Pentax K100D

Good – The K100d is a great all round entry level DSLR, I had the K100D super which is slightly better but very similar. The kit lens (18-55) isnt great, but still provides great pictures compared to a Point and shoot. The menu's are very user friendly and there is a magnitude of settings that can be fiddled to give it that semi-pro feel. The 6 MP sensor is a bit outdated but still provides great functionality, I would recommend this camera to someone entering the world of DSLR cameras as it would be extremely cheap to grab a 2nd hand one and you would be more than pleased with the results. - Price (Bang for your buck!)

- In-body shake reduction

- Dust removal

- Back compatible to all pentax lenses

- Decent size screen

- User friendly layout

- SDHC compatible

- AA Batteries - Slow FPS

- Kit lens isnt great, however sigma make a few decent ones

- Small buffer and slow RAW image write speed to SDHC card

OK – Despite others knocking having to dig into the menu to get things done, I did not find this slowed me down. For an interested amateur, this camera is amazingly cheap and responsive. it is much lighter than say, a Nikon D200, but then it is not meant to be in the same league either. That said, the pricing and full feature set (including RAW) has been the camera's main strength. Pity about the lenses that were packaged with them. Pity too about the dearth of really good Pentax lens currently available, even though they are compatible with the Pentax Takumar range. However, compared to today's availability of reliable, high-quality multicoated, light, quick auto-focus and colour-corrected offerings available from the big two (Nikon and Canon), Pentax is suffering a little in the optics stakes.

Having 'only' six megapixels is certainly no drawback as it allows each sensor site to be of a reasonable size. This keeps camera noise down without the need for any agressive in-camera software manipulation. result: overall image quality is very good (considering the limitations of the provided optics). Price and feature set is outstanding. An absolute no-brainer for the beginning DSLR user (the newer K200D has a larger megapixel count; not inevitably a better thing [see below]). The use of non-propriety AA bateeries will keep costs down in that department if one uses decent NiMH batteries and ensure that they are pretty well discharged before recharging them (don't believe all the hype about non-memory NiMH batteries. These type of batteries like to be pretty well discharged before being recharged. Oh,use a quality charger (Maha Australia) and stay from quick chargers. The heat they generate will shorten battery life0. Kit lens less than thrilling, though Pentax have recently started to make some better quality Pentax-badged lens which are not too bad. However, the reliance on third party lens of merely average quality does not inspire any enthusiast to seriously consider this model for serious work.