A tour of the features of the Pentax K10D plus annotated photo samples.
Lori Grunin
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Not only does the K10D supply a raft of useful dSLR features, but most of them are available via direct-access buttons. Oddly though, frequently needed settings such as ISO speed, drive mode, white balance setting, and flash mode need to be called up via the Fn button, much like in a snapshot camera.
I didn't have a telephoto lens when I was shooting at this feral colony, but the combination of the sharp kit lens and 10-megapixel sensor delivered plenty of cropping latitude. It helped that the weather was quite sunny, so that I didn't need to increase ISO speed to maintain the same shutter speed with the typically slow (f/3.5-5.6) kit lens.
The flash didn't fire for this shot, resulting in the photo on the upper right; if you strain, you can tell there's something there. I brought the exposure up in Lightroom, and you can see the dynamic range latitude afforded by the K10D. (Note: This is not representative of the K10D's noise, since Lightroom applies some noise-reduction of its own.)
This shot is pretty representative of the K10D's noise profile. At ISO 800, there's little overall color shift or loss of detail, but the grains are beginning to become obscured by the color noise.
Though it's not the best image stabilizer we've seen, the K10D's Shake Reduction does buy you about one and a third stops. Both of these photos were shot at 1/10 sec; the one on the left with Shake Reduction, the one on the right without. As with all image-stabilization technologies, your mileage may vary.
