Pentax K10's design is somehow awkward and a little hard for long shooting. For more look at Pentax K10D vs. Nikon D80 or vs. D200? Samsung GX-10 as Canon killer? post.
NikonD40x
($649-730 body only; $890-1030 with Nikon AF-S DX 18-135mm Lens)
The good:
- Good image quality
- Low noise at higher ISO
- Highly customizable menus
- Shooting data well presented on the main LCD; settings can quickly be changed from the info screens
- Useful features for beginners like D-Lighting, redeye removal, assist images, help system
- Solid construction, feels better in the hand than the competition
- Large, bright and sharp 2.5” LCD
- AF assist lamp
- Full manual control
- No redeye
The bad:
- Limited selection of AF-S lenses means that many Nikkor lenses (mostly primes) will not support autofocus
- Images are overly saturated and a bit soft at default settings
- Controls can be awkward, occasionally slow to focus
- Say ‘No’ to: depth of field preview, exposure or white balance bracketing, dust reduction, automatic sensor cleaning
- No lens motor in body (non-AF-S/AF-I lenses manual focus only); look through $1000 Sigma lenses for Nikon D40x or NikonD80.
- RAW-plus-JPEG mode limited to basic instead of fine JPEG compression, RAW editing software costs extra
- Some purple fringing with kit lens
Conclusion: It’s been just under four months since the D40 and Nikon announced an upgraded ten megapixel version of the camera. The new Nikon D40X is essentially identical to the D40 apart from its ten megapixel CCD. It offers a compact, portable body, great performance and photo quality, and a really user friendly interface. But in my opinion, chasing the cheapest SLR Nikon made too short circumcision for the cam. Nikon has an excellent but a few expensive SLR – the D80. Look at Women’s reasons to choose Nikon D80. And Canon EOS350D or Rebel XT is more preferable. Look at my previous post: SLR's price-cutting: $250's Canon XT vs. $500's Canon S5; 10 motives to spit upon SLR-like and buy cheap SLR.
Postscript
Today we have much more digital SLR choice from Canon, Nikon and Sony: the EOS 40D (Canon EOS 40D features, pros and cons), D300 (Nikon D300 as a higher one to Canon 40D and even to sensor’s mommy – Sony Alpha) and Alpha A700 (Sony Alpha A700: choosing a digital SLR for advanced amateurs). Moreover, we have a chance to see the new Pentax K20D this January. Just as in case of Canon 40D, Nikon D300 and Sony A700, the Pentax K20D is not a cosmetic upgrade of previous Pentax K10D. In addition, that is not the point that these SLR cameras have a large 12MP CMOS sensor (in case of Canon 40D – 10MP, Pentax K20 – 14MP sensor). Much important for me as for an engineer is the fact that now we have a sensor with not only extra 2MP, but with the analog-to-digital converter onto the chip. Finally, photographers have a new effective feature for lower a sensor noise without an extension of a sensor size. Moreover, it is a rule for middle-class SLRs.