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 [...]
