Pentax K10D

Reviewed January 2007

Ergonomics

The close of 2006 saw the introduction of one more upper-end, entry-level digital SLR, the Pentax K10D, along with the announcement that Hoya Corporation — the photographic filter and lens manufacturer — was to acquire Pentax Corporation and plans to become Hoya Pentax HD Corporation as of October 2007.

The deep grip of the K10D has three controls: the Front e-dial, a dial embedded at the top of the grip that serves to set the shutter speed and adjust exposure compensation, the chromed shutter release, and around it a power switch that also includes a Depth of Field Preview when pushed and held to the position, or if so set, can capture a preview of the image and display it on the monitor, showing the brightness of the image as a histogram or even its RGB content.

Off on the left and behind the shutter release as one holds the camera, a small button with a green dot is simply called the Green button. It serves to reset exposure settings, and automatically select the appropriate exposure settings when the camera is set to the M (Manual) mode.

The upper right side of the K10D's back supports the second e-dial, called the Rear e-dial. It serves to set the aperture, and the sensitivity. In addition, as indicated by the blue icons, the dial also serves in playback. Turned to the side, the camera displays thumbnails of the captured photos (4, 9 or 16 per screen as decided with the Fn button), or displays folders with the first image in each folder shown. Turned to the side, the e-dial allows zooming into a photo up to 20X.

To the left of the Rear e-dial, the AE-L button acts as a toggle, locking the metered exposure when pressed once, and unlocking it when pressed again. While when the K10D is in playback mode, the button serves to protect images against accidental erasure.

Two buttons are embedded on the rounded part of the raised area that frames the 2.5-inch, 210,000 pixel LCD monitor:

	Exposure Compensation: makes it possible to adjust the exposure over ±3 EV in increments of 1/2 EV, or over ±2 EV in increments of 1/3 EV as determined in the Custom Settings (see the Characteristics section of the review for a listing of all Custom settings).
	Display Panel Illumination: serves to illuminate the Display Panel on the top right of the camera for approximately 10 seconds. The illumination can be disabled in the Custom Settings.

The other button has a single function:

Auto Focus: immediately starts the auto focus without having to press the shutter release halfway. Moreover, the AF button can be held pressed and the camera will continuously adjust the focus.

The next control is a ring around the Four-way controller. The ring controls the when and how the camera's auto focus operates:

	Auto: allows the camera to select the AF point using any of the 11 points in the frame.
	Select: allows the user to set the focus point to any of the 11 focus points available using the 4-way controller.
	Centre: forces the camera to focus at the centre of the frame.

At the centre of the Focusing Area selector, the 4-way controller serves primarily to navigate the menu of the K10D, and as noted above, select the AF point, and select options in the Fn Menu.

The Fn (Function) menu is called up by pressing the small Fn button at the lower right of the monitor. The Function menu is a quick access to 4 specific functions:

• White Balance: Auto; Daylight; Shade; Cloudy; Fluorescent; Tungsten (incandescent); Flash; Manual (set under ambient light); or Colour Temperature (set by degrees Kelvin).

• Drive Mode: Single Frame Shooting; Continuous Shooting (up to 65 frames at the highest JPEG image quality, 15 using RAW format, 12 for RAW+JPEG); Self-Timer Shooting (2 or 12 seconds); Remote Control; or Remote Control with a 3 second delay (requires the optional Remote Control F).
• Sensitivity not available in the SV mode (see further) can be set from 100 ISO to 1600 ISO (100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000, 1250, 1600 ISO). In addition, the K10D offers an Auto ISO mode for which a lower and upper limit can be set, which when exceeded will cause a warning to appear in the viewfinder.

• Flash Mode: Auto, Auto with Red-eye Reduction, Flash On, Flash On + Red-eye Reduction, Slow-speed Sync, Slow-speed Synch + Red-eye Reduction, or Trailing Curtain Sync.

The last control on the right side of the monitor is a switch with two positions, On or Off, that controls the Shake Reduction Function. The camera picks up information about the focal length of the lens when the lens in use is relatively new. With older lenses, lenses that have an A (Auto) aperture setting, or even those that do not, the camera must be told the focal length of the lens in use through an option that offers a choice of 34 focal lengths in the menu (see the Characteristics section of the review for details about the menu).

Four more buttons are aligned on the left side of the monitor, starting at the top with the MENU button, which displays the K10D's 4-section menu on the monitor when pressed: Rec Mode, Playback, Set-up, Custom Setting.

(See the Characteristics section of the review for details on the Rec Mode, Playback and Custom Setting sections of the menu, and the Interface and Software section for details about the Set-up section.)

Delete: allows deleting unwanted images on the memory card. Images can be deleted by JPEG only, RAW only, or JPEG + RAW, one at a time. If the button is pressed twice in rapid succession, then the "Delete All" screen appears, making it possible to delete all images on the memory card. Additionally, images can be selected for deletion using the Index view.

Simply starts the Playback mode, showing the last image captured on the monitor. The display mode (see above) that initially appears when the Playback mode is started can be selected by pressing the button.

Returning to the top of the K10D, the left side supports the Mode Dial and beneath it, a three-position Metering Mode Lever to select the metering mode:

	Multi-segment evaluates 16 different parts of the frame, and combines the readings to set the exposure.
	Centre-weighted meters the entire frame, but places the emphasis on the centre.
	Spot: meters only the centre of the frame.

Worth noting, an option in the Custom Setting menu makes it possible to link the AF point to the metering.

Directly below the Mode dial and Metering Mode Lever is a small button that is used in conjunction with the e-dials:

Auto Bracketing: offers a choice of auto bracketing over 3 or 5 frames over a range of ±2 EV in either 1/2 or 1/3 EV increments.

The Mode Dial has 10 positions, each corresponding to a shooting mode:

	Shutter Priority lets the user adjust the shutter speed using the front e-dial while the camera adjusts the aperture. A shutter speed range that covers from 1/4000 second to 30 seconds is available.
	Aperture Priority allows the user to select the aperture with the rear e-dial and thereby control the depth of field in the image while the camera handles the shutter speed.
	Shutter & Aperture Priority allows the user to set both the shutter speed with the front e-dial and the aperture with the rear e-dial, while the camera adjusts the sensitivity to match the selection.
	Manual lets the user fully control all aspects of the camera: aperture, shutter speed, sensitivity, etc. If needed, the Green button next to the shutter release can be pressed to let the camera automatically set the aperture and shutter speed.
	Bulb allows the shutter to remain open as long as the shutter release is pressed. The optional cable switch CS-205 can be used.
	X-Synch locks the shutter speed at 1/180 second making it possible to use an external flash that does not adjust the camera's shutter speed. The aperture can be selected using the rear e-dial, and if desired the Green button can be pressed to automatically adjust the aperture.

The last Mode Dial position serves to access pre-selected preferred settings:

The User mode makes it possible to save preferred settings for exposure mode, flash mode, EV compensation, exposure bracketing steps and number of frames, drive mode, flash exposure compensation, extended bracketing steps and type, sensitivity, auto sensitivity adjustment range, white balance, file format, JPEG recorded pixels, JPEG quality, image tone, saturation, sharpness, and contrast.

A hot shoe is positioned on top of the K10D's viewfinder, designed to accept Pentax-dedicated auto flashes (AF540FGZ or AF360FGZ) that support all the camera's flash modes. In addition, the hot shoe has an X-contact that allows the use of third-party manual flash units.

The Pentax K10D is equipped with a pentaprism finder with an interchangeable Natural Bright Matte II focusing screen. The viewfinder provides a 95% field of view of the captured image. It is also equipped with a diopter correction slider at the top of the exit pupil.

The TTL viewfinder of the K10D is bright, shows the focus point, and is able to indicate many of the camera's settings on the LCD display below the image area. The display indicates currently active functions such as shake reduction; flash status; shutter speed and aperture, underlining these when they can be adjusted with the front or rear e-dials; focus; manual focus; EV bar, which can show either exposure compensation or the difference between the current exposure settings and what would be appropriate; flash exposure compensation; AE lock; ISO warning; and the number of images that can be captured.

The KD10 is also equipped with a manually released pop-up flash (the button is below the flash) that has a Guide Number (GN) of 11 (meters at 100 ISO) which when the aperture used is factored in (GN/aperture = approximate lighting power in meters), is able to light up as far as 3.9 m at f2.8.

The last three external controls of the K10D are located on the front of the camera, and on the right side of the lens mount.

First is the lens release (see the Characteristics section), which is located on the lower left side of the lens mount. Second is the RAW button. The RAW button serves to capture a RAW + JPEG image when the camera is set to capture JPEG only in the menu. Moreover, the button can be set to act as a toggle switch — pressed once to start capturing RAW + JPEG, and pressed again to return to capturing JPEG only — an option determined by one of the Custom settings.

The third, and last, external control of the K10D is the Focus Mode Lever. It has three positions:

• AF-S: Single Auto Focus, only focuses when the shutter release is pressed halfway, or when the AF button is pressed.
• AF-C: Continuous Auto Focus mode constantly adjusts the focus, tracking a moving subject while the shutter release button is pressed halfway, or while the AF button is pressed.
• MF: Manual Focus allows the camera to be focused using the lens' focus ring. The Focus indicator in the viewfinder confirms correct focus.