I had time to play with the K10D. In fact spend 80% of my time yesterday on the Pentax booth. We (2 guys from DpReview forum and me) met a very nice Pentax rep who knew something (not usual stupid marketing rep). On a couple occasions, we he didn't know the answer to some question, he did go away check with his boss. Very cool ;).
Lenses: * I could not try any "USM" lens which were under a big (locked) glass. We tried but didn't managed ;) * I didn't know that but I noticed a couple lenses do NOT turn focussing ring when you use AF (not taking into account "USM" ones) and these are the DA 14mm and DFA 50/100mm. This is VERY convenient IMO. A pity the limiteds do not behave like that. * I tried the three limiteds and now I want all of them. They are small indeed and seem to focus quite quickly. They are also bright (more or less, depends on which one of course). 645D: * The rumor about upgrading your sensor with sensor modules is bullshit according o the rep. The thing is: the design was finished but they realised (hopefully IMO) that markting now a 645D with 18Mpix would have little interest. So they have to change sensor (and electronics he told us). Maybe they will use K10D electronics, it isn't known. I think Pentax took the right decision here. K10D (I made you wait heh?): * Weight is defenitely more than D/DS/DL. The grip is extremely well done (for my morphology). The directional pad is well done (compared to my D, it is like heaven). * The impression of quality is there. It feels VERY well done: more than my D. * Speed (remember it didn't write on the card) is very pleasing. Way beter than D. It looks indeed like it 3.5 fps or about. * AF is... well it looks the AF module comes from Mars or something. It doesn't look like Pentax... It is FAST. I tried it with a DA 18-55 so I could compare with my D. There is no point to make a compare. One is slow as hell the other is VERY fast (for a Pentax camera but I do not know other brands). The AF was precise AND fast even at f/5.6. More silent too. Well, I'm impressed, really. * The 'USER' position according to the rep allows you to memorize 50 (yes he said 50) settings (so you can even set it right for your whole family ;). It works like that: say you want to work in P-MTF mode at 560iso with the OK button as AF-trigger etc. You can memorize all this. Cool :D * According to the rep there is a technical incompatibility between wireless flash (from the integrated one as master) and stabilisation. They had to chose between those two. It was obvious which one to choose (I agree). He didn't know what the technical problem is exactly. * Grip look a lot to the one of the D but with a green button and the shutter release in a beter place. With body and grip: it felt not much more weight than D+grip, strangely. * The PowerZoom works according to the rep's boss ;) * There is no button for changing the drive mode. Of course you can set the Fn key+ arrow key to drive mode so it is not a big deal IMO. Also, the 2 sec timed shutter does MLU :) * Raw is 12bit. The hardware is defenitely capable of outputing to 16bit but it is not know if they will implement it or not. They are looking into that issue. * In the viewfinder which seemd quite brighter than my D, there are SR reminder as well as MF reminder (but not AF-S/AF-C). This is all I can remember. Fell free to question me, I will answer all question I can. Conclusion: I WANT it.. and should too IMO, it is nowhere near the ist-serie. Nowhere. -- Thibault Massart aka Thibouille ---------------------- *ist-D,Z1,SuperA,KX,MX, P30t and KR-10x ;) ... -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
