What is your opinion on Pentax K10?

I am hooked on Canon but a friend of mine is getting the new Pentax.
Thanks for your opinions!

Elfie

I think it is a very nice alternative, I used to shoot with a pentax 35mm slr about 10 years ago.

My girfriend ahas a K100D and she loves it. Pentax makes a very good camera and your friend would not be going wrong by getting one. The Pentax K10D has some very nice features to it. They build thier cameras with quality in mind. i dont think your friend would be unhappy with it. Just look at the cost of lenses and the availibity of them...
Good luck

Mike

It's a seriously interesting camera.From what i know the advantages are:
Excellent lenses available (some the best in their class !),10Mp ,built-in anti shake

Disadvantages(?):
Not quite the variety of lenses as canon , not quite as good low light performance

IT's great to see the other manufacturers offering competitive DSLR's . The one that most impresses me is the pentax K100 -mostly for the features it offers at such a small price!

As Ron said, it's great to see good new cameras turning up - it will all help keep Canon's eye on the ball, and keep them trying hard to retain the no 1 spot!

Competition is a good thing for the consumer. (Or should I say Prosumer?)

When I started photography in '62, Nikon was the "king of the Japanese cameras", but it seems that Pentax was one of the next best ones then. I have owned three Pentax's (back in the screw mount days) and they were very smooth and had excellent lenses.

In fact in the early to mid sixties (if my failing memory serves me correctly), Canon was nowhere near to where they are now, and it certainly wasn't one I would have bought. Although, one of my uncles had one and it was pretty good (and expensive).

Where I worked back then, there were quite a few enthusiasts, and none had Canons.

I believe that Pentax invented the pentaprism, and I think also the hinged mirror (might be wrong on this one).

If the K10 had been out and shaken down at the end of September 06, I would have looked seriously at one. Bought the 30D and love it, but I still have a soft spot for Pentax.

And at the bottom of the list in DP Review I see 'Dust and Weather Resistant Seals'

Pretty neat, sounds like a real nice outfit. And Pentax has certainly got a camera reputation.

Thanks for all your comments!
My friend is getting one next week for her anniversary - she will be happy!

Elfie

http://www.digital.pen​tax.co.jp/en/lens/road​map.pdf

3 very interesting lenses there:
16-50 f2.8 , 50-135 f2.8 and 60-250 f4 all coming 2007.
I had the 16-45 f4. Cheap build , but cheap price. Great optically.

FA31mmF1.8AL Limited, FA43mmF1.9 Limited, FA77mmF1.8 Limited all reported to be very good (at a not so cheap price)
40 2.8 pancake would be great to.

I reckon Pentax is working on a full frame DSLR, as those FA lenses are full frame compatible. The DA series are for crop cameras. Seems a fair bit of investment just to support some remaining Pentax film users.

elfieh wrote in post #2276708
I am hooked on Canon but a friend of mine is getting the new Pentax.
Thanks for your opinions!

I'm very impressed with it on paper and rather excited to see a relatively low cost camera with this many features. I also think it's healthy to see more competition in this area. I cut my SLR teeth on the Pentax Spotmatic and the legendary K1000 and would have no problem entertaining using Pentax bodies and lenses were I not already so invested with Canon gear and glass. Pentax as a company have been one of the pioneers in 35mm slr photography over the years and also offer a large selection of lenses rivalling those of Canon and Nikon and in fact have some very inovative lenses not offered by other makers. I will be trying out the K10D when it becomes available and if it lives up to my expectations will certainly recommend it to friends and students as a viable alternative to the big 2<g>.

Ron

If it had been available when I bought my 20D I'd own a Pentax now. Right features, right price, and the ability to use almost all the old lenses ... simple as that.

jZ

I had a Pentax Super A. It broke within 5 minutes and was replaced. The replacement broke within 2 weeks and was replaced. The replacement for that was never very good and eventually I sold it to get rid of the problem. Subsequently I heard from my Geology lecturer in university that he'd had a Pentax compact that had a year's warranty and which broke within 6 months and that Pentax had refused to carry out the warranty repair.

Thus, I looked at Pentax when I started in digital photography but bore in mind the recommendation of a friend that worked in a camera shop that he had the highest rate of broken camera returns from Pentax and avoided Pentax.

rhys wrote in post #2280597
I had a Pentax Super A. It broke within 5 minutes and was replaced. The replacement broke within 2 weeks and was replaced. The replacement for that was never very good and eventually I sold it to get rid of the problem. Subsequently I heard from my Geology lecturer in university that he'd had a Pentax compact that had a year's warranty and which broke within 6 months and that Pentax had refused to carry out the warranty repair.

Thus, I looked at Pentax when I started in digital photography but bore in mind the recommendation of a friend that worked in a camera shop that he had the highest rate of broken camera returns from Pentax and avoided Pentax.

The flipside of this is that I have had a Pentax 6x7 for somewhere in the neighborhood of 28 years and it still just keeps clicking along.

I ran into someone at our local camera club that swore by the Pentax products and that they were going to their DSLR. They were moving up from a Sony P&S. If the product meets your requirements, you are happy with the growth potential within the manufacturers current list of lenses and accessories, then you should go for it. Even though my 6X7 has not caused me too much trouble over the years I am a die hard canon fan when it comes to shooting with a DSLR.

I really fancied the first Pentax DSLR which was shown in prototype form - 6Mp. FF Pro spec. and which would have taken all my existing lenses (300/2.8, 84/1.4, 135/1.8 etc. etc.).
But for some reason Pentax pulled the plug before it got into production - stating that they didn't consider that was the way to go; how right, the Contax used that Phillips FF 6Mp sensor and look where they are now!

Pentax obviously saw the immediate future as being n crop sensors and waited until they could enter the market and actually make money on a consumer DSLR range. Now the K10D is getting to the point where I just might be interested enough to consider one as a way to use those lenses - which I still have, together with my 4 LX bodies...............b​ut I haven't used film for, well since the EOS 10D came out! But I may have to dust off my 1nRS and use film for a project which demands(! yes really) archival images on transparency.

ssim wrote in post #2280620
The flipside of this is that I have had a Pentax 6x7 for somewhere in the neighborhood of 28 years and it still just keeps clicking along.

I ran into someone at our local camera club that swore by the Pentax products and that they were going to their DSLR. They were moving up from a Sony P&S. If the product meets your requirements, you are happy with the growth potential within the manufacturers current list of lenses and accessories, then you should go for it. Even though my 6X7 has not caused me too much trouble over the years I am a die hard canon fan when it comes to shooting with a DSLR.

I gather the Pentax medium format stuff was good. It was just the electronic junk in their SLRs that was awful. Having said that, the first Pentax Super A I had did have a defective DOF preview lever - it snapped off when I pressed it!