Shutterbugs looking for a compact digital
SLR that's a pleasure to use and captures pleasing photographs will be
drawn to the Pentax K2000 ($560-$700). Although the 10.2 megapixel byteshooter
doesn't have the latest features being packed into the newest releases
in this category--features like "Live View" and video capture--the
camera shines where it's most important: taking great photographs.
The K2000's exposure and focusing systems perform very well in a variety
of lighting conditions.
The exposure system is sensitive to the nuance of lighting in scenes
which enables the camera to faithfully turn what's seen by the human eye
into megapixels.
We found the 18-55mm Pentax DAL zoom lens included with the camera performed
admirably. The F/3.5-5.6 glass delivered sharp photos with good edge-to-edge
rendering.
The K2000 is the kind of camera that can be picked up and used immediately.
All its controls are clearly marked in text that you won't need a magnifying
glass to read and in contrasting colors that emphasize legibility, not
obscurity.
As some other cameras in this niche do, the K2000 has a Control Panel
that allows a clickster to quickly change key settings on the fly through
the unit's 2.7-inch, 230,000 LCD. One genial aspect of Pentax's implementation
of this idea is the ability to access and change all file types, image
sizes and quality settings from the display. Typically, only a subset
of what's available in those categories can be tapped into from the LCD.
However, the menu system still has to be accessed to switch between PEF
and DNG RAW formats.
Although the LCD is a good size, it can wash out in bright sunlight,
which makes it difficult to use the dandy control panel in those situations.
In addition, the information line in the DSC's optical viewfinder also
appeared dim when shooting in bright sunshine.
For photo buffs breaking in to the world of mirrorcams, the K2000 has
a number of features to make using the DSC easier. There's a fully automatic
mode that essentially lets the lens kitten just point and shoot the camera.
And there's a variety of picture and scene modes that automatically choose
the best camera settings for situations such as landscapes, portraits,
night shots, kids and such.
Speaking of kids, parents will find the K2000's fast continuous shooting
mode--3.5 frames per second--coupled with its quick continuous auto focusing
mode a great boon when trying to freeze their perpetual motion offspring.
One bane of all digital cameras is their complex menu systems. The K2000's
menu system can get prolix, too, but Pentax has made the process a little
simpler with a tabbed system that confines menus within tabs to a single
screen. That eliminates the kind of vertical scrolling that can make navigating
some menu systems feel like a descent into hell.
Another utile touch can be found in one of the ways the K2000 allows
you to name folders on the camera. You can choose to label the folders
by date. With that option, the camera will create a new folder marked
by date for each day you take pictures with the camera. The feature can
be very helpful in organizing images once they're uploaded to a computer.
The K2000 displayed excellent battery life with four Energizer lithium
batteries. After two weeks of daily use, the battery gauge on the LCD
barely budged. While there are pros and cons to the use of AA batteries
versus rechargeable, custom lithiums, one advantage of AAs is that they're
only a drugstore away no matter where you are.
With its ease of use and fine photo quality, the K2000 is an outstanding
buy for photo enthusiasts looking for their first digital camera or craving
to move from the point-and-shoot world to the digital SLR realm.
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Introduction
