Pentax K100D
6.1MP Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera
Buy From Amazon.com

The low cost competitor enters the DSLR market! The obvious question: “Are we still to consider it so?” Not really, as it costs the same as its competitors in the consumer-grade DSLR market. Pentax has never had much snob appeal or cachet. However, the lenses have always been great and the (film SLR) bodies workhorses. So let’s see how the digital version measures up!

I’m biased here, as my film cameras of choice over the past 25 years has been Pentax. Therefore, I’ve a soft spot in my heart for the brand–it has served me well. Unfortunately, when I chose to go digital a few years ago, Pentax had no DSLR available. Now they’ve got two: the K100D and the K10D (10MP). Either can be purchased in a kit with a cheap lens, battery and charger, memory card, and a carrying strap. The 18-55 mm Pentax (f3.5-5.6) kit lens is really not a bad lens. The K100D kit lists for $599.

It is worth noting that currently, the technological leaps and bounds are coming with DSLRs, not so much with digital point-and-shoots. The latter technology seems to have plateaued 2 years ago, making the digital point-and-shoot camera basically just a commodity, if not simply a fashion accessory! The reason? Image quality of small size image sensors cannot be improved upon (as of this writing). Point-and-shoots have image sensors about the size of an old 110 film frame, while DSLR sensors approach the size of the larger 35mm film frame. This explains why DSLRs have better image quality than digital point-and-shoots. Back in the film days, if you wanted a better quality image, one of the things you did was upgrade to the next larger format. 35mm was better than 110, right? So while the latest crop of digital point-and-shoots boasts 7MP and higher, all we really get are more bells and whistles. All things equal, to improve image quality, you need to increase the size of the image sensor, not jam more tiny pixels into the same small box!

When considering the Pentax K100D for purchase there are a few things to think about:

1. The K100D uses ALL Pentax lenses ever made! Yes, even the manual focus and screw-on lenses. This is a first in the DSLR market. While all other DSLRs on the market can use 35mm film lenses made for that camera, the lenses must be the autofocus variety. Like all manufacturers, Pentax also sells a new line of “digital” lenses.
2. The body has Shake Reduction built in. This means that in theory, the lenses will cost you less since they don’t need image stabilization built in. Pentax’ Shake Reduction, by the way, seems to work much better Canon’s in-the-lens Image Stabilization. It actually detects camera movement and allows the image sensor to move in a compensating direction. According to Pentax, you can capture sharp hand-held images at shutter speeds that are 2 - 3.5 stops slower than what you would have to use without shake reduction.
3. AA Batteries. On the surface, it would seem like an advantage that this camera uses (4) AA size batteries as opposed to an expensive proprietary battery pack.
   Some caveats here:If you think you can just grab four alkaline AAs at the drug store, you probably won’t get more that 20 shots off. Digital cameras draw so much power that they need batteries with much more capacity than regular alkalines. Li, or Lithium Ion batteries are the current standard.The good news is that you can buy a set of 4 aftermarket AA Li rechargeables and a charger for about $25.Want to conserve battery power? Don’t use flash, shake reduction, or auto focus.

In my opinion, these are the K100D’s high and low points:

The Good

1. Light Sensitivity–the K100D has an ISO range of 200 to 3200. In an extremely dimly lit room, it seemed to have little trouble focusing and capturing an image.
2. Thumbwheel digital zoom is very nice when viewing stored images.
3. No time lag between the time you click the shutter and the image is captured. This is generally true of all DSLRs, but I bring it up because Pentax digital point-and-shoot cameras have been notoriously slow.
4. B-Setting, or “Bulb” meaning the shutter stays open as long as you keep the shutter release depressed. Great for tripod-mounted time-lapse photography or even shooting fireworks.
5. Body is small and light, comparable to the Nikon D40 and Canon digital Rebels. (Though of course this might be bad if you have big hands!)

The Bad

1. Data and funtion LCD display is on top rather than back. Just kind of annoying not to have this data right in front of you.
2. No sensor dust-off feature. With interchangeable lenses, you risk getting dust inside the camera body. Dust on the image sensor shows up as spots on your image. Some cameras vibrate the sensor to shake dust off. While the K100D does not have this, it does allow you to lock the mirror up so you can remove the lens and blow any dust off the (highly fragile!) image sensor.
3. Monochrome mode - Ok, while this isn’t really bad, it’s kind of annoying to me. Like Nikon DSLRs, the K100D does not allow you to capture images directly in black and white. But it does allow you to convert the image in camera, on playback, to black and white, sepia, etc.

Overall: If capturing images in black and white is not important to you, the Pentax K100D is about the best DSLR available in its price range. (This is just my opinion, of course, but as Walter Cronkite said, everyone’s entitled to my opinion!)