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- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 9 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"do not trust CNET reviews for dSLR cameras"
Pros: great pic quality with good lenses, compatibility with old cheap Pentax lenses
Cons: none really, except you have to spend some time learning how to use it
Summary: my review is mostly to point out how bad the CNET review was. DO NOT READ THIS SITE FOR CAMERA REVIEWS.
why do I think this review is bad? it's simple, this statement in the CNET review bottomline:
"Only unremarkable performance holds it back from joining the pack leaders" and yet the rate is 7.7
If you think the performance is unremarkable, then don't give the camera a good 7.7 rating! picture quality is 90% of the quality of a camera, so either the picture quality is bad and you give this camera a 4, or it's good and then you can give it a 7.7.
It takes different skills to review a dSLR and a USB Key, so go to the right sites for dSLR reviews.
OK, now my opinion about this camera.
What should be anybody's keypoint in deciding whether to buy this camera is, in my opinion, the possibility to use older Pentax lenses.
If you own some old (as old as 1970's or 1980's), some non-autofocus good quality lenses like some Pentax 35mm 1:2 or 50mm 1:1.4 then you should buy this camera.
The kit zoom is OK, but the camera really comes to life when you use high quality lenses. Pentax has made some superb quality lenses, that rival nikon or canon counterparts, and mostly, old lenses (even manual focus, non A aperture priority) are fully comptible and very easily usable with this camera. My father gave me is old late 70's MX with a set of lens and they all work and make great pictures.
As far as I know, compatibility with old lenses is much less good for nikon and canon. Plus old pentax lenses can be bought cheap.
Bottom line:
- if you have some old Pentax material, get this camera
- if you don't care about autofocus and would consider using high quality, manual and affordable used lens, I think you should also get this camera
- if you must use autofocus, hence only recent lenses, then try this camera against its nikon+canon competition
Other pro:
- solid built
- numerous useful and well placed buttons
One con:
- it takes some time to master all the right settings, but it's worth it
- 1 reply to this review
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Exellent Points. You are right on the money, why is the camera given good marks by the reviewer but a fairly low score overall. I have this camera, and it is excellent. It stacks up very well against the Canon and Nikon competition. The body is much more rugged than anything else in its price class, and as this reviewer stated, backwards compatibility with Pentax lenses blows away Canon and Nikon. There does seem to be a bias against Pentax as a lesser known brand, if you did a blind test and put a Canon or Nikon logo on the camera, it would get higher marks. Don't let the CNET review fool you, this camera is as good if not better than its Canon and Nikon counterparts, I have tried the Canon and personally would take the Pentax over it without hesitation. This type of competition is what forced NIKON to come down it its prices as well. The camera is as good, and I think better, than anything else in its price class. Takes amazing pictures.
Where to buy
Pentax K10D (body only):
$899.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$899.99 | Yes |
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