Canon body vs Pentax body

[nigelisabelle]

Looking at the Canon D40 and the Pentax K20D.

What's everyone's take on these two cameras. Mainly looking at the fact that the body of the Pentax has built in IS and the Canon doesn't.

If you had a choice of these two cameras which would you pick and why.

Thanks for your feed back,

J.

[MikeM]

I think these are the salient differences:

40D
-Live view (only with mirror up, aka no viewfinder if using live view)
-Faster continuous (6.5 fps)
-Slightly larger LCD
-Canon mount, lots of fancy, expensive glass available.

20D
-More megapixels, if you're needing to make really big prints (20x30)
-In body IS (I love this on my K10D, no way I could shell out cash for Canon IS lenses)

Certainly Pentax has many good quality lenses available, especially if you consider 3rd party manufacturers, but no one rivals Canon's lineup.

When I moved to my K10D I thought I would miss live view from my P&S, but I don't in the least. I do my macro photography with a tele-zoom so I don't need to be on the ground where it may be difficult to use the viewfinder. You get a much better idea of your shot with a viewfinder. I admit it is nice to have an exposure preview, but you can do that with K10D as well: it takes a sample shot and shows you the image and resulting histogram without actually recording the image.

I think 3 fps is sufficient for most everything unless you absolutely must get the perfect shot while shooting sports.

Just depends on what your priorities are and how fat your wallet is, I suppose.

[richb14]

It's a tough question as most people are going to be fans one way or another and it is rare once you get in to swap makes. I personally have the Canon 40d and love it, but I've had Canon camera, both digital and 35mm for as long as I can remember. A couple of comments I can make are:

1. Canon is generally more expensive.
2. I believe third party accessories including lenses are more readily available for Canon.
3. The 40D is a great camera

You might want to try looking for some comparison reviews on the net, finding them will depend on how close their individual specifications get, I can't help in that area.

One of the better review sites is:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/

Hope it helps.

richb

[nigelisabelle]

Thanks Richb

[mattdm]

Don't forget that the K20D is fully weather sealed, whereas the Canon body is only sealed at "key points".

I also like the ergonomics of the K10D/K20D much better than that of Canon, but that's highly subjective.

[Mr Guy]

And of course the counter point to the lots of high end Canon glass is the universally compatible with cheap used Pentax glass!

[mattdm]

Originally Posted by Mr Guy

And of course the counter point to the lots of high end Canon glass is the universally compatible with cheap used Pentax glass!

Not to mention current high end Pentax glass like the Limited series and the DA★ 50-135mm f/2.8 — stellar image quality, great build, and significantly cheaper than the Canon equivalents (where there even are equivalents).