Since I bought my first point-and-shoot digital camera back in 2003, I’ve been getting more interested in photography. After I wore that cute little Canon out, I switched to a Fuji S5200 superzoom. Then, I ran into some of that camera’s limitations: the small sensor, the slow-to-clear buffer, the excruciatingly slow RAW performance, just to name a few.
I began looking at the usual suspects from Canon and Nikon before discovering the nice little Olympus E-Volt 420. Then I got really lucky when a co-worker suggested Pentax.
Granted, Pentax isn’t the first name to pop to mind in digital cameras. And that’s a shame, because I think that they make far and away the best entry-level D-SLR. I wound up with one of last year’s, a K100D-Super. I scored it for $349 for the body only, and added an 18-55 mm zoom lens for $100.
Okay, you must be wondering why I liked the K100D-S better than Canon and Nikon, the industry standards. Here are the big points that stood out:
-Construction quality. Just feel the Pentax. It’s weighty and has a far less plastic-like feel.
-6.1 megapixels. That’s less than a lot of others. For me, that’s a benefit. That means I can get more on an SD card. It’s unlikely that I’d print anything at full 12-megapixel size, anyway. Give me the extra room.
-In-body image stabilizer. This means I can score awesome deals on cheap old K-Mount lenses!
-Relatively small, just slightly larger than the Olympus eVolt and that wild Panasonic Lumix.
Also, I like that it uses AA batteries. They’re easy to replace, no matter where in the world you are.
So far, I’ve also been really impressed with the colors and performance. I’m about 80 percent as competent as I am on the Fuji, and growing by the day. It’s definitely a camera I can grow with. The biggest thing so far is the much fast RAW mode, which definitely gives me richer colors than the JPG mode.
And the wife just happens to have an old Pentax film SLR with a K-mount setup. I liberated it of a lens, which I snapped onto the K100D-S. Awesome low-light performance, far better than the stock lens! I did have to Google search for easy-to-understand tips on setting the camera up for manual lenses. You also have to remember to switch everything to manual if you’re switching between modern lenses and the ol’ dinosaurs.
I’ll update you more as I master this fine little camera. I haven’t taken any knockout photos, mostly because I’ve just been mucking about at the ol’ Phoenix trails with it. Haven’t gone anywhere spectacular.
UPDATE: Just check any of the photos from my New Zealand posts.
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Congrats on your new SLR. I’m more of a Evolt fan myself . . .
Why The Olympus Evolt E420 Should Be Your First Digital SLR
. . . but that’s a good point about the Pentax batteries.
Looking forward to seeing some of your photos on your blog.
The Evolt is a darn good camera; I tested it, and all the controls felt good and were intuitive. It was the stabilizer that swung me to the Pentax side. One cool thing about the Evolt, though, is faster burst performance and it’s faster to clear the buffer.
Hi there,
Regardless of the brand on the camera and whether it is a digital of film, as long as it is SLR, it has it’s own quality and beauty. SLRs or lately DSLRs gives real satisfaction that you are taking photos. With digital era, photography seems to cheaper than earlier days (no processing, no developing, no albums, no framing)
Congratulation on your graduation to DSLR and hope you have a wonderful time with it.
Subra