About 30 years ago, Pentax released the K1000, a film SLR that would become legendary as an inexpensive workhorse camera with which countless students would -- and still do -- learn the finer aspects of photography. It's no longer in production, though you can find plenty of them on eBay. Now, Pentax has brought the K back, ditching the perplexingly unpronounceable *istD moniker in favour of its new K100D and K110D 6.1-megapixel digital SLRs.
In true contrarian style, the K100D is the more expensive of the two, thanks to Pentax's own sensor-shifting optical image stabilisation. Aside from that, the two SLRs are identical. Both feature 2.5-inch LCD screens, 11-point autofocus, and sensitivity as high as ISO 3,200; and they accept the legions of Pentax lenses, including fully manual lenses dating back further than the K1000. The unwashed, pixel-obsessed masses will no doubt complain about the 6.1-megapixel CCD sensor, but it's still more than enough for letter-size prints, which should be plenty for most casual shooters. Plus, at this price, it's one of the best bargains in the dSLR market.
Design
Based on the body of the *ist DS2, the K100D will feel familiar to current Pentax dSLR owners. Frequently accessed features, including ISO, flash, white balance, and drive mode can be found by pressing the function button, while you can access setup functions with the menu button. A mode dial on the left of the camera top lets you switch shooting modes or select from six scene modes. A choice marked SCN on the dial offers access to another eight scene modes, each with its own explanation.
Only one other dial adorns the body and is used to adjust exposure compensation or aperture or shutter speed in their respective priority modes. That means you have to hold a small button next to the shutter to change the aperture when shooting in full manual mode. This isn't as convenient as some cameras, which include two such dials: one for aperture and one for shutter speed. The same small button doubles as exposure-compensation access when shooting in any of the other modes.
A slider switch on the bottom-right of the camera back lets you turn image stabilisation on or off and joins the menu button, four navigation buttons, and a function button to the right of the 2.5-inch 210,000-pixel LCD screen. The only other change from the *istDS2 is the eye cup, which is more squared, more difficult to remove, and thus less-prone to loss. It's a minor but welcome change.
Four AA or two CR-V3 batteries power the camera and load into the grip from below. Images are stored to SD cards.
Features
With a nice combination of auto and manual features, the Pentax K100D offers enough features to quench both experienced and amateur photographers. For the inexperienced, the Auto Pict. mode takes care of everything for you, while a healthy array of scene modes let you tackled specialised situations as you would with a digital compact or point-and-shoot. Program, aperture- and shutter-priority, manual, and bulb modes offer all the options experienced shooters want.
Possibly the biggest new feature in the K100D is its sensor-shifting shake reduction system. Sensors inside the camera detect any shake in the camera body, such as that caused by your caffeine-addled hands, and move the CCD sensor to compensate for those vibrations. Pentax claims its shake reduction will give you approximately 2 stops leeway in exposure, meaning you should be able to halve your shutter speed twice below your typical slowest comfortable shutter speed and still shoot reasonably sharp images. In our field tests, we found that the shake reduction in the K100D gave us between 1.5 and 2 stops leeway.
Pentax's 11-point through-the-lens (TTL) autofocus system is the same as that of the *ist DS2. It defaults to auto, but you can also manually select a point, or set it to center spot. Plus, you can choose from single, which locks and holds when you hold the shutter down halfway, or continuous, which keeps adjusting focus on your subject until you trip the shutter. The latter comes in handy when shooting skittish children or pets. The camera has a 16-segment TTL metering system with multipattern, center-weighted, or spot options and can be set to lock with focus or continue to meter until you shoot. Exposure compensation provides as much as plus or minus 2EV of leeway to tweak the camera's automatic exposure decisions.
One of the more interesting new features is digital preview. When you slide the power switch past On to the aperture blade icon, you can get either a digital or optical preview of the depth of field (DOF). The default is digital, which snaps a picture and displays it on the LCD but doesn't save it to the SD card. If you'd rather see a DOF preview through the viewfinder, you can switch to that more traditional method using one of the camera's custom settings. We're perplexed as to why one would want to preview DOF on the LCD rather than the viewfinder, but you never know when it might come in handy. Incidentally, this feature was included on the *ist DL2, which Pentax never released in the United States, but which Samsung sells under the GX-1L moniker.
Like the *ist DS2, the built-in pop-up flash has a guide number of 15.6 at ISO 200, but the angle-of-view coverage has been widened to 18mm to match the widest angle-of-view of the lens included in the kit version: the Pentax DA 18mm-to-55mm (35mm equivalent) f/3.5-to-f/5.6 zoom lens. It's a bit slow at the telephoto end but is similar to many of the kit lenses at this price level. The camera's flash sync speed is 1/180 second; again, what you'd expect for the money.
Performance
While in most cases the Pentax K100D improves on the company's previously best-performing camera, the *ist DS2, the one place it loses ground is at start-up. It's still very impressive though, powering up and capturing its first JPEG or raw image in 1.2 seconds and subsequent images at 0.5-second intervals without flash, slowing noticeably to 1.7 seconds between shots with the pop-up flash turned on. Shutter lag measured 0.4 second in our high-contrast test and 1.3 seconds under low-contrast conditions.
Autofocus was quick to focus in most conditions, though did fail in some very low-light surroundings. That comes as no surprise, since, like Sony's Alpha DSLR-A100, the K-100D's AF system is rated to work down to only 1EV. Also, since there's no AF assist lamp, such as the one on the Sony, you'll have to take your chances with manual focus in lower light.
Shooting in continuous mode, you can shoot as many as five images before the buffer fills. In our lab tests, we captured five images in 1.6 seconds regardless of image size, for an average of 3.13fps.
Image quality
We were impressed with the Pentax K100D's image quality. Colours were well saturated with pleasing skin tones. Images had plenty of detail. We were able to see the stitching in our friends' shirts and individual strands of hair on their lovely heads. Edges were sharp but not overly sharpened, and there was plenty of detail in shadows without sacrificing detail in highlights.
Automatic white balance captured warm images with our lab's tungsten lights. Appropriately, the camera's tungsten setting fared best with these lights, while the manual white-balance setting came a close second, yielding slightly greenish results. In natural daylight, the automatic white balance did a fine job of producing neutral-looking colours.
The camera's lowest sensitivity setting is ISO 200. At this point, most dSLRs start out at ISO 100, so we were a little surprised that Pentax didn't extend the camera's range this time out. However, the camera does stretch all the way up to ISO 3,200 on the high end, and Pentax doesn't mince words -- or in this case, numbers -- by calling it a boost mode, or something of that ilk. Images were very clean at ISO 200 and ISO 400, and while speckles of noise appeared at ISO 800, it wasn't enough to lose any fine detail. Noise was obvious at ISO 1,600, but we still saw only a very slight loss of detail, and the noise was akin to a very fine but noticeable film grain. By ISO 3,200, noise grew appreciably and took on the coloured-speckle look of digital noise. There was noticeable loss of detail, but we were surprised by how much detail remained. Images at ISO 3,200 were definitely usable, though probably better printed at less than full size.
Pentax's K100D does a wonderful job of balancing the needs of amateur and experienced photographers. It doesn't have some of the more fancy features, such as white-balance bracketing or dynamic range optimisation, that you'll find on more expensive cameras, such as the Canon EOS 350D or the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100, but for its price, the K-100D is a steal. If you already own Pentax lenses, this camera is a no-brainer. On the other hand, if you're really looking to save money, and shake reduction doesn't float your boat (though it probably should), then you can always step down to Pentax's K110D, which is the same camera without the shake-reduction feature.
The Pentax K100D is available in two kits: Pentax K100D + Sigma 18-50mm lens kit for AU$899 and Pentax K100D + 18-125mm lens kits for AU$999.
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Andrew
29/10/2008, 04:08 PM
rating
9/10
I've had this camera for about a month after getting a bargain at Ted's. For a first dslr, it's everything that i could want. Relatively easy to use, great quality, and most importantly it takes great shots.
Pros: easier to use than most comparable cameras that i've used. not too heavy. and for a beginner, it's got pretty good automatic features.
Cons: it's being surpassed by newer cameras now, and at only 6mp, i'd imagine that a newcomer who gets more serious about photography will want to update quickly.
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debbiee
24/10/2008, 09:40 PM
rating
6/10
Pentax K100D is a good camera for a person who has just started digital photography. The price now for this camera is really cheap. I've seen it in JB Hi Fi for around 400-500 bucks.
The camera is good, there isn't anything bad except that it is 6MP. You could aim for a Nikon D80 for better quality.
Pros: Easy to use, and compatible with Pentax and Sigma lenses
Cons: 6MP
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canon eos 5d
22/05/2008, 07:41 PM
rating
8/10
Good camera with fast features. No support any jpeg format but brings good quality results in snaps. Stylish camera with exchangeable lens.
Pros: Great fast featured camera.
Stylish design.
Good quality results in snaps.
Good battery timing.
Cons: jpeg format not supported.
Narrow Lens.
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Wezz Jones
28/12/2007, 11:09 PM
rating
9/10
I got one of these for christmas (2007) it goes well ,i couldnt ask for much more
Pros: easy to use, copatable with all pentax lenses and most sigma lenses.
Cons: no raw and jpeg settings.
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robma47
13/10/2007, 06:36 PM
rating
7/10
not bad for the money
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Ashlee
12/09/2007, 11:27 AM
rating
8/10
Great value for money
Pros: Shake reduction, and compatability with ther pentax lenses
Cons: Slow auto focus, a bit bulky
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buzz
13/05/2007, 06:27 PM
rating
9/10
best value for money slr on the market by far!
Pros: ease of use, image quality,PRICE.
Cons: None yet.
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Robma
25/04/2007, 06:38 PM
rating
7/10
Good value for money
Pros: Ease of use
Cons: A bit bulky
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lemonbobo
19/02/2007, 06:12 AM
rating
9/10
There are so many more features I love about this camera and overall it performs very well. Bought it from warehouse123 and the price is very attractive.
Pros: Shake Reduction! Compatible with all Pentax lenses!
Cons: Slow Auto Focus
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leesep
07/02/2007, 12:23 PM
rating
8/10
REVIEW OF PENTAX K100D DIGITAL SLR
BACKGROUND
I’ve owned SLR’s for 30 years starting with screw mount lenses and moving to Pentax K mount. In the last 5 years I became interested in digital photography owning a Canon A200 and Konica Minolta Dimage Z3. We’ve also got 5 other digital compacts in the household including new Samsung and Fuji 6MP models.
The KM Z3 is a great camera with a 12 times optical zoom and anti shake sensor but I was a little disappointed with noise in the dark areas of some pictures. This could be kept to a reasonable level if ISO was fixed at 50 but this limits flexibility when the sun isn’t shining.
I’d thought about buying a digital SLR for some time but couldn’t really justify the expense over what seemed to be minor benefits. However, when I discovered that the K100D would work with my old K mount lenses and my manual flash guns and it had shake reduction I became very interested.
COMPARISON WITH OTHER SLR’S
Before purchase my local dealer (Jessops) ordered a K100D from their warehouse for me to look at. I had already checked many reviews and downloaded sample images for a number of cameras. These are my opinions;
Nikon D40 – Pleasing, well saturated images but a tendency to slightly over expose
Pentax K100D – Pleasant and well saturated but a tendency to slightly underexpose, very low noise. Surprisingly sharp for a 6MP camera and much sharper than the *ist models.
Olympus E500 –softer images than the Pentax and Nikon which are 6MP
Olympus E400 – No better than the Pentax so to me not worth the very high premium. Just shows that the number of megapixels is only part of the story.
Sony Alpha – Very good but the difference to me isn’t worth the extra money
Canon D400 – Very good but the difference to me isn’t worth the extra money
My conclusion was that Olympus made a big mistake using the four thirds sensor. With current technology it’s too small to cram in so many photo receptors all receiving proportionately less light than the equivalent APS-C sensors on other cameras. Consequently they have to turn up the amplification which increases noise then apply heavy noise reduction to hide it but that just softens the image, so what’s the point in having 10 megapixels if you soften it down to the resolution of 6 megapixels? The Sony and Canon are very good but quite a bit more expensive. The Pentax images could be blown up to A4 and it would be very difficult to tell the difference from a 10MP camera. At A3 the images would still be very pleasing and useable. So for my uses it’s not worth paying the extra. The Nikon D40 is very appealing but can occasionally burn out highlights (adjusting the EV compensation would probably cure this). It also doesn’t have anti-shake (unless you spend a lot on lenses). So for me the K100D with it’s image quality, lens compatibility and anti shake for a comparatively low price was a no brainer.
HANDLING
If you are upgrading from a digital compact then you will find a significant difference in size and weight. Digital SLR’s are big, even bigger than my film SLR. However, the K100D is small to medium size for a digital SLR. At first I was unsure that I would like this but after using it you get used to it. On the positive side the K100D is very sturdy being made from a steel chassis and a strong plastic body. The battery compartment is shaped to provide good grip with a rubberised coating. The mechanical operation of the lens (18-55mm) is also good and on the whole the camera/lens package feels as though it will stand up to a fair amount of rough treatment and hard work. The controls are well positioned and easy to get used to.
SHOOTING MODES
There are a large number of shooting modes, the ones likely to be used the most are on the control dial. The fully automatic mode selects what it believes to be the most appropriate scene mode. I tried this and always got a decent picture but I prefer to use Program, Aperture priority or Manual. Aperture and shutter speed are adjusted using a thumbwheel on the rear of the camera. I like the viewfinder. It displays a useful range of info including the number of stops + or – adjustment required in manual mode.
I have a number of earlier Pentax K mount lenses ie open aperture metering and no ‘A’ setting. These will work in aperture priority mode but only at full aperture ie the lens isn’t stopped down. That’s fine for my 80-200mm which is f4.5. I still get an acceptable picture. I also planned on using my Chinon 50mm for portraits which is f1.9. To use the full aperture range you need to use manual mode (set the menu to allow use of aperture ring and depth of field preview to stop down the lens). When you use the depth of field preview (on the on/off switch) the camera stops the lens down and gives you a meter reading. You can adjust the exposure with the thumbwheel (or aperture ring) while stopped down. Not bad once you’ve got used to it and it allows you to use all those lenses you have.
DISPLAY AND MENUS
The 2.5 inch LCD is excellent. Pictures can be set to display for varying periods following capture. It will zoom up to 12x. The play mode has all the usual features including capture info and histogram. Despite some reviews criticising some of the menu texts their meanings seemed obvious to me and anyway they are easy to check out in the user manual which is pretty good.
All the controls you’d expect can be set in the menus but one feature I really like is the auto ISO range. You can set this at any single ISO (200-3200) or set a range for the camera to select from. Image noise is very low on this camera even up to ISO 800 so I tend to use a range of 200 to 800. This in combination with the shake reduction sensor allows you to take photos in low light without flash. I have been surprised at how good these pictures are.
BATTERIES
That large LCD does eat your batteries so keep it’s use to a minimum. You can get a set of 2600 NiMH rechargeables from ASDA for a tenner.
SHAKE REDUCTION
I’ve tested the shake reduction with 50mm, 18-55mm, 80-200mm and 80-200mm with a 2x converter (that’s 200x2x1.5 = 600mm equiv. on a film slr). My Minolta has anti-shake with a 12x zoom so I had something to compare against. For older K mount lenses the camera asks you to confirm the focal length when you switch on. Shake reduction is definitely worth having, I have taken shots at ¼ of a second and got a usable picture. Obviously, your shutter speed needs to match your subject but with people for example you can easily take shots indoors without flash (auto white balance doesn’t cope that well with indoor lighting, make sure you switch it over in the function menu). I also tested the 200mm zoom with 2x converter taking a picture of tree in the distance at 1/60th handheld. This picture is really sharp even blown up quite a lot. In conclusion, it seems to be as effective as the Minolta. The big plus is that the shake reduction uses a floating sensor in the camera body, it works with any lens, even my old manual focus ones. You don’t get that with Nikon and Canon.
FLASH
The inbuilt flash was a pleasant surprise. It generally gives excellent pictures. You can set it to pop up automatically if the exposure requires it or leave it as manual and decide yourself when to use flash. It can get fooled by reflective objects which tend to make it underexpose a little but on the whole it provides well exposed pictures without redeye (and that’s without redeye settings on). It’s quite powerful and due to the camera’s low noise you can use an ISO setting up to 800 giving you a very effective tool.
You can get the flash to work with your manual lenses in manual shooting mode. The flash will fire at full output so set the appropriate aperture. I soon got used to guessing the correct aperture based on the distance although you could work it out based on the guide number.
I have 3 flash guns from years gone by including a Chinon zoom head, a Chinon bracket mounted and a Cullman CX 35 which I wanted to use rather than buy a new one. The switching voltage must not be more than around 30 volts or you’ll damage the camera. I managed to find this data for the Chinon zoom and the Cullman on the web. You must also ensure that any dedicated contacts don’t work. I unscrewed the foot on the Chinon and snipped the wire for the single dedicated pin. The Cullman uses an interchangeable foot which slides off. Using my manual slr to fire it and through a process of elimination I taped over all the contacts between the foot and the base of the flash to leave just the ones that trigger the flash (You can switch the foot to manual but I still got a very low voltage across the contacts).
These flashes are automatic thyristor types you just set the camera’s shutter speed/aperture in manual mode to the auto setting on the flashgun (eg f8) and away you go. These flash guns work extremely well and I’ve saved myself a bundle of cash.
FOCUS
Auto focus with the Pentax 18-55mm is quick and even works well in low light. It might hunt on the odd occasion if it’s a low light low contrast scene but it always focuses. I believe the flash can provide strobed light to assist but I haven’t needed it so far. My Minlota Z3 would just give up in these situations. You can turn the manual focus ring at any time. The camera does use it’s 11 focus zones and gives you a red marker on screen where it chose to focus. Manual focus was a dream with my old K mount lenses as the matte viewfinder is very effective and the camera’s own focusing system gives you both audible and visual focus confirmation.
IMAGE QUALITY
My original plan was to buy the K100D body and use my old lenses until I had saved up for a top quality 18-200 zoom. However, I could get the package with the Pentax 18-55mm for only £20 more than the body only, a no brainer. So how good is this bundled lens. My main concern was that it might provide a resolution lower than the sensor could capture. I also tested the 50mm Chinon and 80-200mm Vivitar. The review sites generally agreed that around 1500 lines per picture height was available and that ‘s what I got with all three lenses. In other words all 3 lenses are capable of resolving detail to the sensor’s limit. The 6mp sensor in this camera delivers far more lph than either the Fuji or Samsung 6mp compacts.
I have left the camera at the delivered settings except for image tone which I set to natural rather than bright.
I shot using raw and jpeg with no difference between the level of detail resolved. However, the jpegs do display some very minor colour moiré which isn’t there in raw-until you apply the camera settings. I haven’t had time to check out what causes this but suspect it could be the sharpening. In any case this is so minor it won’t impact on ‘real’ pictures.
I’ve tried the multi segment and centre weighted metering and found both to be good although I think the centre weighting area is too small. My only other comment would be that there is the occasional slight under exposure from both which was hard to predict. I thought maybe half a stop compensation might cure it but it’s not consistent. This camera uses the same sensor as the Nikon D40 which I checked out before buying the Pentax. Image samples from the Nikon I found on the web were very good but there was the occasional burn out of highlights. The Pentax is maybe geared to avoiding burn out, the darker detail can be recovered using editing software. The dynamic range of the sensor could be a factor but you have to pay considerably more to go to the next level.
What pleases me the most about the images from this camera is it’s very low noise. It seems as though the camera doesn’t have to apply much noise reduction or sharpening. This leaves pictures which are detailed and natural. Compared to say a 10mp Olympus I’d take the Pentax every time.
If you submit pictures to agencies then the images respond well to interpolation (although of course this doesn’t pull out any extra detail). I don’t know what algorithm is used but the Pentax Raw converter software will save at larger image sizes and produce really good results. I’ve also tried interpolating jpegs using various algorithms (cubic etc) and the results are ok.
The RAW processing software seems pretty good but I haven’t used it much to be honest as the jpeg’s are really good straight from the camera (natural image tone setting). Contrast is very realistic and adjusting with levels or curves isn’t really needed in most pictures.
If you are taking a serious set of pictures use RAW, it leaves your options open but as a default the conversion software will apply the camera jpeg settings if you want it to. It’s a good base point to compare against. However, jpeg’s from this camera are really natural (use the natural image tone setting) and don’t lose any detail as far as I can tell.
In my view if you have shot jpeg’s you shouldn’t have to do much processing on the PC. They should be right first time and that’s pretty much how they are from the K100D. Beyond all the measurements you still have to make a subjective judgement and I like pictures taken on this camera, they look as good as you can get at this price.
CONCLUSION
Pro’s
Uses AA batteries
Compatible with most K mount lenses ever made
Works with dedicated and basic flash guns
Controls are easy to learn
Can be used in many modes from full manual to point and shoot
Shake reduction is very effective
Image noise is very low
Minimal in camera processing (my guess) ensures fine detail is retained.
Tough body.
Good inbuilt flash
Great value compared to the competion. Nothing at the price offers better images, then add shake reduction, a good bundled lens and backward lens compatabilty for a well thought out SLR.
Con’s
Small to medium for a digital SLR but (in my view) all digital SLR’s are a tad too big and heavy.
Comparatively speaking a good buy but digital SLR’s should not cost this much.
That’s it..
Phil Leese
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