After waiting for the k7 to arrive, i decided that the k20 at less than half the price is the pentax upgrage for me. The bells and whistles features plus the main one the 14m pixel sensor, should keep me content for some time.
After frustratingly searching for many weeks to buy the cannon 50d - i finally gave up the ghost as i began to assume that general stock had dried up. I even began to suspect the model had perhaps been deleted by cannon and a supersede was secretly on the horizon. The final nail in the coffin was when i was treated very badly by black bearded bob, the store manager of jacobs in hull. He frankly did not seem to give a damn whether i bought a camera or not and despite several visits to the store his apathy and contempt never waned; together with his serious lack of customer sales skills.
I was telling this tale of woe to a camera dealer in hereford who promptly showed me the pentax k20d. I was hesitant and wary to deviate or change from buying my dream cannon dslr - but the more the dealer went on, the more impressed i became with all of the cameras features, specifications and capabilities. I was also very impressed with the pentax k7 but eventually decided on the k20 as it was almost half the price of the k7 and well afforded me a 300mm zoom lens and other accessories into the bargain. I am indeed more than happy with the k20d camera, as it excels all of my expectations, and for the money, with it's magnesium alloy body and live view, it has to be the best value on the market. It is a semi-professional camera - easy to understand, for any enthusiast who warrants the effort to read and study the elementary, enclosed manual.
Pros
- Pro camera for a great price
- k20d a great bit of kit
- Best consumer DSLR around
- Pentax K20d review
Features of Pentax K20D 18-55mm II Lens Kit (14.6 MP High Performance DSLR With Integrated Shake Reduction)
- New CMOS sensor with an impressive resolution of 14.6 megapixels,delivering extremely finely resolved, brilliant photos
- Disturbing picture noise is reduced to a minimum
- The PENTAX Dynamic Range Enlargement (DRE) provides an expanded contrast range of the photos
- PENTAX Shake Reduction: the special advantage is that it is integrated into the camera body so it is always available and usable with any lens
- Along with the pentaprism finder the K20D offers Live View, permitting perfect picture control directly on the wide angle (160° viewing angle) monitor. This permits easy composition from difficult camera angles
- Reliable system against dust on the sensor:
- Seals prevent dust contamination,
- coating of the Low Pass filter prevents adhesion of dust particles
- Vibration eliminates dust from the sensor, an adhesive
The PENTAX K20D offers superb image quality, an array of advanced features and outstanding reliability and operability to meet the specialized and exacting demands of photo enthusiasts, including advanced amateurs. It incorporates a newly developed image sensor to bring out the optimum performance of PENTAX interchangeable lenses, while offering the features and functions needed to maximize the pleasure and excitement of digital photography. The K20Ds development was based on the popular PENTAX K10D, which not only attracted great interest and high acclaim from users around the world, but also swept prestigious camera awards across the globe in 2007.
Best Consumer Dslr Around. Let me open this review with a simple statement: the pentax k20d is one of the best consumer digital slrs by any manufacturer. The 'headline feature' is the weather sealing - competing products such as the canon eos 450d must be covered with a plastic bag if (or, in the west of scotland, _when_) it rains. The k20d, on the other hand, laughs in the face of inclement weather - though the sealing is not 100% complete without a weather sealed da* lens. The build quality - for which pentax have a well-deserved reputation - is incredible. The camera is built like a tank, and the weather-sealing process no doubt contributes to this (since tighter tolerances are required). If the camera has a weakness, it is perhaps the autofocus system. It is not the quickest (especially if it has to hunt), and indoors it can front-focus if given the opportunity. As a landscape photographer (with occasional forays indoors) this does not hinder me, but if you are a bird or sports photographer it might well do. The inbuilt shake reduction is very useful indeed. There are perennial arguments between fans of the various dslr brands as to whether in-lens stabilisation (canon, nikon) is superior to in-camera stabilisation (pentax, sony). I will leave those arguments to forum trolls, but the k20d's sr is certainly sufficient for my needs. It enables shots at shutter speeds which have no right to produce a coherent image. It has the added attraction of working with any lens you fit to the camera, whether one of the new da 'pancake' lenses or a legendary takumar from the 1970s. Other manufacturers will happily sell you a �1000 lens which has no stabilisation whatsoever. This brings me on to what is arguably the most important consideration when choosing a dslr: the camera system. When you buy a digital slr body, you are in truth not just buying that camera but are also buying into the manufacturer's system. If you buy a pentax dslr for example, you cannot buy a sony dslr next time without having to replace all of your lenses and accessories. You therefore need to be sure when you buy a dslr that the camera system is right for you not just now, but in five and ten years' time too. Pentax does not have the widest range of lenses (nothing 'longer' than 300mm), nor does it offer much in the way of a budget range (it does not have the 'cheap and cheerful' primes of canon's 35mm f2/50mm f1. 8 and nikon's 35mm f1. 8/50mm f1. 8). However the lenses it does have are in many cases peerless. There are the professional-grade da* lenses, which are fully weather sealed and offer great image quality, but the real reason to buy into a pentax system is its 'limited' series of prime lenses. Search for 'da 35 optical paragon' to see what i mean!to summarise, like any camera this has strengths and weaknesses. The latter are not grave enough to prevent the k20d getting five stars: it may not be suitable for fast-action sports or wildlife photography, but then it wasn't intended to be. Pentax designed this to be a real 'photographer's camera': the menus are logical and well-designed, and the camera is not remotely fazed by the situations in which the average photographer might find himself. Definitely one of the greats. .
Pentax K20d Review. After frustratingly searching for many weeks to buy the cannon 50d - i finally gave up the ghost as i began to assume that general stock had dried up. I even began to suspect the model had perhaps been deleted by cannon and a supersede was secretly on the horizon. The final nail in the coffin was when i was treated very badly by black bearded bob, the store manager of jacobs in hull. He frankly did not seem to give a damn whether i bought a camera or not and despite several visits to the store his apathy and contempt never waned; together with his serious lack of customer sales skills. I was telling this tale of woe to a camera dealer in hereford who promptly showed me the pentax k20d. I was hesitant and wary to deviate or change from buying my dream cannon dslr - but the more the dealer went on, the more impressed i became with all of the cameras features, specifications and capabilities. I was also very impressed with the pentax k7 but eventually decided on the k20 as it was almost half the price of the k7 and well afforded me a 300mm zoom lens and other accessories into the bargain. I am indeed more than happy with the k20d camera, as it excels all of my expectations, and for the money, with it's magnesium alloy body and live view, it has to be the best value on the market. It is a semi-professional camera - easy to understand, for any enthusiast who warrants the effort to read and study the elementary, enclosed manual. Sadly it looks like this model has now been deleted by hoya corporation (new owners of pentax) but at the time of writing this review, there is still some stock out there if you look hard enough. .
Pentax K20d. Having been using pentax since 1964 (spotmatic - still have it!) i am probably biased but this camera is the best i have had so far. Matches or exceed my expectations on every level. The live view which has come in for a lot of criticism is excellent for me when i have my slide copier attached. It is now so simple to convert the slides to digital (i have around 14000 so it will be a while yet). .
Product Info
- Product Dimensions: 7 x 14.1 x 10.1 cm ; 721 g
- Boxed-product Weight: 2.3 Kg
- Batteries 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)
- Item model number: 1938500
- ASIN: B00131QW66
Conclusion of Pentax K20D 18-55mm II Lens Kit
So - for a professional who needs to get the camera in the right mode quickly, this is hard to beat. The publicity boasts of the camera being sealed against the elements. The camera got soaked but never showed any sign of suffering from it. 6 mb and good lens resolution enables this camera to often capture detail that is simply not visible with the naked eye. I have now used the k20d for architectural photography and 2 weeks of snapping on holiday and i have no doubts - this camera is robust, intuitive in its menue layouts with button short cuts (you do need to learn these) and full of functionality (this makes it semi-professional - there is a lot you can do).
The software and cable link to a laptop enables the camera to be drive remotely (useful for architectural photography). The k20d, on the other hand, laughs in the face of inclement weather - though the sealing is not 100% complete without a weather sealed da* lens. The camera is built like a tank, and the weather-sealing process no doubt contributes to this (since tighter tolerances are required). If the camera has a weakness, it is perhaps the autofocus system. It has the added attraction of working with any lens you fit to the camera, whether one of the new da 'pancake' lenses or a legendary takumar from the 1970s.
This brings me on to what is arguably the most important consideration when choosing a dslr: the camera system. When you buy a digital slr body, you are in truth not just buying that camera but are also buying into the manufacturer's system. If you buy a pentax dslr for example, you cannot buy a sony dslr next time without having to replace all of your lenses and accessories. You therefore need to be sure when you buy a dslr that the camera system is right for you not just now, but in five and ten years' time too. There are the professional-grade da* lenses, which are fully weather sealed and offer great image quality, but the real reason to buy into a pentax system is its 'limited' series of prime lenses.
Search for 'da 35 optical paragon' to see what i meanto summarise, like any camera this has strengths and weaknesses. Pentax designed this to be a real 'photographer's camera': the menus are logical and well-designed, and the camera is not remotely fazed by the situations in which the average photographer might find himself. He frankly did not seem to give a damn whether i bought a camera or not and despite several visits to the store his apathy and contempt never waned; together with his serious lack of customer sales skills. I was telling this tale of woe to a camera dealer in hereford who promptly showed me the pentax k20d. I was hesitant and wary to deviate or change from buying my dream cannon dslr - but the more the dealer went on, the more impressed i became with all of the cameras features, specifications and capabilities.
I am indeed more than happy with the k20d camera, as it excels all of my expectations, and for the money, with it's magnesium alloy body and live view, it has to be the best value on the market. It is a semi-professional camera - easy to understand, for any enthusiast who warrants the effort to read and study the elementary, enclosed manual. Having been using pentax since 1964 (spotmatic - still have it) i am probably biased but this camera is the best i have had so far.
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