By Charles Hueter (Austin, TX)

Bought the body-only (no 18-55mm kit lens) from Amazon via Beach Camera in late August 2007.
Pros:
~Very inexpensive for the list of features it offers. Best deal on the market in my opinion.
~Great image quality! Coming from three different compact digicams (Olympus 740, Panasonic LZ3, and my still-good Fuji F30) this is a big step up.
~Six megapixels is plenty for all regular print sizes; don’t fall for the marketing hype pushing consumers towards more and more megapixels unless you intend to print big.
~Shake reduction works! I’ve taken handheld shots in crappy indoor lighting with a manual 200mm telephoto at shutter speeds as low as 1/50th second (the rule of thumb suggests shutter speeds faster than 1/focal length, in this case 1/200th second). Not crystal clear, but definitely usable for small prints and web posting.
~Extensive compatibility with a long history of Pentax K-mount lenses. I’ve got a 3rd-party M42 screwmount adapter to use some old fully manual Spotmatic lenses I bought cheap.

~Not too heavy for me, not too light.
~Feels good in my right hand, though my fingernails will bump against the body if not kept trimmed.
~Customizable auto-ISO.
~Good viewfinder and LCD screen.
~Uses AA batteries.
~Love that solid mirror/shutter release sound!

Cons:
~Continuous shooting is relatively limited, but for single frame shot-to-shot speed the camera is perfectly usable.
~Menus are just laggy enough in my opinion to be slightly annoying.
~Speaking of speed, the only need you’ll have for the super-fast flash memory cards is for directly transferring files to your computer…the ~K100D won’t save or display pictures any faster with the top-end memory cards.
~Speaking of memory cards, RAW files are not compressed…so you can’t fit more than 90 shots on a 1 gig SD card (I’ve got 2 SanDisk Ultra II 1GB cards and have ordered a 2GB PQI 60x SD card for the extra space).
~Operating the camera would be a bit faster if the 4-way controller directly adjusted ISO, white balance, drive mode, and flash rather than going through the Function menu first.
~The left handgrip strip is grippy but too small…better if Pentax had just covered that side in the same material as the right grip.
~The included software works fine but feels lethargic at times.
~Auto-ISO is reset back to ISO 200 whenever you use exposure compensation.
~That reassuringly solid mirror/shutter sound unfortunately means this camera won’t win any awards for stealth.

This is my first DSLR and I’ve taken more pictures in the 3 weeks I’ve owned it than in almost any other month of picture-taking in the last 2 years.

If you’re wondering about the K100D Super, the only advantages it has that are worth noting are a mildly effective dust-prevention and dust-removal system and the ability to use the new Pentax SDM lenses and their silent and marginally faster autofocus. These lenses are expensive now and should be for some time. Since the speed, menus, buffer, external controls, and other important features were left unchanged, I had no reason to buy the Super.

I’m using Sanyon Eneloop AA rechargeable batteries and highly recommend them. They hold a charge for a long time, offer plenty of power, and don’t confuse the K100D’s electrical system like some AAs do.

Bottom Line…

DSLRs can be tweaked to match the colors, sharpness, and contrast of just about any other DSLR. Your abilities as a photographer and your lens will have a greater impact on image quality than how strong a scene’s reds are saturated in the default settings that come with your camera. Unless you need extensive control over your camera, high frame rates, or big resolution to crop extensively or print larger than poster size…there’s nothing wrong in buying a DSLR body like this one and spending the money saved on photography classes or a nice lens.

By I. Pedigo (New York, NY)

After whats seems months and months of research into a DSLR, I had my sights on this camera and a D40 from Nikon(The Canon lower end cameras were such chinsy little plastic pieces I took them out of consideration). Side by side, the Nikon’s images looked really great and sharp directly from the camera’s auto function, and because this camera would also be used by my wife, I thought that would be nice, since she is not as much of an enthusiast as I am. I enjoy manually adjusting settings.
I did online comparisons on every single review website out there. I liked the Pentax’s natural looking color tones. Some people say they are too warm. I like this as opposed to the colder images of the other camera. The D40 seems like a very reliable brand family to enter and since they are so popular it would be good to fit in with everyone else on the streets shooting away. I still wasn’t sure until going into a store to look at each one side by side. I started with the D40. It felt good, the menu looks good, the manual focus part of the lens felt like a toy. And it was very lightweight.
I picked up the K100D and the feeling was a lot different. The camera has a nice bit of weight to it. The finish and the exterior is really nice. It feels and looks like more of a professional camera than a consumer/entry/beginner level DSLR unlike the D40 (even worse–the XT/XTI) I looked through the viewfinder and felt right at home, starting to take pictures and lost my focus on trying to inspect the camera for purchasing. Some people complain about autofocus noise, shutter noise, or the autofocus hunting in the dark. I feel that there are some who’s hearing is extremly sensitive or they are shooting primarily in libraries and churches. After working with this camera, the auto focus is fast. If it misses focus (maybe 1 out of 10 times)you press the button again and it always finds it right away. You wasted maybe 1 second. All point and shoot cameras I had before were MUCH worse in this category. If you are into manual focusing I do not think it is actually possible to be physically fast than if you went with auto focus.
Images look really balanced right out of the camera. Not as sharp as the D40, but this is ONLY because of a difference in processing style. I have read about Pentax’s imaging philosophy and for me it really makes sense. The in camera processing is not heavy-handed. They are going for a more film-like appearance. This means lighting which casts a warm hue takes a warm hue in the image rather than always looking like cool white fluorescent lighting. The images just looks more natural. The same for the ISO settings which are not over laden with noise reduction. Yes you get grain at 1600 ISO (as with every camera) but the grain is actually more film like. Detail is not missing like the other’s happy processing engines. For these reasons, I would say the K100D seems more like an photo enthusiast’s camera, the D40 seems more like its designed as point and shoot DSLR.
I think that this camera is good for the whole range of people who want to shoot. I’m happy with this purchase for sure.

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