If I were a rangefinder guy...

J

John Camp

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...looking to get his feet wet in digital, I think you could do worse than the new Pentax SLR with the pancake lenses. Small, light, should have very high-quality digital, and the body's only gonna cost about $900...It's not a rangefinder, but will have a lot of the same handling qualities.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/pentaxk10d/

JC
 
Not sure. It's a nice camera, I handled one at National Camera. The shutter noise is ok for an SLR, certainly nicer sounding than a Rebel XT; small. Nice bright viewfinder. If I were to do it all over again, I'd probably go with Pentax, but I'm a bit hesitant when I see Dpreview's noise findings (granted, it's for the first model, but that's all we've got right now).

You may want to look into the Olympus E-330, though.
 
Funny but I also had that 'actually this one's not that bad' feeling upon the Pentax K10 announcement although until now I didn't take any of the DSLRs too serious.. The layout of the buttons seems still a bit chaotic to me though..

Can't care about noise issues since I'm still using film ;)

gabrielma: But the E-330 is supposed to have a dim / small finder :( .. The Pentax is on par with the Nikon D80 / D200 regarding this
 
I saw that pancake lens in a store and fell in love with it. And I have a soft spot in my heart for Pentax -- they're the little guys compared with the other players in the market nowadays. But I think they need to come out with a camera in the 10 megapixel range to be really competitive.

I haven't seen the dpreview review, but it sounds contrary to what I have seen in Popular Photography's tests, where they note unusually low noise at all ISOs, but lower resolution than competitors' products (probably a function, in part, of a 6 megapixel sensor rather than 8 or higher).
 
KoNickon said:
I saw that pancake lens in a store and fell in love with it. And I have a soft spot in my heart for Pentax -- they're the little guys compared with the other players in the market nowadays. But I think they need to come out with a camera in the 10 megapixel range to be really competitive.
Click to expand...

Ain't the 10 a 10MP one? :confused:

Time for the dpreview review :) !
 
I have a Canon D60 which is about to be replaced. I tried the K100 in a store lately and liked the sice and the viewfinder, IMHO the K100 viewfinder is better than the one from the Canon D60, so I expect even more from the pentaprism finder in the K10.
Antishake, relatively dust and weatherproof, exchangeable screens and the size of the body are pretty close to what I wan't this side of a Canon 5d.

If it suits me, the *istD was too small for me, I'll probably sell some of my Canon lenses and give the D60 and the 24-85 USM to my nephews and get a K10 with grip and the 16-45 as a starter kit.
That'll leave some cash for an Epson R-D1 with 28 Skopar :)
 
I was thinking of the K100D -- this K10D, which I hadn't heard about before, sounds great. But let's see what the reviews say when the camera actually hits the street.
 
The K10D certainly sounds appealing. It should set a new (lower) price bar on 10MP cameras. I'd like to see how how the sensor performs first as I have heard it will use a new CCD sensor manufactured by Samsung, rather than the Sony sensor in the A100 and Nikon D80/D200.
 
I've been looking to buy a DSLR. I almost bought the K100 and the 21mm pancake. If the K10 doeas as well on the sensor noise as the K100, I'll probably get one around the end of the year.
 
I'm hoping this camera proves to be a big success for Pentax -- they need a big hit to really establish themselves in the digital SLR field.
 
Coming from the most non-digital person you're likely to find on RFF, this camera looks to me to be very high quality for the price. I highly doubt anyone with it will be disappointed. Of course, I still won't buy one. I think I really am addicted to the smell of fixer. ;)
 
I'm not sure why, given the things I have heard about noise and many other issues, I've still got the Lumix DMC-L1 in my mind as the way to look at this issue. Now, I'm about as non digital as they come, as well ( Hi, Stephanie!) so my words are pretty worthless.

If I ever have enough coin that I can buy a DSLR and not notice it, then I'll buy one of these Panasonics. In the meantime, my money needs to go to putting Reala behind my collapsible Summicron or my 50/1.4 S.S.C. ;)

William
 
John Camp said:
...looking to get his feet wet in digital, I think you could do worse than the new Pentax SLR with the pancake lenses. Small, light, should have very high-quality digital, and the body's only gonna cost about $900...It's not a rangefinder, but will have a lot of the same handling qualities.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking the same thing lately. The K10D with the 21 and 40 pancakes would pretty much give me the lengths I use with my M's and give me a carry-all-the-time camera with the 21 on it. I have an Olympus E-1 and like the body for the quiet shutter, weather sealing and bright viewfinder that shows 100% of the image. I could use that camera for a while longer if Oly would only come out with a moderate WA prime.

Now if somebody could make a digital RF with a normal and a few WA primes... The M8 already falls behind with the SR in the K10D.
 
John Camp said:
...I think you could do worse than the new Pentax SLR with the pancake lenses. Small, light, should have very high-quality digital, and the body's only gonna cost about $900...It's not a rangefinder, but will have a lot of the same handling qualities.
Click to expand...

Depending on your personal style there is some truth in that statement, IMO. Recently I've begun using a Pentax *ist DL in many of the same situations where I would have used my Bessa R in the past. The *ist DL is small, reasonably quiet and fast. In low light the image noise is tolerable at 1600 ISO and the VF makes it easy to focus manually.

I've been buying older Pentax A- and M- series prime lenses (they work great) and using them instead of the bulky and slow kit lens. The Pentax Limited lenses seem nice but they are currently out of my budget :( .

People might think I'm crazy for saying this but the size and handling of the *ist DL (and by extension the new K10D) are, to me, similar enough to my Bessa R that the DL has effectively replaced my rangefinder.

The only time I grab my RF camera these days is if I want to use an ultra-wide angle lens like the CV 25 or 15. Even then, I use the Bessa L.
 
Socke said:
I'll probably sell some of my Canon lenses and give the D60 and the 24-85 USM to my nephews and get a K10 with grip and the 16-45 as a starter kit.
That'll leave some cash for an Epson R-D1 with 28 Skopar :)
Click to expand...
That'll be quite a happy nephew. The D60 hasn't lost much of its posthumous market value, holding steady at about $700, about the same as a 10D.

The 20D and 30D have a very nice, very bright viewfinder, compared to the 10D, D60, etc. As bright as the Pentax dSLRs, really. And you can focus manual-focusing lenses better with it. (AND you can use the K-mount and M42 lenses with an adapter!)

Pentax glass is nice. But are you ready for the shift? I say get it as a second body; if money isn't that tight, that is.

You know, I thought the Pentax dSLRs would be too small for me too, but they fit comfortably in my hand. I can't say the same for the Rebel XT. That should give you an idea of how well designed the ergonomics are on the oft-neglected Pentax line.
 
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