Author Topic: Testing Pentax K20D (Read 9887 times)

sam100 · « **on:** September 12, 2008, 13:24 »

Hi,

Begin october Pentax Belgium will provide me with the Pentax K20D, series of lenses and battery grip for testing in my studio.
Any tips of current users are welcome...:-)

Patrick H.

grp_photo · « **Reply #1 on:** September 12, 2008, 13:57 »

Great Camera, Overall very good Usability, great lenses, lowlight AF not very good.
What else do you wanna hear

astrocady · « **Reply #2 on:** September 12, 2008, 17:32 »

I am saving for this camera, so I will be interested in you results

thomasw · « **Reply #3 on:** September 12, 2008, 20:25 »

I too have been saving for one of these. Please let us know how you make out!

BrokenPhotographer · « **Reply #4 on:** October 07, 2008, 19:40 »

I'll be interested to hear how you get on with it, I'm currently using the K200D and if a miracle lottery win occurs I'd be considering upgrading to the K20.

Smiling Jack · « **Reply #5 on:** October 07, 2008, 22:52 »

I don't have a Pentax K20D- but I do have a Pentax K10D.This camera is great for what I do and the K20D I imagine would be even better.
Smiling Jack

sam100 · « **Reply #6 on:** October 11, 2008, 12:03 »

I've been testing for about a week now in studio setup with models.

First impression... good camera. Certainly worth putting more time in shooting session. I can use it till end of this month, so next week i will be doing some outside/location shooting and more studio sessions.

At lowest iso (100) extraordinary clean images. The build in sensor vibration reduction is very effective. Colors are spot on. Details are amazing.

The body/menu setup is very intuitive to work with. Although very different and smaller than what i'm used to (Nikon) i'm really growing into that little gem.

I'm into an upgrade for body, been using the Nikon D 200 for almost two years now. Been using a Nikon D 300 for a couple of weeks from a colleague photographer and was frankly not impressed.

Could well be that my next camera brand will be the Pentax, let you know when the 3 weeks testing is over.

Best regards,

Patrick H.

vonkara · « **Reply #7 on:** October 11, 2008, 13:33 »

Yeah Pentax LOL. Even at 100iso you can see that others do better

100iso

Pentax K20D Canon 450D

And at 800iso

Pentax K20D Canon 450D

Just want to say that everybody have their own quality standards, but Pentax never achieved mine

Bateleur · « **Reply #8 on:** October 11, 2008, 13:47 »

Wow! That's some mean noise at ISO100 on the Pentax. Unbelievable.

astrocady · « **Reply #9 on:** October 11, 2008, 13:57 »

hmm. Seems strange. Pentax has always gotten good reviews on noise -- always been their strong point. I have a K100D and have very little noise problems.

sam100 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 11, 2008, 14:09 »

Well, actually i'm a pixel peeper.. and didn't see the noise dpreview is seeing in their tests.

Seldom seen such clean images at iso 100.

Patrick H.

BrokenPhotographer · « **Reply #11 on:** October 11, 2008, 15:51 »

How are you finding performance under low light, the K200D is generally a wonderful camera for me and I love it, but dim lighting is very noisy and I'm spending more time than I'd hoped dealing with the noise and blue fringing. It's killing me as I'm an old faithful to Pentax but I'm starting to look at the huge collection of Minolta lenses I've got and wonder about the performance of the Sony just so I can save the fortune on new lenses.

Phil · « **Reply #12 on:** October 13, 2008, 05:13 »

Quote from: Vonkara on October 11, 2008, 13:33

Yeah Pentax LOL. Even at 100iso you can see that others do better

more noise but more detail too

Phil · « **Reply #13 on:** October 13, 2008, 05:25 »

Quote from: astrocady on October 11, 2008, 13:57

hmm. Seems strange. Pentax has always gotten good reviews on noise -- always been their strong point. I have a K100D and have very little noise problems.

IMHO k100d (and ds etc) is the 6mp sony sensor and very good for noise (& image quality imo, I have iso800 shots on stock from this camera) the 10mp sensor in k10d / k200d etc is very noisy (never more than iso200 max for me). k20d is better again

Phil · « **Reply #14 on:** October 13, 2008, 05:30 »

Quote from: Einochi on October 11, 2008, 15:51

How are you finding performance under low light, the K200D is generally a wonderful camera for me and I love it, but dim lighting is very noisy and I'm spending more time than I'd hoped dealing with the noise and blue fringing. It's killing me as I'm an old faithful to Pentax but I'm starting to look at the huge collection of Minolta lenses I've got and wonder about the performance of the Sony just so I can save the fortune on new lenses.

k200d is like k10d and very noisy. fringing is shocking to me too in anything wider than 28mm, and has made me start to look at full frame as it appears to be worse in wide angle designed for crop lenses from most brands (although there a some exceptions). in apsc sony a700 with v4 firmware is supposed to very good, as of course is a900

sam100 · « **Reply #15 on:** October 31, 2008, 09:20 »

Hi,

As mentioned in some previous topics i was given the opportunity to test the Pentax K20D in real life use. Two galleries were created on my pbase account (see link below) with excamples from outside and studio shooting sessions.

http://www.pbase.com/n70/pentax_k20d

Three weeks working with the Pentax was enough to convince me in purchasing one for daily use in studio and location sessions.
Regards,

Patrick H.

hrhportia · « **Reply #16 on:** November 01, 2008, 23:17 »

The *ist series in the Pentax was rated among the highest signal-to-noise cameras in the market. With the K series, Pentax went with a different CCD and I've found those to be somewhat noisier, especially at high ISO, but the reviewers found the image quality to be superior to the *ist series. The pundits claimed that with the *ist series, Pentax had gone for low noise over image quality, but I have a *ist DS, and the quality is not lacking. What scared me, at first, was the K20D employing a CMOS sensor made by Samsung, rather than a CCD sensors they were getting from Sony. I took one out for a "test drive" and was amazed at the color rendition, the overall quality, and the features. God, I love working for a retail joint - I can test drive all kinds of stuff. Needless to say, a K20D is definitely going to be my next camera. Of course, the fact that I have about 2 dozen great SMC Takumar lenses makes this a lead pipe cinch.

grp_photo · « **Reply #17 on:** November 02, 2008, 14:54 »

Quote from: clearviewstock on October 13, 2008, 05:13

Quote from: Vonkara on October 11, 2008, 13:33
Yeah Pentax LOL. Even at 100iso you can see that others do better

more noise but more detail too

Yeah Vonkara look at the Queen in your own example in the photo at 100iso the 450D looks like they had used a softfilter for the Queen.
I'm sure you never used a K20D yourself. You should test it and i'm sure you will change you opinion. I have the 5D so i can compare. Overall Imagequality of 5D and K20D is on both very,very good!

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Author Topic: Testing Pentax K20D (Read 9887 times)

sam100

grp_photo

astrocady

thomasw

BrokenPhotographer

Smiling Jack

sam100

vonkara

Bateleur

astrocady

sam100

BrokenPhotographer

Phil

Phil

Phil

sam100

hrhportia

grp_photo

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