The Pentax K10D is rugged —
gaskets ensure a tight fit to all doors and covers — and
is clearly conceived with the consummate photographer in mind
and could, in a pinch, even serve some professional needs.
Although it offers a Green (Auto)
mode, Scene modes are absent from the K10D and instead Pentax
offers a couple of ingenious modes that are, at this time, not
available on any other camera. The first is SV Mode (Sensitivity
Priority), which allows the user to boost sensitivity with
the rear e-dial — thereby increasing shutter speed —
and control the aperture/shutter speed combination with the
front e-dial, which in turns allows prioritizing freezing action
or depth of field.
The other is the TAv Mode (Shutter
and Aperture Priority), which also takes advantage of the
K10D's range of sensitivities, allowing the user to modify the
shutter speed with the front e-dial and the aperture with the
rear e-dial while the camera adjusts the sensitivity to make
the selection work.
The 16 to 45mm zoom It uses extra low dispersion glass to
improve colour accuracy, and aspherical surfaces to minimize
distortion. At its widest angle of 16 mm, it is equivalent
to a 24 mm lens when the 1.5 multiplier effect of the CCD
— the CCD is smaller than a full 35 mm frame —
is taken into account.
At this setting, the lens yields
images that are nearly barrel distortion free, as can be seen
in the image at left. Similarly, chromatic aberration is minimal,
and only detectable when wide angle shots contain strong contrasts,
and the image is inspected at 100% scale on a monitor. Moreover,
using the default camera settings, the lens appears to yield
vibrant colours.
Although easily corrected
in software, its sharpness is average throughout its focal
length range, and wide angle shots tend to be noticeably softer
on the edges than they are at the centre of the frame. Furthermore,
when set to the wide end and used with the built-in pop-flash,
the lens causes a very noticeable shadow which can only be
avoided if an external, camera-mounted flash is used.
This aside, the Pentax K10D shines on a number of fronts,
and when used with any number of other Pentax lenses, the
K10D yields perfectly crisp images.
More importantly, the K10D is
impressive in the fact that its sensitivity range is entirely
useable. At 100 ISO noise is absent from the images, and from
100 up to 400 ISO, which if the increment is set to 1/3 EV covers
no less than six sensitivity settings, the images the camera
captures are virtually noise-free. Beyond this, a range that
covers an additional seven steps, noise increases very slowly,
and even at the maximum of 1600 ISO, is no more prevalent than
in the 400 ISO images produced by compact cameras that employ
smaller CCDs.
In addition, these images can be
recorded in any of three formats: JPEG with a choice of three
compression levels, or in any of two RAW formats, PEF or DNG.
While the PEF format is Pentax's
own proprietary RAW file format, currently the K10D is one of
the few cameras to also support Adobe Systems' DNG format, a
new and open RAW file format developed for use in digital cameras.
Both formats are identical in the sense that they capture the
RAW output of the CCD without any processing, and include within
the file structure all the shooting parameters and camera settings,
making it possible to process the image later, on a computer.
The only noticeable difference
between these two formats as they are implemented on the K10D
comes down to file size. While DNG regularly produces file
sizes of approximately 16.5 MB, Pentax PEF file are compressed
using a non-lossy scheme and generate file sizes of between
11 and 13 MB.
Worth noting here, the RAW button on the left side of the
camera is a brilliant idea, making it possible to instantly
capture a RAW image without having to access a menu
option. It can only be hoped that this feature will become
standard on the equipment of other manufacturers.
Set to capture JPEG format photos
at the three-star setting, the camera applies a compression
that is often around 8:1 for 10-megapixel images. Yet the results
are always impressive, and for everyday shots, can easily replace
the more work-intensive RAW format. Moreover, able to save simultaneously
a high quality JPEG image — at any of the three resolutions
offered — and a RAW file, the best of both worlds are
available to the user at any time.
The Pentax K10D is well-designed
and this comes through very quickly when the camera is in
hand. Controls are intelligently laid out, their position
intuitive. In addition, the K10D is extremely capable. It
is equipped with all the basic modes and adds a couple of
interesting modes. The K10D has all the functions one expects
from a high-end SLR: it can be user-customized for many functions,
it has built-in stabilization that allows it to stabilize
any Pentax lens; and it also provides a wide range of sensitivities,
even yielding useable images at the highest part of that range.
To boot, it is dust and moisture resistant, a claim few others
can make.
Clearly, with the introduction of the K10D, Pentax is raising
the bar once again for dSLR cameras.
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