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Microstock Photography Forum - General => Photography Equipment => Cameras / Lenses => Topic started by: UberLens on January 24, 2008, 12:02

Title: Pentax K20D
Post by: UberLens on January 24, 2008, 12:02
Pentax just announced the new body that sports a new 14.6MP CMOS sensor, live view, shake reduction, dust reduction, sealed body etc:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08012311pentaxk20d.asp

The MP count should fetch more cash on certain stock sites, I guess.
Title: Re: Pentax K20D
Post by: grp_photo on January 24, 2008, 12:13
The image-samples from the pre-production cameras looks great more resolution but far less noise i'm impressed  :o
Title: Re: Pentax K20D
Post by: epixx on January 25, 2008, 09:16
Very impressive image quality indeed, and with 14MP, it's a serious contender vs. cameras like 5D and D300, but at a much lower price-point. I'm tempted to buy one together with a couple of those tiny, ultra-sharp pancake lenses. The little 70mm f/2.4 is a dream to work with   :)
Title: Re: Pentax K20D
Post by: GeoPappas on January 25, 2008, 10:19
Where are you finding sample images?
Title: Re: Pentax K20D
Post by: UberLens on January 25, 2008, 10:33
Where are you finding sample images?

There are not a lot of samples out there yet, from what I know. Most of them are taken in jpeg with the kit lens and most at high ISO:

Here is one review: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Pentax-K20D-DSLR (http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Pentax-K20D-DSLR)

Here is a sample of the new HDR mode (right-side):
(http://www.photorevue.cz/images/stories/imgaktuality/hdr_hir.jpg)
Title: Re: Pentax K20D
Post by: HughStoneIan on January 25, 2008, 10:40
Haven't read anything about it yet, so I'm not sure if this one can take any of the old K-mount lenses the way their other digital slr's have been able to.  If so, then this is even more of a bargain if you don't mind manual focusing, which I use most of the time anyway.  Because on the used market you can get for Pentax some of the absolutely best lenses (mostly primes) ever produced, for a small fraction of the cost of their newer counterparts.  And in many cases the older ones are sharper and have better color rendition than their modern equivalents.  And then there are some of the even older Takumar screwmount lenses, which are an absolute pain to use and can really test your patience, but give you unbelievably beautiful image rendition with better sharpness than just about any lens of any maker today.  And they're usually available at super low cost.  It's a toss-up between inconvenience of use vs superlative image quality and low price.  If you have the need for speed and auto-everything, then these won't work for you.  
   However, if they've changed the lens-mount, then disregard all the above.
Title: Re: Pentax K20D
Post by: UberLens on January 25, 2008, 10:51
Haven't read anything about it yet, so I'm not sure if this one can take any of the old K-mount lenses the way their other digital slr's have been able to.  If so, then this is even more of a bargain if you don't mind manual focusing, which I use most of the time anyway.  Because on the used market you can get for Pentax some of the absolutely best lenses (mostly primes) ever produced, for a small fraction of the cost of their newer counterparts.  And in many cases the older ones are sharper and have better color rendition than their modern equivalents.  And then there are some of the even older Takumar screwmount lenses, which are an absolute pain to use and can really test your patience, but give you unbelievably beautiful image rendition with better sharpness than just about any lens of any maker today.  And they're usually available at super low cost.  It's a toss-up between inconvenience of use vs superlative image quality and low price.  If you have the need for speed and auto-everything, then these won't work for you. 
   However, if they've changed the lens-mount, then disregard all the above.

The mount is the same so lenses made 40 years ago work just fine in manual mode.

Not all the old lenses are doing great on the digital bodies thou. They were made for film when chromatic aberration and other artifacts were not a big issue. Plus the prices for the really good ones went up significantly in the last 2-3 years. I know since I tried them.

I also have many of the newer lenses like 70mm F2.4 pancake and they are as good if not better than the older ones.
My cash cow is the D-FA 50mm F2.8 macro since I sell lots of seasonal, isolated images of things like ornaments, hearts, roses, tulips etc.

My best selling images were made with primes with wonderful color rendition, smooth/creamy out of focus area for subject matters like soccer, weddings etc.
Title: Re: Pentax K20D
Post by: sensovision on January 25, 2008, 14:20
Hi folks, I also tracking Pentax cameras as consider buying their dSLR in future.
Here you can find more sample photos from Dubai:
http://prophotos.ru/reviews/7244
And also some video of presentation and how photo session took place.
Although everything is on Russian you can use tool like this http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr if interested in reading texts or ask me if have any difficulties with this page.

BTW I think that Pentax shouldn't put so much resolution in their sensor, I would prefer seeing less resolution but sharper images and less noise...