Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"The latest entry level model from Pentax is the K200D, replacing last years K100D Super. Rather than being a complete new camera the K200D is more an upgrade, but is not without some interesting and very useful features. Not least amongst these is the weatherproof body with image stabilisation built-in. Featuring some of the technology from the recent K20D, Pentax has brought its entry-level range bang up to date to compete with some of its more popular rivals. The major upgrade to the camera is of course its 10.2MP CCD backed up with the PRIME image processor, as seen on the semi-pro K20D... Pentax is offering something genuinely new to the entry level market in the cameras build. With over 60 seals to prevent dust and moisture entering the camera, it could be the perfect lightweight model for more hostile environments such as the beach or ski slope. Combined with the easy-to-buy AA batteries for power, the K200D may well be worth considering if you travel a lot, or are planning a backpacking trip, as the need to carry chargers and find power points is eliminated."

Very nice camera from Pentax. I like that they have inherited a number of features from the K20D. From the review, it looks like the camera handles very well as well. So will this camera propel Pentax to be one of the leaders in the DSLR space? Well, apparently they will have to wait, IMHO, beacuse a critical flaw in this camera that might annoy a number of users is that the K200D offers a rather disappointing burst speed of 2.8 fps over just 4 JPEGs or Raw files. In low continuous shooting mode the camera maintains 1.1 fps until the SD card is full, which is slow in comparison to even older models. That is quite disappointing. Now I realize that not everybody needs to shoot at 5 or 10 or even more fps, but when dropping almost $700 on a camera and more considering all the glass that needs to go with it, I think the camera speed will be a feature that most users would consider. Wouldn't you?

"The Pentax K20D has the highest resolution available in an APS-C sensor SLR. It is 20% higher resolution than the new Sony A700/Nikon D300 Sony sensor pair at 12.2 MP and almost 50% higher than the Canon 40D. Those are numbers that are hard to ignore. Those who wondered why Pentax entered into a partnership with Samsung a few years ago finally have their answer. Samsung wanted to play in the high-end sensor market with Sony and Panasonic; their partnership with Pentax was to develop sensors for the digital SLR market. We don't know details yet, but we have to guess the Hoya merger also plays into this scenario since Hoya is the world's largest maker of optical glass. You would be surprised to see a list of companies who buy their lens glass from Hoya (THK)."

Unbelievable! For just over $1300, you can get the highest resolution camera in its class, which is a far cry from the $8000 range or so that most of the competitors charge. More impressively, Pentax hasn't just stuffed in a bunch of extra pixels on the sensor. They have thought about how to create a better image with this chip as well. While a detailed review is not in yet, read on to find out whether this is worth following. Verdict so far looks like a yes.

"Pentax has announced it's new enthusiast level DSLR, the Pentax K20D, set to replace the K10D of 2007. Like that camera, the camera is the result of a collaboration with Korean electronic Samsung. We are told that the electronics are produced by Samsung, while design and camera know-how comes from Pentax. As with the K10D, Samsung has also announced an almost identical model, the GX20. I recently joined Pentax at the cameras launch in Dubai and spent a couple of days using a pre-production model. While this camera is pretty much the final version, there will probably be final firmware updates before the final release, so we can't give a full review at this time."

Pentax has produced a solid mid range camera with many features a densely populated, class beating CMOS sensor which would surely give it an edge. Unfortunately, it appears to suffer from inaccurate metering. The price of £899 looks quite nice too. Personally, I have never played with a Pentax DSLR but I am not really blown away by the sample shots in the article. They don't seem to pop in terms of color and contrast, and instead seem to be a bit noisy. Hmm, maybe it is the subject matter?