Pentax K10D

Excellent – An excellent camera. I'm rarely found without mine. Pentax have 'sorted out' the niggles I had with my *istD, and added valuable features to make the photographic experience a pleasure. I consider Pentax to be the best value-for-money system available. And Pentax have some very good lenses, so there is no excuse for not taking beaut photographs. The K10D is designed to make the taking of photographs a pleasure.

Large, bright viewfinder.

Multi-exposures.

Good battery life.

Takes large capacity SD cards (I use a 16GB SDHC).

Can use pretty much any K-mount lens ever made.

It includes innovations like modes for adjusting all three parameters: shutter, aperture, and ISO. There's also hyper-program, and hyper-manual modes too.

I can process RAW image files in the camera, to JPG images, that I can print on short notice at photo stores. Nothing, really. Except there's a little bump on the 'delete' button that annoys my nose.

Excellent – This is a very impressive camera which is most suited to the real enthusiast or semi-professional. Controls are at your fingertips with the ergonomics well thought through. Locks and latches on the external doors are great for sucurity and weather resistance. The ability to store a spare sd card and remote release in the vertical grip means they are always at hand.

I had waited for the right time to get a dSLR because they never seemed to be good enough at a reasonable price. My film SLR's were doing a good job. That has changed with the K10D and I must say that it is an excellent camera producing excellent images.

I would highly recommend this camera to serious photographers but recommend caution to the amateur unless they are prepared to put the time in to learn how to drive it. Excellent image quality; can fit vertical grip; battery life; feels like a real camera; locks on doors; RAW button; simple image review and zoom. Slow to autofocus at times in low light or long zoom.

Good – I have a K10 plus the Pentax 16-45mm F4 lens. Its a superb kit lens and I recommend this lens highly although at 16mm f4 its OK but not totaly sharp. Close-ups at 45mm are breathtaking. OK the catch is that you need to shoot raw and proccess with Adobe Camera Raw or equivalent to get the best out of it. I've read reviews that weren't impressed with the in camera jpeg's and I have to agree. Processing raw files with ACR produces clearly superior results. Absolutely superb images with a little work and knowledge. Solid build while not being any heavier than equivalent film camera's. Takes a little work and knowledge to get the best out of it.

Good – Overall, the camera has been great, works well and is easy to use, I would recommend the camera to anyone, from beginner to expert. Great camera, I purchase this Pentax SLR after having the Pentax K100 and have seen a much better image than my previous model (even though the previous model still took a great picture) The K10D is easy to use, despite being a professional camera. I was happy that it took SD memory cards as I had these from my previous camera, as well as the additional lenses I purchased Not really a dislike, however the water resistant seals that the camera has are only good if you have water resistant lenses.