When I walked into the camera store, I went with the intention of walking out with a Nikon dSLR. Pentax? Bahh... that's what they give grade school students in photography class. I want something decent!
Boy was I wrong.
First Impression
My first impression of the camera was favorable. The black body has a slight speckle finish, which is subtle yet appealing. All the access panels, whether it be the card slot, the USB plug, or the battery compartment, they are all hinged with hard plastic. You won't find the flimsy, cheap looking rubbery or plastic snap on cover on this unit. It's a small detail, I know, but I find the little details like this speak volumes. The camera has a nice large LCD display on the back for previewing photos, along with the traditional monochrome LCD status display on the top right as common on so many SLRs.
My Nikon F50 35mm SLR uses lithium batteries, and man does that frustrate me. The K100D uses 4 AA batteries, and my NiMH rechargeable batteries last a LONG time. A couple hundred exposures at the very least.
Button placement is logical, and I all features are easily accessed fairly quickly without moving your "trigger" finger from the shutter release.
Lastly the unit fits well into my hand and has a comfortable weight.
This unit looks smart and sleek and yes it even turns heads.
Onboard software/firmware
This camera is priced a little below it's main competitors, and that difference needs to be made up somewhere. Pentax definitely didn't compromise the overall quality, so the only place where I see the difference is with the on-board firmware(software). When digging into the editing of existing photos, you won't find options like cropping, resizing or complete photo editing options. Personally I'm okay with that. That's why there's photo editing software on desktop computers. The basic options are on board however, Rotate and color filters for quick tweaks. Pentax has already offered 2 firmware upgrades to the K100D making the camera compatible with SDHC memory cards (4GB+ Size). I believe the firmware upgrade also supports the new pentax lenses with the built in autofocus motor as apposed to the body driven auto focus lens.
Photo quality
Okay I must say that this camera was a jump from 3.2 to 6.1 MP for me, not to mention a camera with a much bigger sensor. I have limited exposure to other dSLRs, but I can say that this camera takes some nice shots! Side by side comparisons weren't done, but I must say the colors are realistic, and the images always come out sharp and clean. this must be a testament to the camera's multi-point focus system. Taking a photo at slower shutter speeds isn't a problem as the camera has shake reduction built into the body. Yup you heard me. Don't pay for image stabilization on every lens you buy, pay for it once on the camera, and have it available on all your lenses! Pentax uses small shifts of the sensor to take care of the shake reduction rather than moving optics, a process that works wonderfully.
There has to some bad news, Right?
Hmmm.. not much yet. Only gripe I have so far is the lack of rear curtain sync flashing. It's a feature you rarely would use, but would be nice to have. The competition has it, but Pentax left is out on the K100D. That being said, using the proper Pentax flash (listed in the manual) will enable the rear curtain sync again when using the hot shoe flash.
When I got my camera 6 months ago, I purchased the 2 lens kit. Included were the 18-55mm lens and the 50-200mm lenses. The 50-200mm lens was on back order due to high demand and the opening of a new factory. It took Pentax 6 weeks to deliver the new lens. Granted I'm okay with the wait provided I get a quality product, but the wait was a little annoying.
i can't say that I have a lot to complain about this camera. I've had several SLRs, and several Digital cameras. This camera, hands down is my favorite. I would buy this camera again, and would recommend it to any one.
