What is your opinion on Pentax K10?

Glenn NK wrote in post #2278320
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.

Man, I must be getting old. I swear I remember Pentax being a model of Yashica which was quite popular in the 60's. The Yashica Pentax.
Then I thought the brand became Pentax.
But I see there is still a Yashica.
Was there something of similar name from Yashica?
Help, I'm slipping fast!

I think it started out as Ashai Pentax? showing my age I guess They used to be very good but I don't know much about the reliability of current models.

It seemed like a good camera from the 5 minutes I handled it in the camera shop. lol

The viewfinder's nice. The built is so so.

Gotta admit, the K10D package is attractive. It's got the specs, internal IS, and weather sealing at a great price. Now if they overhaul their lens collection with some better looking barrels and weather seals, then Pentax would certainly become a major competitor again. That said though, I really wanna try out their new tiny pancake lenses...

No i'm sure yashica were ever affiliated with pentax in any way (except for using the pentax screw mount in their early years ,but then so did most others as well)

You are probably thinking of a asahi pentax as bill suggested. That is their offical company name -probably still is,but they never use the asahi bit these days.

Pentax have quite an interesting history.
While nikon were the first to grab a market share outside of japan with their awsome optics (due to korean war photographers trying them but that's another interesting story),pentax's claim to fame was the spotmatic -the first mass produced camera with inbuilt metering.
They sold several million of them and firmly established pentax as a major player in the camera world.It could only have helped that they had a range of world class optics to go on the cameras
If i remember rightly it was pentax that started the multicoated lens trend that helped lens design advance so much.(many prime lenses from that era are still close to the best available these days,and without multicoating zoom lenses could never have improved as much as they did)
Canon wasn't a huge player in the industry until the seventies where they made the next big step - automated metering/exposure in a mass produced camera ( the A series ).I think they still have the record for the most of one model camera ever sold!
During this time pentax were changing over to a bayonet mount so they probably lost some customers .Screw mount lenses could still be used with an adapter (and still can be on even the latest digitals) but most automation is lost.
In the early eighties pentax tried to do the same thing canon did in the mid seventies by luring Pro's over with a complete system camera.The LX was very good and won lot's of praise but by the time autofocas came in towards the end of the eighties pentax was realizing they didn't belong at the top end of the market.Perhaps they just weren't big enough to continue poring money in?(That's the main reason canon has succeded in overytaking nikon)
Since then pentax have mostly concentrated on what they did best orriginally -make good SLR cameras at decent prices together with very good lenses.

The FA series lenses are interesting.It's allmost as if they have decided they want to make these just because they CAN.There's certainly no evidence that they were designed for full frame digital cameras.

Well the biggest downsides would be lens selection. And then the used market would be smaller. Used market is defintely a huge advantage in Canon and Nikon goods. Can save you a lot of money on glass. Also their resale value is high.

It would be nice to see a 3rd party get stronger though.

I'm sure it's a nice and very capable camera, as are all new similar cameras regardless of manufacturer.

What do I personally think of it? It's totally uninteresting as it isn't compatible with my EF mount lenses.

ron chappel wrote in post #2283107
If i remember rightly it was pentax that started the multicoated lens trend that helped lens design advance so much.(many prime lenses from that era are still close to the best available these days,and without multicoating zoom lenses could never have improved as much as they did)

I wouldn't credit them with multicoating - I think it was zeiss with their T coating that came up with it in the WWII

It was definitely someone german that came up with the concept of lens coatings but it was pentax that developed the idea to it's ultimate state

As someone who has recently jumped from the Pentax ship I would like to point out the following. Although Pentax has recently decided that if they are to stay in business they have to make some technological improvments to their cameras their sales pitch of being able to use all of the old Pentax lenses is really holding them back. Although this looks good on paper and certainly some of their older lenses were very good all of these lenses including the current ones use an in-camera focusing motor which results in sloooow focusing. I like to shoot wildlife and got tired of the subject flying away while my camera was still finding focus. In addition, Pentax has discontinued most of its FA lenses. A banged up 300mm f 4.5 lens will go for over a thousand dollars on ebay and that is if you are one of the lucky people who gets one of the two or three a year that come up for auction. In addition none of the third party lens makers seem to take Pentax seriously. Check out the better lenses of Sigma and Tamron. Sigma 500mm f 4.5 is not available for Pentax, Sigma 300mm f 2.8 is not available for Pentax. A camera dealer in town who also sells Pentax said there are just not enough Pentax bodies out there for lens and accessory makers to take them seriously. For these reasons I would recommend avoiding Pentax cameras if you plan to go further then the basic ameteur level of photography

ron chappel wrote in post #2284495
It was definitely someone german that came up with the concept of lens coatings but it was pentax that developed the idea to it's ultimate state

They had a popular line of their SMC takumar lenses which are considered to be one of the best.

But do you think they really improve on the T-star coating? I mean - it was a multicoating before WWII and it's still used in their designs.

The pentax on the other hand started producing cameras only in 1952.

I don't have any technical comparisons. Do you have anything in T* vs SMC coatings?

Larry Weinman wrote in post #2284657
As someone who has recently jumped from the Pentax ship I would like to point out the following. Although Pentax has recently decided that if they are to stay in business they have to make some technological improvments to their cameras their sales pitch of being able to use all of the old Pentax lenses is really holding them back. Although this looks good on paper and certainly some of their older lenses were very good all of these lenses including the current ones use an in-camera focusing motor which results in sloooow focusing. I like to shoot wildlife and got tired of the subject flying away while my camera was still finding focus. In addition, Pentax has discontinued most of its FA lenses. A banged up 300mm f 4.5 lens will go for over a thousand dollars on ebay and that is if you are one of the lucky people who gets one of the two or three a year that come up for auction. In addition none of the third party lens makers seem to take Pentax seriously. Check out the better lenses of Sigma and Tamron. Sigma 500mm f 4.5 is not available for Pentax, Sigma 300mm f 2.8 is not available for Pentax. A camera dealer in town who also sells Pentax said there are just not enough Pentax bodies out there for lens and accessory makers to take them seriously. For these reasons I would recommend avoiding Pentax cameras if you plan to go further then the basic ameteur level of photography

Plus you can still use all of your screwmount lenses on the canon...

Pentax seems to be falling behind everytime, even though they produce cool products and bodies.

That's a lot of history - thanks guys!
Have a great sunday!

Elfie

I'd like to add a few comments (memory permitting):

1) Their official name since 1938, was Asahi Optical Company - the Pentax was the name of one of their first models, and is now the name by which they are known. An older name is Asahiflex, the flex referring to the flip-up mirror.

2) They initally made lenses for Minolta, Konica and others before making their own cameras.

3) AOC developed the pentaprism for the viewfinder - hence the name Pentax. This spelled the beginning of the end for rangefinder cameras.

4) AOC also came up with TTL metering. The Spotmatic (1964) was ground-breaking as I recall. Since I was a university student, and had just bought an SV (with the clip-on meter) to replace my model S (with the manual stop-down diaphragm), the Spotmatic was not in my budget.

5) Their lenses were among the world's best. And one never heard of the term "bad copy" in reference to their bodies/lenses.

6) Canon was a relatively minor player until the A series came out (A-1 and AE-1).

If I was looking for my first DSLR, I would seriously consider them.

It appears Pentax is coming out with at least 3 good lenses in 2007. They will cover the spectrum and be of the F2.8 variety. Cost is up in the air I believe. My question is why didn't they think about this before hand and have the lens available NOW with the introduction of the K100 and K10D? Not a smart move on their part and very short-sighted in my estimation. Gerry