Pentax K20D & K200D - THE NEXT GENERATON In Digital SLR Excellence
- Thread starter fengwei
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flowerpot
Senior Member
my office pc cannot see exif la...wah...if thats the case than its mighty impressive :thumbsup:
I am in if you are in ............. anyway ..............K20D not much of a diff to me ..........as I always prefer a CCD to a CMOS sensor.
Anyway, specs are still specs. Much depends on how the actual camera performs. For me, having used the K10D I already have an idea of how the K20D will probably perform in certain aspects. I would very much have preferred if Pentax had revamped the AF and Flash systems more that upping the MP and ISO.
IMO, this camera is not meant for sporting action ............
Eow, this will probably be a good camera for Landscape and still life .... for you:lovegrin:
IMO, this camera is not meant for sporting action ............
Eow, this will probably be a good camera for Landscape and still life .... for you:lovegrin:
I don't think that it is 630,000 pixel. It should be 230,000 pixel which is the native resolution of QVGA (320x240x3). A 230,000 dot (690,000 pixel) is so odd that I don't think anyone is making a LCD with "middle resolution" of 554x415 kind of resolution.
Anyway, specs are still specs. Much depends on how the actual camera performs. For me, having used the K10D I already have an idea of how the K20D will probably perform in certain aspects. I would very much have preferred if Pentax had revamped the AF and Flash systems more that upping the MP and ISO.
IMO, this camera is not meant for sporting action ............
Eow, this will probably be a good camera for Landscape and still life .... for you:lovegrin:
yes exactly the same thought....now just wait and see how
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-news-rumors/19036-my-2500-word-essay-k20d.html
Pentax K20D
If you’re thinking you’re going to get a small upgrade to its predecessor (Pentax K10D) then you’re definitely wrong!
The body looks almost the same but there are a few differences and let me explain them to you.
First there is a PC sync port that has an overload circuit incase you have a surge. Second there is a larger lever to access the weather sealed card door. The most obvious standout is the larger and much higher resolution screen… 2.7” 630,000 pixels (including sub pixels)! Pentax calls this 230,000 dots (each dot has Red Green and Blue pixels). Besides that the body is exactly the same and that is great because your BG2 grip will work just fine from your K10D.
Things that didn’t change… I’m going to get this out of the way really early and tell everyone that the AF sensor, AF drive motor, mirror assembly and associated parts are all the same besides a dampened mirror bay. This is really going to make a lot of users unhappy because a lot of people have frustrations with the AF system of the Pentax K10D including myself. I was explained the reason and here it is so it’s out there:
Pentax engineers had two choices when updating the K10D in order to stay profitable. One was to advance the AF system and mechanisms to bring it up and beyond the current cameras in the class. Second was to advance the imaging and allow it to be the most advanced photographic tool available. Pentax went with upgrading the imaging guts because having a better AF system and the older imaging end wouldn’t sell well enough. Every camera on the block has a newer AF system, but the imaging system isn’t anything that stellar till you jump to the full frame models. In my honest opinion I would also go with imaging vs. AF system any day, but that’s because in my mind the quality of the image matters more than how well the camera can focus/track/predict. I feel that this is the only area in which this camera fails to be the most astounding camera of 2008. Many camera reviewers will look at this and will probably point this out enough to bring the value of the camera down, but Pentax has a few tricks up their sleeves and I will explain this all later. I got this straight from the Pentax Japan engineers that were there training the US sales reps on the K20D.
So we still have 3FPS and we will still have the same low-light AF ability coupled with the same 11 AF points with 9 of those being selectable.
What has changed in the camera? Way too much for me to ever remember hence why I wrote this article ahead of time so I could make sure I have all the bases covered when the camera is announced.
The sensor… this sensor is most likely the most technologically advanced sensor on the market period. This is the very first high resolution sensor and actually breaks the quality of many lenses on the market. 14.7 effective megapixels… that sounds almost ludicrous! Many of you are probably thinking well small pixels right? WRONG! The pixels are actually the same size as the pixels on the Sony 12MP sensor that is in the Sony A700 and the Nikon D300! Now you’re all thinking that I’m nuts because there is no way Pentax has this sensor technology because nobody else has it. Sorry guys they do have this technology because they patented it and Samsung built it. We now have a high resolving sensor with high sensitivity! Somewhere a rep told me that each pixel has a base ISO1600 sensitivity, but this could be different or an interpretation. It’s basically magic like Ken Rockwell always says when he doesn’t want to understand how something works. Not only does this sensor have great sensitivity per pixel, but is self repairing! With a couple of button presses you can fix dead pixels on your sensor while you wait. Huh? You know those dead pixels that happen from time to time. Basically you’d send your camera in to be repaired and they’d send it back with that dead pixel mapped out of the equation. The K20D can do this for you in camera folks! So let’s sum this up… a 14.7MP, high resolution sensor, low noise, and self healing!
Since we are on the topic on the sensor lets talk about sensor dust. Pentax has there sonic method of dust removal, but have implemented a new advance in that. Think of it as taking a printed image and flipping it upside-down and on the white backing of the image the specks of dust are visible. Yes, it will find the dust and show it to you! Marvelous! This makes cleaning a breeze because you know where to look and if you have to look plus when you have that image on the computer you can find the areas to clone out that much easier.
The next step from the sensor is the capture ability. Well, it shoots 14 bit RAW images (the source material shows 12 bit and the documentation I was shown says 14 bit RAW so I will leave this with a biq question, but feel 12 bit is correct for now) that are just stunning to say the least. The sensor has a true color ability that gives you vivid images and plenty of dynamic range. Still shoots 3 frames per second… but it can also shoot faster than the Canon 1DMKIII in a special mode. How fast? Let’s just say 20 frames per second! It’s only at 1.6MP, but hey it’s a number and numbers sell right? I thought it was a gimmick at first, but then I started to think about certain applications where this may be a pretty neat feature. During a model shoot, switch to this mode and fire off a few seconds of this feature while you’re model is moving or interacting. Build a massive image in photoshop showing the movement row after row! I think it’s a dramatic effect and could be used for many different applications, including sports and wildlife.
Now we’ve moved to the actual image processing. If you hit the function button (Fn), then hit OK you will access the picture style settings. You start off in vivid and there are a lot of options here. Of course you have your color saturation, contrast, tone, and sharpness level, but there is so much more. The tone is new and something Canon users have some familiarity with. The sharpness mode has a new feature and it’s called the fine sharpness setting. Think of it as the edge sharpening tool because it can really punch up the level of edge sharpening really really quick. Next mode is natural, then portrait, then blah blah, and now we go to monochromatic. I skip the rest because they aren’t as amazing as the monochromatic mode! This mode differs because color settings have been changed with filters! Remember how we shot B&W film and used colored filters to enhance or change the outcome, well it can be done in camera! There were these filters in no specific order: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Sepia, Orange and oh… did I mention one of those filters is an infrared filter! Yes, you’ve heard it from me folks you can shoot infrared style images right in the camera without a special filter and without the super long exposures! From what I was able to play with I was able to use all these setting not only in JPEG but RAW as well, but this was not a fully functioning firmware version so we shall have to wait for the final firmware to make a final judgment.
...
Other neat features of the camera that I just want to briefly discuss:
-Changeable file folders and file names. Basically instead of Pentax100 you can assign any name to the folder and also instead of _IMGP0001 you could have _COOL0001 or _MINE0001.
-200% dynamic range mode. Not perfectly sure on all this, but from what I was able to play with it basically increases the sensitivity and gives you a dynamic range I’ve never encountered… almost HDR in effect.
-Fixing front/back focus issues. Right in the custom function you can access this bad boy to fix any lens and store up to 20 profiles so all your lenses can be perfect!
-Built in programmable self timer. Yes you can now do your time lapse shooting right in the camera. Set you number of shots, sequence and time. Have fun with this one and no need to buy and extra remote ala D3!
-The mirror slap was much less noticeable. From what I was able to observe the camera was quieter and functioned much quicker.
...
...
There is probably more, but my brain can only store so much information from playing with a camera for two hours. So to sum this up, the bad will be the AF is the same system as the K10D, with a few changes to algorithms. The good… well if you look at everything above it’s all gotten better and they have addressed many of the minuses from users and reviewers except the AF. The “bomb” feature… IQ! The image quality is stunning and it will put a lot of higher end cameras to shame especially if you have good glass. After peeping dozens of images from the K20D in beta firmware fashion it’s hard to deny the stunning quality of these images and it will blow many reviewers and photographers away. Ben Kanarek, Canon’s fashion photographer of the year 2006, has even exclaimed that the image quality is rivaling that of Hasselblads, which is a very bold statement, but with a lot of images backing his statement it’s hard to deny.
Pentax K20D
If you’re thinking you’re going to get a small upgrade to its predecessor (Pentax K10D) then you’re definitely wrong!
The body looks almost the same but there are a few differences and let me explain them to you.
First there is a PC sync port that has an overload circuit incase you have a surge. Second there is a larger lever to access the weather sealed card door. The most obvious standout is the larger and much higher resolution screen… 2.7” 630,000 pixels (including sub pixels)! Pentax calls this 230,000 dots (each dot has Red Green and Blue pixels). Besides that the body is exactly the same and that is great because your BG2 grip will work just fine from your K10D.
Things that didn’t change… I’m going to get this out of the way really early and tell everyone that the AF sensor, AF drive motor, mirror assembly and associated parts are all the same besides a dampened mirror bay. This is really going to make a lot of users unhappy because a lot of people have frustrations with the AF system of the Pentax K10D including myself. I was explained the reason and here it is so it’s out there:
Pentax engineers had two choices when updating the K10D in order to stay profitable. One was to advance the AF system and mechanisms to bring it up and beyond the current cameras in the class. Second was to advance the imaging and allow it to be the most advanced photographic tool available. Pentax went with upgrading the imaging guts because having a better AF system and the older imaging end wouldn’t sell well enough. Every camera on the block has a newer AF system, but the imaging system isn’t anything that stellar till you jump to the full frame models. In my honest opinion I would also go with imaging vs. AF system any day, but that’s because in my mind the quality of the image matters more than how well the camera can focus/track/predict. I feel that this is the only area in which this camera fails to be the most astounding camera of 2008. Many camera reviewers will look at this and will probably point this out enough to bring the value of the camera down, but Pentax has a few tricks up their sleeves and I will explain this all later. I got this straight from the Pentax Japan engineers that were there training the US sales reps on the K20D.
So we still have 3FPS and we will still have the same low-light AF ability coupled with the same 11 AF points with 9 of those being selectable.
What has changed in the camera? Way too much for me to ever remember hence why I wrote this article ahead of time so I could make sure I have all the bases covered when the camera is announced.
The sensor… this sensor is most likely the most technologically advanced sensor on the market period. This is the very first high resolution sensor and actually breaks the quality of many lenses on the market. 14.7 effective megapixels… that sounds almost ludicrous! Many of you are probably thinking well small pixels right? WRONG! The pixels are actually the same size as the pixels on the Sony 12MP sensor that is in the Sony A700 and the Nikon D300! Now you’re all thinking that I’m nuts because there is no way Pentax has this sensor technology because nobody else has it. Sorry guys they do have this technology because they patented it and Samsung built it. We now have a high resolving sensor with high sensitivity! Somewhere a rep told me that each pixel has a base ISO1600 sensitivity, but this could be different or an interpretation. It’s basically magic like Ken Rockwell always says when he doesn’t want to understand how something works. Not only does this sensor have great sensitivity per pixel, but is self repairing! With a couple of button presses you can fix dead pixels on your sensor while you wait. Huh? You know those dead pixels that happen from time to time. Basically you’d send your camera in to be repaired and they’d send it back with that dead pixel mapped out of the equation. The K20D can do this for you in camera folks! So let’s sum this up… a 14.7MP, high resolution sensor, low noise, and self healing!
Since we are on the topic on the sensor lets talk about sensor dust. Pentax has there sonic method of dust removal, but have implemented a new advance in that. Think of it as taking a printed image and flipping it upside-down and on the white backing of the image the specks of dust are visible. Yes, it will find the dust and show it to you! Marvelous! This makes cleaning a breeze because you know where to look and if you have to look plus when you have that image on the computer you can find the areas to clone out that much easier.
The next step from the sensor is the capture ability. Well, it shoots 14 bit RAW images (the source material shows 12 bit and the documentation I was shown says 14 bit RAW so I will leave this with a biq question, but feel 12 bit is correct for now) that are just stunning to say the least. The sensor has a true color ability that gives you vivid images and plenty of dynamic range. Still shoots 3 frames per second… but it can also shoot faster than the Canon 1DMKIII in a special mode. How fast? Let’s just say 20 frames per second! It’s only at 1.6MP, but hey it’s a number and numbers sell right? I thought it was a gimmick at first, but then I started to think about certain applications where this may be a pretty neat feature. During a model shoot, switch to this mode and fire off a few seconds of this feature while you’re model is moving or interacting. Build a massive image in photoshop showing the movement row after row! I think it’s a dramatic effect and could be used for many different applications, including sports and wildlife.
Now we’ve moved to the actual image processing. If you hit the function button (Fn), then hit OK you will access the picture style settings. You start off in vivid and there are a lot of options here. Of course you have your color saturation, contrast, tone, and sharpness level, but there is so much more. The tone is new and something Canon users have some familiarity with. The sharpness mode has a new feature and it’s called the fine sharpness setting. Think of it as the edge sharpening tool because it can really punch up the level of edge sharpening really really quick. Next mode is natural, then portrait, then blah blah, and now we go to monochromatic. I skip the rest because they aren’t as amazing as the monochromatic mode! This mode differs because color settings have been changed with filters! Remember how we shot B&W film and used colored filters to enhance or change the outcome, well it can be done in camera! There were these filters in no specific order: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Sepia, Orange and oh… did I mention one of those filters is an infrared filter! Yes, you’ve heard it from me folks you can shoot infrared style images right in the camera without a special filter and without the super long exposures! From what I was able to play with I was able to use all these setting not only in JPEG but RAW as well, but this was not a fully functioning firmware version so we shall have to wait for the final firmware to make a final judgment.
...
Other neat features of the camera that I just want to briefly discuss:
-Changeable file folders and file names. Basically instead of Pentax100 you can assign any name to the folder and also instead of _IMGP0001 you could have _COOL0001 or _MINE0001.
-200% dynamic range mode. Not perfectly sure on all this, but from what I was able to play with it basically increases the sensitivity and gives you a dynamic range I’ve never encountered… almost HDR in effect.
-Fixing front/back focus issues. Right in the custom function you can access this bad boy to fix any lens and store up to 20 profiles so all your lenses can be perfect!
-Built in programmable self timer. Yes you can now do your time lapse shooting right in the camera. Set you number of shots, sequence and time. Have fun with this one and no need to buy and extra remote ala D3!
-The mirror slap was much less noticeable. From what I was able to observe the camera was quieter and functioned much quicker.
...
...
There is probably more, but my brain can only store so much information from playing with a camera for two hours. So to sum this up, the bad will be the AF is the same system as the K10D, with a few changes to algorithms. The good… well if you look at everything above it’s all gotten better and they have addressed many of the minuses from users and reviewers except the AF. The “bomb” feature… IQ! The image quality is stunning and it will put a lot of higher end cameras to shame especially if you have good glass. After peeping dozens of images from the K20D in beta firmware fashion it’s hard to deny the stunning quality of these images and it will blow many reviewers and photographers away. Ben Kanarek, Canon’s fashion photographer of the year 2006, has even exclaimed that the image quality is rivaling that of Hasselblads, which is a very bold statement, but with a lot of images backing his statement it’s hard to deny.
Thanks Fengwei for that very informative piece of info on the K20D.
IMO, however good, the images might be from the K20D, a missed shot will still go down as a missed shot. As for image quality, in this age of DSLR, you can always always up the IQ with a little bit of PP. Just my 2 cents worth.
Anyway, the IQ of the K10D can already be considered very very good.
Nevertheless, this camera can still be considered best as far as value for money is concerned.
IMO, however good, the images might be from the K20D, a missed shot will still go down as a missed shot. As for image quality, in this age of DSLR, you can always always up the IQ with a little bit of PP. Just my 2 cents worth.
Anyway, the IQ of the K10D can already be considered very very good.
Nevertheless, this camera can still be considered best as far as value for money is concerned.
Wow! after all the intro/previews. I MUST get one! Only problem, when is it in Singapore?
3fps? no problem! My Pentax SLRs are mostly used for shooting aircrafts. FPS is not important, timing (as in when) of your shutter release is.
AF? Aircraft flies so far away the lens is usually at infinity. so no problem there too. In fact I focus on infinity and then lock the focus so it will not refocus/hunt.
Same body shape as K10 =good! I can use back my BG2 grip.
Layout is the same so I dont have to retrain my brain and fingers.
Oh and not forgetting, ISO6400. Yea!!! So much better that the K10D ISO1600. I need to keep the shutter speed up on those cloudy days
Sadly it won't be here in time for the Singapore airshow 2008 :cry:
3fps? no problem! My Pentax SLRs are mostly used for shooting aircrafts. FPS is not important, timing (as in when) of your shutter release is.
AF? Aircraft flies so far away the lens is usually at infinity. so no problem there too. In fact I focus on infinity and then lock the focus so it will not refocus/hunt.
Same body shape as K10 =good! I can use back my BG2 grip.
Layout is the same so I dont have to retrain my brain and fingers.
Oh and not forgetting, ISO6400. Yea!!! So much better that the K10D ISO1600. I need to keep the shutter speed up on those cloudy days
Sadly it won't be here in time for the Singapore airshow 2008 :cry:
K20D can do 20fps for about 6 sec (total of 115 frames) in burst mode, even beats Canon 1D Mark III or Nikon D3
But K20D's burst mode is for 1.6mp JPG*** only, good enough for those casual sports shooting
Just wondering if this 20fps thing is just a gimmick .......... just how many out of the 20 shots will be in focus? :think:
Dun worry...just set to f16, shutter speed 1/1600sec,subject illuminated by stadium flood light in pre-focus mode...cfm sharp sharp..
I wonder at 20fps, does the mirror have enough time to flip up and down? I am guess it will have to be in live view mode to do that.
how many people here shoot sports?
for street candids and landscape, don't need the speed la
to be honest, i don't think many people in singapore shoot sports/action anyways. hardly see it being posted.
for street candids and landscape, don't need the speed la
to be honest, i don't think many people in singapore shoot sports/action anyways. hardly see it being posted.
flowerpot
Senior Member
Looking at the K200D video, seems like the D-BG3 does not have a rear dial. Can anyone confirm these...
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