Pentax K200D and K20D: What Do You Expect?

[usapatriot]

I am just hoping the K200D has a sufficient boost in speed (continuous and burst shooting) over the K100D and a extra two or so megapixels so it still has the excellent noise performance of the K100D.

The K20D, not too sure as of now. Well PMA is right around the corner.

[inkista]

The wait is over. dpreview's got the press releases.

• New lenses
• K20D
• K20D hands-on
• K200D

[GEli]

Not bad at all. I hear good things about high ISO in the K20D, and the new EV comp settings look neat. IQ is also supposed to be amazing off this new Samsung sensor. I'd really like for there to be an in-between setting for burst speed - 3fps at 14MP isn't terrible, but 21fps at 1.6MP is useless for most applications. A 6-9fps @ 10MP would be lovely and really add a lot to the camera, so perhaps in the next firmware update. I could care less about LiveView, and the lack of a new focusing system is also a bit of a downer. I still can't wait for them to ship so I can fool around with it at the local camera shop.

K200D is exactly what was predicted. It's a K10D with scene knobbies and an upgraded image processor.

[stevesutt89]

Oh no! I was thinking of buying a K100D in about a months time. Now i have to decide wether its worth it waiting at least another four months (cause it probably won't get released in Australia for ages) and paying at least another $100 for 4.1 megapixels, and weather proofing.....

does anyone know if the K200D has any faster focusing than the K100D, which was deathly slow in low light (well for an SLR it was slow)?

[mattdm]

I say get the K100D -- or K10D, because it's at an amazingly low price -- now, and get out and take pictures. Use the difference to buy nicer lenses. If not next year then certainly the year after that the supposedly-amazing (we'll see!) new sensor will trickle down to the Kx00D level and it'll be a worthy upgrade.

Note that the K100D isn't too bad at focusing with fast lenses and when using lithium (unfortunately not rechargeable) batteries. (Probably one of the main reasons they're now including a set of 'em in the box.) Also, one of the reasons it's slow is that it's designed to prefer accuracy over claiming it's got focus quickly.

I recently saw an admittedly-biased post from a Pentax user who used a Nikon D300 for a while and concluded that while it was frustrating for the K10D to take a while to focus, it was even more frustrating to take pictures the D300 said were in focus but then turned out to not be.

[GEli]

Are you going to be doing any birding/other long tele applications where having extra crop room would be a big boon? Do you shoot ever want to shoot in inclement weather? How much low light work do you do?

If you answered yes/yes/not much, spend the extra $100 for a K200D or find a deal on a K10D (hurry, they're completely out of production). If not, stick with the K100D. The 10MP sensor will be a big advantage for cropping and the weather sealing (only applicable on DA* glass, mind you) is handy. If you do a lot of low light, the lower MP on the K100D sensor will result in reduced visibility of noise and require fewer Ninjas to fix, so go with a K100D. Get the kit lens if you can get a good deal on it new(sub $100), or buy used (sub $70) - it's excellent for a kit lens and fills a useful range unless you plan on picking up the DA*16-50 f/2.8 (which is expensive).