Pentax K10D body now available at B&H

[Kyle Nagel]

They're Here!

I just ordered a K10D from B&H, I paid for 2nd day air so I will have it Wednesday morning (Just in time for the Holiday weekend!). I got an e-mail this morning saying they were in stock and called immediately. When I called they informed me they only had the bodies, the kit version with the lens was not available and the kit versions were the majority of the pre-sales as well. Since I've been shooting with an *istD I have plenty of lenses, and I'm not much of a zoom guy (I mostly shoot with primes). So I picked up the body, 3 extra batteries (The vertical/battery grips have not shipped yet), and two 4gb SD cards (bummer that my *istD uses CF cards).

Kyle

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Kyle,

Congrats. I know you will enjoy it.

Could you give us the rundown on the lenses that are available and what the trade-offs are in using older lenses. Does one need adapters?

A very naive question, how far back can one go? A 50mm SMT lens from a spotmatic ?

Asher

 

[Kyle Nagel]

Yes, it is compatible with the SMT lenses, here is a quote from the original Pentax press release:

...the system does not require special anti-shake lenses and can be used with more than 24 million PENTAX lenses produced since 1964.*

*Lenses compatible with this mechanism are the PENTAX K-, KA-, KAF- and KAF2-mount lenses; screw-mount lenses (with an adapter); and 645- and 67-system lenses (with an adapter). Some functions may not be applicable with certain lenses....

This is referring to the "anti-shake" feature specifically, but it would apply to the camera as a whole as well, Pentax makes a screw mount adapter to mount the older SMT lenses, you can either put an adapter on each screw mount lens(effectively converting them to bayonet mount lenses), or buy one adapter and move it from lens to lens. Obviously with the screw mount lenses and older K-mount lenses there is no auto aperture or focusing, but the stop-down metering works really well for these lenses.

Those with a lot of older Pentax lenses could get a DSLR system up and running with just the investment in a body.

Here is the link to the adapters available directly on the Pentax site: Screw mount to K-mount Adapter

after going to the page click on SLR Accessories > Teleconverters/Mount Adapters on the left side. They are $30 each.

Kyle

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks Kyle for the information. Was it the availibity of your own lenses for the new body that made you choose the new Pentax DSLR?

IOW, could you share your buying decision process?

Is there something like Leicophilia in the Pentax world, such as Pentaxfilia, LOL?

Asher

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Of course here in the UK we are still twiddling our thumbs with the first week in Dec being the first reliable date. I'm going abroad on the 18th for three weeks and really need it by then, they better get their act together as a 5D with 24-70L and 70-200L is not my idea of a travel rig when I could be using the K10D with pancakes!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Ben,

I didn't think of that! Of course, I'll have to visit my local camera store again!

But what are you going to shoot with your travel setup? also what would you choose?

Asher

 

[Kyle Nagel]

Thanks Kyle for the information. Was it the availibity of your own lenses for the new body that made you choose the new Pentax DSLR?

IOW, could you share your buying decision process?

Is there something like Leicophilia in the Pentax world, such as Pentaxfilia, LOL?

Asher

My decision was mostly financial, and also one of convenience. I have quite an array of Pentax gear, my first SLR was a Pentax (given to me by my parents when I graduated from high school). since then I've upgrade with Pentax gear. I really liked the 645nII medium format that I used for a couple of years. I have so many flashes, cables, and accessories that are Pentax I really hated to change mid-stream. I was getting a little frustrated with them however, and was going to sell it all and go Canon just about the time they announced the release of the K10D. So I held off to see what the specs were going to be. When they finally put out the specs on it in October I was really glad I had waited.

There are quite a few Pentax fan sites and clubs, they have a pretty loyal following thanks to some of their earlier cameras (the Spotmatic you mentioned is one), and they have a pretty good reputation in the medium format arena as well.

Ben brought up the comment about their pancake lenses, I had one of their original 40mm pancakes that I used on my LX back in the 80's, it was a really nice lens, I may end up picking up the 70mm, they do take up a lot less space when traveling, and I just love prime lenses anyway, so it may be my next acquisition.

Kyle

 

[Kyle Nagel]

FYI:

17th Street Photo has the battery/vertical grips for the K10D in-stock as of today, mine will be here Friday morning! :>)

Kyle

 

[Daniel Harrison]

Good on you Kyle,
I think that the k10D is the very best value for money there is on the camera market. It sounds relly great! And those pancake lenses are really cool! Give us some test images and a little review while your at it!

 

[Kyle Nagel]

K10D

Just a few first impressions:

It is slightly larger than their last few offerings, I actually think this is better as it fits in my hand better. I think some of their others were too small, I had to have the grip on my *istD all the time in order for it to be comfortable to hold, with the K10D it feels much better without the grip. Make no mistake though, it is still a small camera in comparison to other camera makers offerings, and it isn't too much larger than their recent cameras.

The menus and functions are considerably different than my *istD, I haven't used the K100D or K110D, so I'm not sure if these changes took place with the introduction of the "K" series digitals, or if the K10D was the first.

Very fast start-up! I can power on and fire a shot as fast as I can move my fingers, less than 1 second, very impressive!

New TAv mode, this one is slick, you set the aperture and shutter speed and the camera selects the appropriate ISO.

Along the same lines the auto ISO feature is pretty nice as well, you can set both the lowest and highest ISO you want used and the camera will adjust the ISO in the Program, Tv, or Av mode if the exposure falls outside of the range of the current ISO setting, for example if you have the ISO at 100 and set the camera to aperture priority and it can't get a fast enough shutter speed for proper exposure at the aperture you have selected, it will bump the ISO to 200 or 400 to get the exposure right. As I said you can set the range in which you allow it to compensate, I currently have mine set to use auto ISO between 100 and 400. This can also be turned off.

Anti-shake, seems to work OK, with my 50mm I was able to get some shots at 15th/sec with no apparent camera movement.

RAW mode allows you to chose between Pentax's proprietary RAW format (PEF) or DNG, according to the literature the RAW data is the same other than the format it is presented in, so I'm not sure why the PEF option is there, I would just use DNG for obvious reasons.

Batteries, the proprietary battery is a 1620mAh, and a genuine Pentax spare will run you about $45, B&H has an after-market version made by Impact, it is a 1700mAh and runs $19, I picked up three of the 1700mAh versions, this will allow one set to be in my camera and grip, with an additional set to rotate with. Good news here is recharging time on a brand new, or completely dead battery is about 2-2 1/2 hours, the manual states 3 hours, but all 4 of mine completed the charging cycle in just over 2 hours.

Battery grip, this is slick, as well as giving you a vertical release and additional battery power it has internal storage for the wireless remote and a spare SD card.

While on the subject of SD cards I will mention that it is compliant with the new SDHC format, I picked up two 4GB SDHC cards, you will need a different card reader for the SDHC cards than for standard SD cards, a lot of the SDHC cards are being sold with a reader, so you will want to get at least one card with a reader if you don't want to hook your camera up to you computer all the time.

It has a nice in-camera RAW converter the works really nice, I will explain more in this in a future post.

Kyle

 

[Asher Kelman]

Kyle,

The IS bracketing and combination setting are enticing. The reasonable prices for batteries are attractive. Looking forward to pictures! The turkey?

Greaty report! This is a major purchase for you of course but an important move for OPF in having experience with this key camera. I wonder whether any press guys will like it?

So again, thanks!

Asher

 

[Jeff Mims]

Amazon.com has the K10D in stock, both the kit, and body only versions. It's an Amazon stocked item, not a 3rd party seller. Just in case anyone is interested.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Let me know if there's anyone in the Los Angeles area with a K10D.

I'd like to compare it with my cameras!

Asher

 

[Jeff Mims]

I really like what I read about the Pentax K10D. My very first SLR was a Pentax Super Program. (in 1985). I also used a K-1000, LX, but just never really warmed to the system. Great, superb lenses...and I even tried out a couple of AF bodies.
I just felt like Canon..as a system...met my needs better. Never had many complaints about quality from Pentax. Well built camera bodies, superb lenses.
If there was one complaint, it was the price of fast lenses, higher than Canon or Nikon.
I'm pretty entrenched in Canon right now, and very happy...so I'm not even considering switching.
But I love seeing a new DSLR..come out...will keep Canon and Nikon from being complacent.

 

[Bernard Wolf]

My friend looked at the camera at Samy's. He says it is built like a tank. That is all I know.

 

[Asher Kelman]

What is the nomenclature of the new Pentax lenses. I looked at B&H lens prices, they seem very good, from a canon perspective. Which are the L lenses equivalents for the latest Pentax camera?

Asher

 

[Kyle Nagel]

My friend looked at the camera at Samy's. He says it is built like a tank. That is all I know.

I have the *istD with the battery grip, and the K10D also with the grip, the K10D is maybe 10-15% larger than the *istD, but I'll bet it is close to 70% heavier. I'll plop them on the postal scale at work to verify it, but it is definitely a lot more "tank-like" than similar cameras.

Kyle

 

[Asher Kelman]

Kyle,

Could you share you knowledge on Pentax lenses.

Give us the low down on the names of the latest lenses for the new Pentax as the listings in B&H is not at all easy to follow. IOW, which lenses go with what and how about auto functions?

What is the current Pentax desgnation of their very best lenses for prof use?

Asher

 

[Kyle Nagel]

What is the nomenclature of the new Pentax lenses. I looked at B&H lens prices, they seem very good, from a canon perspective. Which are the L lenses equivalents for the latest Pentax camera?

Asher

For the most part the top lenses in the Pentax line are known as the the "star" lenses, they actually use an asterisk to represent them rather than the word star, so you will see them refereed to as A*, F*, or FA* lenses. They also have a line of Limited lenses that are even nicer, for the most part the Limited lenses are prime lenses, Unless memory escapes me I don't think they have made a "Limited" zoom, at least not one that I've ever heard of. The top Limited lenses are the 31mm f1.8, 43mm f1.9, and 77mm f1.8. The 31mm has been touted by Popular Photography as one of the 3 best lenses ever made. I have seen a couple other reviews referring to it as the number one auto focus lens made by anyone, period.

Below is a quote from the luminous-Landscape a couple years ago:

And nobody pays all that much attention to Pentax. Pentax does have some pretty pedestrian optics in its bag, it's true. What many photographers aren't aware of is that Pentax still also makes some of the best SLR lenses on the planet. For pure picture quality, taking bokeh into account, my considered opinion is that the Pentax 50mm f/1.4 is the best fast fifty (and I say that having carefully tested damn near everything out there). The FA 24mm f/2 is certainly one of the best 24mm AF lenses going. And if you were to directly compare the Leica 80mm Summilux-R, the Zeiss Contax 85mm f/1.4, the AF-Nikkor 85mm f/1.4, and the Pentax SMC-FA 85mm f/1.4, it would be very clear to you that the latter lens absolutely belongs in the company of the former three. For portraiture, it might even edge the others out.

Yet the very best AF SLR lenses made today are the Pentax Limiteds. There are only three, and they have focal lengths apparently chosen by means of occultish numerology: there's a 31mm f/1.8 wide, a 43mm f/1.9 "true" normal, and a 77mm f/1.8 short tele. All three are made of metal (imagine that), focus manually more than passably well, and are of an size and weight that doesn't constantly penalize you, whether you're lugging them around or holding them up to your eye on a camera. They have beautiful matching metal lens hoods and a feel of quality that puts them above virtually all other AF lenses.

Since that article they have released some "Limited" pancake lenses, but they aren't in the same league as these other three.

The 31mm will be my next lens purchase.

Kyle

 

[Kyle Nagel]

Kyle,

Could you share you knowledge on Pentax lenses.

Give us the low down on the names of the latest lenses for the new Pentax as the listings in B&H is not at all easy to follow. IOW, which lenses go with what and how about auto functions?

What is the current Pentax desgnation of their very best lenses for prof use?

Asher

The FA series lenses are their current line, with the FA-star (FA*) being the "Pro" grade, and the Limiteds are their very best. Probably the best of the "star" series is the FA* 85mm f1.4, it is now discontinued but is selling used on E-bay for it's original new price, there have been rumors Pentax will start producing it again, but I haven't been able to confirm this as yet.

They have made many FA series lenses that are not "star" series but are as good or better, some of these are the FA 50mm f1.4, the FA 35mm f2.0, the FA 20mm f2.8.

Kyle

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks Kyle!

Now are all these compatable with the various Pentax bodies without adapters and are they all autofocus?

Maybe a review of FA* and "Limited" Pentax lenses in the DSLR lens forum might get more interest in these lenses.

Pentax lenses where the standard in best DSLR glass and antifreflrection and glare control. We should be more familiar with the new stars!

Asher

 

[Kyle Nagel]

Thanks Kyle!

Now are all these compatable with the various Pentax bodies without adapters and are they all autofocus?

Maybe a review of FA* and "Limited" Pentax lenses in the DSLR lens forum might get more interest in these lenses.

Pentax lenses where the standard in best DSLR glass and antifreflrection and glare control. We should be more familiar with the new stars!

Asher

I should probably mention a couple others, one is the FAJ series, I believe they only made 2 or 3, they are a less expensive lens and do not have aperture rings, these are not compatible with the older bodies since the aperture cannot be set on the lens. They also have the new DA series that they are starting to make more of, I believe the new "pancake" lenses are all DA lenses, these are only compatible with the APS size Digital SLR imaging sensor, the image circle they produce is not large enough for 35mm cameras so they are not compatible with film cameras, most of these also do not have manual aperture rings either. So as far as the breakdown goes on the bayonet (K) mount lenses here it is:

M series - No auto aperture or focus, works on most if not all K mount cameras in full manual mode only, will work in aperture priority on the LX.

A series - No auto focus but does have auto aperture, will work on all cameras in all program modes (if available), but focusing is manual.

F series - Auto aperture and auto focus. This was the first of their auto focus line (well, sort of, that's another story though), these are also compatible with most if not all K mount cameras, however the auto focus obviously does not work on non-auto focus bodies.

FA series - These are the newest standard format lenses, compatibility is similar to the "F" series.

FAJ series - Very inexpensive lens design, they claimed it was done to keep costs and weight down, to be honest they feel "cheesy" to me, these are only compatible with the newer fully auto cameras where the aperture can be set on the camera rather than the lens, there aren't many and as you can tell I don't care for them much.

DA Series - Fully auto Digital format lens, these lenses are only compatible with the APS sized imaging sensors on the digital SLRs. If you own a film body that you want to be able share lenses with (which I do), these will not work. I have also avoided them because I'm hoping that Pentax may some day release a full-frame DSLR, and they would not work with it if they did, as a result I have been sticking with the FA series lenses.

Pentax also made two lenses called a DFA series, these came out soon after their digital SLR and appear to have been replace with the DA series, they were a 50mm and a 100mm macro, these have full size imaging circles and aperture rings so they are compatible with most if not all K mount bodies. These were designed to eliminate ghosting and flare, and have high resolution glass. They claim these were to take advantage of the new digital technologies capabilities, I wish they would have stuck with these rather than the DA lenses.


Kyle

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks again Kyle, that was a lot of work. It is so helpful to have it all in one place. I've printed it out and now I'll visit Samy's and look at them!

Asher

 

[Kyle Nagel]

On a follow up, the FA and DA are both currently produced, I'm not not sure how many FAJ lenses are currently still in production, I owned one briefly and did some test shots with another, they were too soft for my taste. There are also some A series lenses that are currently produced, one is a very nice 50mm f1.2 and a 400mm f2.8. There were some "star" series lenses made in the M, A, F, and FA series, though M series "star" lenses are very rare, and the A series star lenses are selling for more than the F or FA series stars for some reason that I have yet to explain, the Limiteds are only available in the FA series, and come in a black or silver finish. As a word of caution, there is a FA 28-200mm zoom that bears the Pentax name that was made for them by Tamron, and though Tamron and Pentax have both made some nice lens, this one was a piece of crap, one of the worst ever made, unless you want a very soft focusing lens with a loose and sloppy mechanism, avoid this lens at all costs.

Kyle

 

[Asher Kelman]

Kyle which are the most outstanding amazing WA lenses that I might look at for the Canon DSLR's?

Any that you imagine might be as good as the very best such as Zeiss or Leica?

Asher

 

[Kyle Nagel]

Canon? or did you mean Pentax? I'm not to sure on Canon stuff as I haven't used and don't own any Canon gear, In the Pentax line they have the FA 20mm f2.8, which ends up at a 35mm equivalent of 30mm on the Pentax DSLRs, it is probably one of their best current WA lenses, though I haven't used one I have heard the FA 24mm f2.0 is very nice also. Their widest non-fish-eye current prime lens is the DA 14mm f2.8, I've been tempted but still can't bring myself to get a DA series lens yet.

Kyle

Cameraquest has adapters for Eos bodies. Canon wide angle lenses are good but not the best and don't match the EF 50 2.5 or the 70-200 L models for example.

Asher

 

[Kyle Nagel]

I see what you're asking, probably the 31mm Limited is as good or better than most high-end lenses, it's not an extreme wide angle, but a top notch lens to be sure.

Kyle

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Well, I just cancelled my order until there is more solid information about the banding and focusing issues that are being heavily stamped on at DPReview by pentax fanatics. I've downloaded a bunch of RAW files from someone I trust and the banding is there at iso 400 in the red channel and not just in the shadows even. I had my fill with banding in the 1Ds days (if you underexposed) and this is far worse from what I can see.

Maybe 6 months down the line when this has been sorted out though I'm afraid that the frenzied denial by so many Pentax shooters will retard and fast responses by pentax...

 

[Kyle Nagel]

Ben,

While I have a couple issues with the K10D, banding is not one of them, I have looked at the online images and have the images I have shot myself, and unless this is a random problem with only some of the cameras, I can assure you there is no banding. I have looked at my full size RAW files shot under various lighting and ISOs and I can find none of what I have seen on the few images posted on-line. From looking at the posted images it almost appears to be an odd form of posterization, and we have have no way of confirming the integrity of the on-line images. It's hard to say what processing and compressing has taken place, and unless everyone viewing is color managed (properly), and viewing on a calibrated system all bets are off. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, so here's an easy test, grab an SD card and pop down to the nearest photo store that has one in stock, ask if you can fire some test pics in the store to take home for evaluation (I do this with lenses all the time). Shoot several images at various ISOs and exposures, including some under-exposed shots. Then go home and check it out for your self. My camera exhibits none of this so-called banding. Like I said, if you download these online banding postings and look at them carefully in an image editor, you will see that it isn't really banding. I'm not sure what it is, like I said it looks like a strange form of posterization, I'm sure it has something to do with the processing, compressing, or preparing to post on the web, They may have been shot in Adobe RGB, processed in ProPhoto RGB, and then converted to sRGB, it's just so hard to say. But please, please, don't take my word for it, go shoot some tests yourself and have a look. I think you will be pleasantly surprised, you may even put your order back in for one.

Kyle

 

[Asher Kelman]

Ben,

Please tell me there's no banding! Can't believe the banding monster would visit then too! What is happening? I won't accept this until a trusted person says that it really is an issue!

Asher