Pentax K10D� a year later

About this Review

Since I don�t think that the world
needs yet another K10D review or that I can (nor want to) compete with the cohorts
of highly talented and meticulous professional reviewers, I decided to focus on
what makes the K10D unique and innovative and not waste your time going after the
minute details of each and every options.
All my comments
about Image Quality are based on

Stormy Skies

Between Washington and Somerville, Texas. Stormy skies and rain showers but it was a nice day, overall. And I am glad that the Pentax K10D is weatherproof.

DA 10-17mm Fisheye: Another great lens!

I am having a blast with this fun lens. It's way more versatile that I was expecting. Indeed, a fish eye ZOOM makes lots of sense. Yes, it shows some CA and Purple Fringing, but nothing that can't be fixed in post processing.

Pentax K10D with Pentax DA 10-17mm Fish-eye. Raw processed with Adobe ACR.





Very good at close-up too...

Myth Busting: FA 43mm Limited

I was reluctant to buy the FA 43mm f/1.9 Limited mainly because I already own the DA 40mm f/2.8 Limited and the FA 50mm f/1.4. Both are excellent lenses and I couldn't justify adding the 43 Limited for the futile goal of completing my collection of Pentax Limited lenses. Another reason why I didn�t immediately bought this lens (beside its sporadic availability) is the numerous reviews, from

By popular demand: Pentax DA 70mm Limited compared to FA 77mm

Back in October 2006, I had the opportunity to try the newly introduced DA 70mm f/2.4 Limited "Pancake" lens along with the legendary FA 77mm f/1.8 Limited. I posted some sample images from both lenses in the Pentax SLR forum at DPreview.

The images were lost when I switched to another ISP. Upon request, I decided to repost them with the (edited) comments I wrote about these two fine lenses.

Cows Limited

K10D with FA 77mm Limited and DA 21mm Limited. There lenses are fantastic!

K10D + jpeg + FA 50mm f/1.4 wide open = ...

I never shoot jpeg, but I was curious to see how "bad" the jpeg mode was with the K10D. (I am being sarcastic, K10D jpeg is great).

To make things worse, I used the FA 50mm f/1.4 wide open.

You tell me ;-)

K10D 1/250 f/1.4 ISO 100 - FA 50mm f/1.4

Full image:


1:1 Crop (center)


1:1 Crop (edge)

Pentax DA 21mm Pancake Limited: First Shots

Another great lens, another sunny day in Northern Colorado ;-)


This is my first weekend with this lens. Well, lots of good things to say about this little gem: sharpness is insane (with K100D), colors are great and build quality... well, it's a Limited!

Vignetting, CA and distortion are very well contained. Minimum focusing distance makes it great for close-ups.

I was first concerned by the

Pentax DA 40mm f/2.8 Limited

Today I received my first Pentax DA Limited: the minimalist 40mm pancake. This lens and the two other Pentax pancake lenses (DA 21mm and DA 70mm) are the reason why I decided to buy a Pentax K100D camera.



After playing for a week with the K100D and the DA 18-55mm I decided to invest in some fine Pentax lenses. This K100D is just too much fun and the Pentax DA Limited are irresistible!



The

K100D at Rocky Mountain National Park

Few pictures from today at Rocky Mountain National Park. The hike starts off at Bear Lake to ends up at Emerald Lake. Very short and easy one.



Elevation is between 9,000 and 10,000 feet and temperature was in the high 40s at Emerald lake. Not extreme at all, but I though it was worth mentioning it.





K100D shows a tremendous amount of details in the shadows. Not so great in the highlights: