Many people will hate me for this, but here it is anyway, the account of my first day with the K10D:
The beast is large and heavy. Much larger and heavier than my DS. Yes, I know that my hands are smaller than average, but I hardly get around the grip on the right and when I need to press any of the buttons - especially the green one which I have to use all the time to do measurements with my manual lenses - I feel like a 5-year-old in front of a grand piano. With the DS, all important controls are exactly where the my fingers are. Then again, I've always preferred the MX over the LX for the very same reasons. Having said this, most people have bigger hands and will never have such trouble. BUT... The K10D is as noisy as my DS at the next higher ISO setting. It is still as unusable as the DS for my night-time industry shots with bright light sources inside the frame. No idea what those 22 bit are good for, they sure don't help here. The nasty blueish flare with the sensor pattern showing through in dark skies around bright lights with the DS (see upper left, already heavily retouched)... http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/6700880 ...is just as bad with the K10D. Contrary to what the man at Pentax' Photokina stand explained, the K10D doesn't automatically open the window for inputting the focal length after mounting a K, M, or A lens. I have to switch the camera off and on again or go through the menu. Thankfully, the setting is only three clicks away and it does retain the 2s mirror pre-release option. Once the focal length has been entered it will indeed appear in the EXIF data, but only in shots taken while the stabililsation was actually switched on. Leaves one wondering what, if anything, goes on in the minds of camera developers. :-/ In 'B' mode, the K10D switches off after some 30 seconds of exposure. The rear display signals "Battery empty", the upper display says it's fully charged, and the camera will happily take a few dozen further shots at 30 seconds in 'M' mode - with the same battery. That much on the advantages of generic batteries over standard AAs. The auto white balance of the K10D complete neutralizes lighting situations like this sunset mood... http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/6288323 ...which the DS reproduced beautifully and without any need of postprocessing. Maybe I'm just going through a particularly bad attack of buyer's remorse or some kind of post-natal depression. As it stands, I'm not happy with the K10D. I'm seriously pondering if I should sell it again. It doesn't do anything substantially better than the DS, I've learnt to use a tripod for longer exposures and when I want higher resolution, I stil have medium format and 6x17. Just to put things into perspective: I only use manual lenses, so the advantages of faster AF and ultrasonic motors are lost on me. Very personal conclusion: my *istDS still is one heck of a camera.. Ralf -- Ralf R. Radermacher - DL9KCG - Köln/Cologne, Germany private homepage: http://www.fotoralf.de manual cameras and photo galleries - updated Jan. 10, 2005 Contarex - Kiev 60 - Horizon 202 - P6 mount lenses -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
