|
|
|
Review Date: Mon, 14 May 2007
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
|
|
Positive aspects of the product (pros):
|
Low cost In body stabilization. Solid, quality build.
|
|
Cons:
|
to many functions buried in menus. Weak flash integration
|
|
If you own Pentax glass this decision is a no brainer. Add to that the in body stabilization that applies to EVERY lens you mount and you cannot go wrong choosing this camera. Every lens Pentax has ever made and many manufactured by others using the K mount work in one mode or another. Even M42 screw mount lenses will work with an adapter. If you like taking pictures and don't want to spend a week reading a manual to properly operate it, this camera is for you. Pentax has long had a reputation for building solid cameras with equally fine glass and the K100D is no exception. Jpegs right out of the camera are excellent and if you like shooting RAW you'll like this camera even more.
Now for the limitations.
Pentax has not integrated it's flash units seamlessly with their DSLR's. Now we have Pttl instead of TTL meaning to get fully metered automation you have to buy expensive new flashes. This flies in the face of its lens strategy. If we don't have to buy new lenses for our new cameras why is Pentax forcing us to do so with the flash units? Mystifying. One other niggle is that to use manual focus lenses without auto aperture you have to enable this feature which is buried in the custom menu and the menu line certainly isn't English but some techno-speak confusing equivalent. I had to post to a Pentax forum to find out how to enable this feature even after having read the manual cover to cover. Come on Pentax you can do better than this. You get what you pay for with ease of use and the K100D is a fine camera once you learn where all the menu items are and how to use them. The more expensive and capable K10D has more direct function buttons and wheels but you have to pay substantially more so the trade-off is forgivable. The K100D just begs to be taken out and used. No fuss no muss. That to me is the greatest measure of a camera. For the price this camera has no equal. Highly recommended.
|
|
pentaxie
Registered: May 2007
Posts: 74
|
|
Review Date: Mon, 14 May 2007
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Positive aspects of the product (pros):
|
Can use older lenses from SLR, SR in cam body
|
|
Cons:
|
Expensive flash
|
|
The K100D packs an array of user friendly features like Shake Reduction (SR) System, high-precision autofocus and auto sensitivity control into a compact, well-balanced body to accommodate a wide range of shooting and playback requirements. Every lens Pentax has ever made and many manufactured by others using the K mount work in one way or another. Some like M42 screw mount lenses will work with an adapter. If you like taking pictures and don't want to spend lots of time in deep reading the manual to operate it, this camera is for you. It makes high-quality digital SLR photography effortless, fun and exciting for all users in all situations – from casual travel snapshots to memorable family pictures.
The only limitations that I can think of is Pentax has not integrated it's flash units seamlessly with their DSLR's. Now Pttl rules the day instead of TTL, ie to get a fully metered automation you have to buy expensive new flashes. On one hand we don't have to buy new lenses for our new cameras but must buy the flash units. This is so mystifying.
Another limitation is that to use manual focus lenses without auto aperture you have to enable this feature which is buried in the custom menu and the menu line certainly isn't plain English but some technical jargon only the designer of Pentax dSLR comprehend.
Overall, you get what you pay for with ease of use and the K100D is a fine camera once you learn where all the menu items are and how to use them. The more expensive and capable K10D has more direct function buttons but have to pay more & this is acceptable. For the price this camera has no equal (even the Nikon D40 which is touted as the cheapest Nikon dSLR cannot match the K100D)
Highly recommended for beginners & casual photographer alike.
|
|
|
|
|
Review Date: Sun, 20 May 2007
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
|
|
Positive aspects of the product (pros):
|
solid construction, anti-shake, excellent color rendition
|
|
Cons:
|
lowest iso is 200, slow AF in low light, no battery grip, auto white balance not accurate in tungsten lighting
|
|
This is my first DSLR. I have to say that I like EVERYTHING about it except for the cons listed above. I will keep this as my 2nd body when I purchase a k10d soon 
|
|
|
|
|
Review Date: Wed, 23 May 2007
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 0
|
|
Positive aspects of the product (pros):
|
Value for money-no doubt, Ease of use and built SR
|
|
Cons:
|
Probably i would say the flash
|
|
A great first Dslr. It will do me for a while.
I will use my film bodies as a backup.
|
|
ryandpahl
Registered: June 2007
Posts: 10
|
|
Review Date: Fri, 8 June 2007
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
|
|
Positive aspects of the product (pros):
|
low cost starter kit, shake reduction
|
|
Cons:
|
small buffer, size, 6.1?
|
|
This is my first DSLR, And its great.
The two lens kit gives you everything you need to start shooting (except a card and reusable batteries). First thing I did when I opened the box was test the shake reduction under low light conditions, and I was surprised at how well it worked. It allows you to shoot 200ISO when you should have to bump it up a bit. The 2 F stops they claim is pretty accurate.
There are a few things that it lacks however...
The buffer can only take 5 jpg or 3 raw images before it has to dump to the card. This can be very annoying at times when your subject is moving quickly and you want to catch the action. I like to auto bracket, and shooting two quick bursts can leave that sixth JPG hanging while the buffer clears.
The camera is small, a little too small for my liking. Some times it feels like I'm going to drop it because there is so little to hold onto, like when your shooting a portrait with a big flash on the hotshoe. I always thought a camera should be comfortable and easy to hold with one hand. A little more meat would be nice.
6.1 megapixels....I was surprised when pentax released this camera with only 6.1. The rest of the manufacturers had been putting out 10's for a while, I was waiting and waiting for the next IST to be a 10, but then pentax swapped lines and made the K series.
Now I'm left feeling disapointed that I didn't hold out a little longer for the K10. If you can live with the few drawbacks then it is definatly worth the money, very solid camera. highly recommended.
|
|
dayalan86
Registered: December 2006
Location: Malaysia
Posts: 183
|
|
Review Date: Wed, 18 July 2007
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 7
|
|
Positive aspects of the product (pros):
|
Natural Colour tone, Faster AF compared to my prosumer, Value for money kit, backwards compatibility, AA batteries
|
|
Cons:
|
ISO200, slow AF, Flash AF assist, Expensive external flashes, tiny buffer
|
|
This is my first DSLR, and I sold off my trusted Olympus C-730 Ultra Zoom which was in perfect working condition despite of its age, in order to upgrade to this camera.
It is an almost perfect first DSLR kit for anyone who wants to take their photography to another level. The K100D came out when I was in the midst of buying the Nikon D50 which had a similar spec to the K100D, it had a better buffer but no DOF review or IS and that was the deal breaker for me.
As for AF, I can say that the AF does hunt at low contrast areas and sometimes it does shows a focus confirmation even when the scene is not in focus. It happened to me twice, but at both times I was shooting something that had very low contrast and this is the limitation of the hardware.
Another thing is that, if the camera cannot lock focus, the quick shift mechanism does not allow proper manual focusing, the focus actually resists movement and this is because I believe that even after the camera has given up focusing, the AF clutch is still engaged.
Finally the Pentax brand external flash is quite expensive. For my needs the Pentax AF360FGZ would suffice but I am forced to get the Pentax AF540FGZ just for the swivel action of the flash head. But the feature that sets the AF360FGZ apart from the Nikon SB600 is that, this flash can be a master and a slave at the same time. Which means that this flash can control a AF540FGZ wirelessly when the AF360FGZ is on a camera like the K100D which does not have Wireless Flash controller with the built in flash unlike K10D.
Overall I cannot give this camera more than 7 because of the cons listed above,
------------------------------
Why waste today by dreaming of tomorrow?
|
|
the six string kid
Registered: March 2007
Location: sunny Scotland
Posts: 1154
|
|
Review Date: Fri, 27 July 2007
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Positive aspects of the product (pros):
|
|
|
Cons:
|
|
|
the minor niggles above aside this camera is great
Ive not deleted a single photo since i bought it have 6500 shutter actuations and not a problem so far.
If the above complaints bother you spend a couple of hundred and get a 10 d
for a person who wants an easy to use camera that will take photos to make you look better than you are I totally recomend it
the flash is a bit harsh for closeups
other than that you would be really picky to find a fault with this unit.
reviews on camera sites are so confusing because they are written by pros and the usual faults they find are nit picking to you and me.
If you are good enough to find faults with this cam then may i suggest you opt for the k 10 d as its more of a pro unit
I have sold 9 photos this year taken with my K100 this makes it a pro camera in my book
The anti shake is so good I took 200 shots of the back of a moving vibrating harley davidson and had 0 blurry photos and the shutter was fast enough to cope with bikes doing 170 miles per hour at the Isle o man tt
Only when I was on the straightaway did I run Into trouble but the bikes were hitting 206 mph there.
to be fair I think the K100 would have still worked but it was me who wasnt fast enough
As a learning tool this camera is amazing stick it on raw and fully auto you will still come home with the best of photos
I think those that comlain about this camera expect too much for the bargain price.
anti shake alone will cost you a fortune on other brands (lens anti shake is expensive.
throw any old lens from the past with a pentax mount (nearly all of them ) and you can have a huge lens collection for the price of one cannon lens
No contest this is the best entry level dslr by a log way.
------------------------------
MY PW GALLERYhttp://pentaxworld.com/gallery/index.php?cat=11191
also equipped with a pentax 20d a samsung gx10 ,sigma 10-20, kit 18-55,sigma 28-70, 70-300 and piles of classic lenses
got a head full of lightening and a hat full of rain
|
|
Picturehound
Registered: January 2008
Location: Cullman, AL
Posts: 22
|
|
Review Date: Wed, 2 April 2008
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Positive aspects of the product (pros):
|
Powered by AA batteries (rechargable lith-ion are a great value); Great for novice-to-intermediate photographers (professionals will want more than 6.1mp); Reverse compatible with tons of pentax lenses; In-body Shake Reduction
|
|
Cons:
|
None to speak of
|
|
After 1 year and 1000s of shots, my K100d has not disappointed me. I've had no problems with the camera, kit lenses, third-party lenses (sigma), or external flash operation. This is a great value for the price and it's packed with many features for which other manufacturers charge hundreds more.
|
|
Precious
Registered: October 2008
Location: New England
Posts: 7
|
|
Review Date: Fri, 16 January 2009
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Positive aspects of the product (pros):
|
Works Great
|
|
Cons:
|
No Tether Features & still no Pentax software to Tether the K100D
|
|
I love this camera. It is easy to use and a great value.
Shoot in Raw using Adobe RBG!
Questions? Just go to: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxk100d/ and view the review and comparisions.
|
|
