Pentax K100D

Reviewed February 2007

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

To base the observations made here on the best image quality the K100D can produce, most of the images were captured using the RAW format. The RAW images were then brought into Pentax Photo Laboratory, the software supplied with the camera, without any alteration.

The K100D's pop-up flash provides even lighting for the subject, while the Auto white balance yields accurate colours.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

Zoomed in, the observations made for the wide angle image could apply for this one as well. Sharpness is excellent, and the shadow areas of the image are completely noise-free, as can be seen in the lenses of the old Yashicaflex camera.

Similarly, the definition of the image is high enough to show the weave of the felt of the old reddish-brown negative carrier very clearly.

MACRO PHOTO

The lens sold with the Pentax K100D in the kit version is an 18 to 55 mm f3.5-5.6 zoom, allowing for a minimum focus distance of 25 cm (9.75 inches) from the subject to the focal plane of the CCD at all focal lengths of the zoom. This translates to a minimum distance of 15 cm (5.85 inches) from the front element of the zoom to the subject. At this distance, and using the maximum magnification of the zoom, the camera captures a field of view of 6.5 cm (2.6 inches).

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our "outdoor" test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

Winter light tends to create harsh shadows, and in this case the Multi-segment metering seems to give a slight preference to the highlights when presented with this subject. Nevertheless, the shadows contain a high level of detail.

The image shows no trace of barrel distortion, and sharpness is homogeneous from edge to edge and corner to corner.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

With an equivalent of 82.5 mm, the maximum optical magnification available with the kit lens still falls short of what is normally considered "telephoto", and the area of the building captured by the camera is still quite large. Moreover, benefiting from sunshine, there is little chance that camera shake will affect the sharpness of the photo.

Nevertheless, the CCD-level stabilization offered on the K100D can be extremely useful when the shutter speed drops to a point where camera shake can affect the image, as is the case under adverse weather conditions.

As can be seen here, the telephoto image reveals no pincushion distortion, nor any chromatic aberration. Moreover, when the image is inspected at 100% scale on a monitor, it is also apparent that there is no noise in the shadows.

NIGHT PHOTO

This camera is capable of long exposures, and a photo taken at night is presented here to give an idea of its capabilities.

Offering a maximum exposure time of 30 seconds when the Manual mode is used, the B (Bulb) mode is not required to capture an urban night scene such as the one shown here, even if there is very little ambient light. Furthermore, as the the K100D has a starting sensitivity of 200 ISO, it is capable of capturing a very detailed image under very low light.

This is the case with the image shown here, in which the stones lining the shoreline, or the wooden piles supporting the quay are completely invisible to the naked eye, even after it has grown accustomed to the dark.

Indeed, the camera is able to capture the red colour of the old dockyard roofs, and, more impressively, yields an image that is devoid of noise.

When activated, the K100D uses a dark frame noise reduction system, capturing a second frame after the primary exposure with a similar exposure time, and then uses the noise gathered over the course of the second exposure to delete it from the first before saving it.

The process is effective and results in a sharp image that shows little loss of detail.