Pentax K20D

K20D
Year introduced 2008	Mount Crippled KAF2	Meter range 0 - 21 EV	Meter pattern m c s
ISO range (expanded) 100 - 3200 (6400)	Expanded dynamic range Yes	Exposure modes HyP, Sv, Av, Tv, TAv, HyM, X, B	Exposure compensation +/-3 EV
Exposure lock Yes	Shutter speeds (auto) 30 - 1/4000s	Shutter speeds (manual) 30 - 1/4000s	Self timer Yes
Mirror lock-up Yes	Continuos shooting Hi: 3 fps up to 38 frames (JPG), 14 franes (PEF), 16 frames (DNG) Lo: 2.3 fps until card is full (JPG) Burst mode: 21 fps up to 115 frames (1024 x 1536 JPG)		Auto bracketing Yes
HDR mode No	Multiple exposures Yes	Built-in flash Yes, GN 13	TTL flash No
P-TTL flash Yes	Sync speed 1/180s	Flash exposure comp -2 - 1 EV	Autofocus Yes (11 points)
Autofocus sensitivity -1 - 18 EV	Autofocus with SDM Yes	Front/Back focus corr Yes	Power zoom Limited
Viewfinder 0.95x, 95%	Viewfinder type Pentaprism	Diopter adjustment -2.5 to +1.5	Exchangeable screen Yes
Depth of field preview Yes	Digital preview Yes	Live view Yes	Movie No
Sound No	Camera controls 2 control wheels. Many dedicated buttons	Custom Functions 36	Shake reduction Yes
Dust removal / alert Yes / Yes	Pixel mapping Yes	Image size 16 x 24 mm	Sensor 14.6 MP CMOS
File format DNG, PEF, JPG	Memory card type SD, SDHC	Back LCD 2.7 in. 230,000 pix	Weather resistant Yes
Battery D-LI50 lithium-ion rechargeable	Battery grip Yes, D-BG2 with D-LI50	Size (W x H x D) 141.5 x 101 x 70 mm	Weight 715 g
Comment Program modes: Normal, Action, Depth of field, MTF. Extra flash functions: Wireless, High-Speed, Contrast control. Exposure modes with M and K lenses restricted to Av (with aperture always wide open) and M.

[sctybear]

Great Camera, I love mine.

[Ash]

I believe Chris's review/short treatise of the Pentax K20D, with a very practical discussion on its advantage over the K10D, is worthy of being linked here...

My 2500 word essay on the K20D

[Dragonhide]

Just to point out... In the picture shown up top- The bottom part is the optional add-on battery grip...

(Just saying, cause the camera is shown with lens removed, but battery grip still on..)

I love my K20D too.

[kristoffon]

This is an awesome camera. Get it while they're still available new.

Some stuff I wrote previously: my impressions switching from the K200D to the K20D.

+ The memory buffer is great! The K200D filled it with only 3 RAW pictures and this was the main reason I upgraded. On the K20D I haven't hit the buffer limit yet.

+ Auto focus is ridiculously faster with my small primes (FA 50 and 77), quite faster with the big prime (FA 31) and noticeably faster, but not by a big deal, with the 18-250 zoom.

+ Viewfinder is much better, not only brigther, but clearer and easier to find focus, seems to have "higher resolution"

+ The green button finally has a use! Almost useless on the K200D, now it sets ISO to auto after changing it with one of the little wheels. What a dream it is to be able too set iso like that.

+ A switch to choose between AF-S and AF-C without opening menus is a great thing I missed before.

+ High iso is a stop better in noise. Even better in colour rendition, I think.

SMALLER STUFF

+ My mirror lens exposes correctly on Av now. On the K200D I had to use manual mode and green button to get good exposure. Focus confirmation also works with it now.

+ The ability to do autofocus adjustment is nice, fixed my FA50 which I previously thought soft wide-open, now sharp.

+ Switches for AF and AE area selections are good but I won't use them much

+ TAv is a nice convenience, I had wished the K200D had it.

+ The backlit LCD is another nice convenience that I've missed before.

+ I don't care for multiple exposure, but will certainly find use for interval shooting

+ The battery and card door locks just show how well built this camera is

IN THE END

This is one great camera I'll be happy to hang onto until the Pentax FF camera comes out in 2017, and proud to show off to my friends with 50Ds and 300Ds.

It takes great images. They simply "look" better than the K200D's, I can't explain.

[Ash]

Another practical point not stressed earlier:

K20D's buffer shooting RAW fills after 14 continuous exposures, whereas K10D's buffer fills at 9.

This, if shooting RAW regularly, is a clear advantage for drive shooters.

[Fl_Gulfer]

The memory buffer is great compared to my K100d. The picture quality is better than all my friends more expensive cameras and I'll leave it at that..
I think the wife will bury me with it.

[Mystic]

well even though i own one and love it, it isn't perfect!

the weight and size is how to say.. not for my hands, it's a little to big and a little too heavy.

viewfinder only 96 or 95% of coverage i believe all cameras in this class have it like that, but i find it very irritating to frame an image and later find that it's not like i've framed it.
3 fps isn't a spectacular while on k10d it was unlimited, now it's limited up to 40 shots, while mine ends in some 20 shots.. i do not know maybe it's because of the card, but i do not believe, because it's a buffer thing.. maybe it's deffective.. but, i do not want to send it for such a thing..

21fps.. is a ridiculous joke.. i find it totally not useful.. but maybe that's only me.

liveview.. no one mentioned, but it really stinks. But i do use it occasionally. even though it's hard to use it, because you cannot change anything whlie shooting with liveview on.

SR works fine, although in liveview a certain noise is audible of it working.

the extent of its customization is amazing! you can accomodate it to your specific needs, and it's awesome.

intervalometer is good, but.. only for 100shots.. that's a pitty.

ISO performance.. good until 1600 ISO, some 2500 ISO shots are good, but 3200 isn't usable to me. not to mention 6400ISO, even though others might claim differently..

oh and the main thing.. low light focusing.. but i guess several people already mentioned that. well it's not robust. although quicker than k10d.

built quality is amazing, weather sealing superb!

another thing that is irritating is it's not that fast and responsive, while to show the shot on lcd, and then to browse menu, and to add some filter or to develop raw or something, I sometimes experience lag, while i want to review shots, but the lcd doesn't shoe anything.

oh wireless flash and remote control is amazing.

I've been as critical as possible. other than that it helps me to make amazing pics and is an amazing tool for any photographer..

[Bill_B_pl]

I love this camera!!! The only problem I had was trying to shoot in low light at 6400. It would not work in auto mode. Once I set everything to manual it did great! This camera is really great. I have taken night shot at the slowest shutter speed, captured fast action and fast motion from a train running at 60mph. It does great!!!!

[Chr1st0ph3r]

I think that Pentax should break the K20D mold!!! The K20D has merely highlighted that a camera body doesn't have to cost $3-6K in order to facilitate a fantastic shot!

The feature set included with this camera makes all my Ni%%% & Ca&&& buddies extremely jealous. They all own more expensive cameras :-) Most of them also have less megapixels and additional features they will never use or don't have a use for...yet...maybe :-)

Equipped with the right lenses and knowledge...this DSLR is deadly and can bang with the best!

I use the following lenses for my wildlife and portrait photography...

smc Pentax A 50mm f/1.7
smc Pentax F 70-210mm f/4-5.6 ED
smc Pentax F 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6
smc Pentax FA 77mm f/1.8 Limited
smc Pentax FA-J 75-300mm f/4.5-5.8 AL
smc Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL
smc Pentax DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro (1:1) Limited
Tamron AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF)

Pentax...I never leave home without them :-) The K20D you can't go wrong!

[Bumblebee71]

Totally agree with Chr1st0ph3r, all I can say is "If my K20D were Canikon, it would cost the double."

Cons....mmh, ISO 6400 maybe, I shoot a soccer game last week at night, I was able to see all the game with the naked eye perfectly, but camera doesn't, so I switched to 6400 and the noise level was unacceptable, I modified some setting at the custom menu, like reduce noise at high iso, and other that I don't remember, and results were OK, but not enough, I had to use longer time which created blur photos, I think it was results of the lens I used, Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro, which is not fast enough, but I couldn't get any nice pic.

I will try to get a better (and expensive) lens and test it again. but at the end of the day I still love my K20D.

[K-9]

I've owned it a short time and it's my first foray into digital bodies. I don't like the viewfinder, but other than that, it's well built and very heavy (almost too heavy with the attached grip and a decent lens). You really need the grip as I don't have huge hands, but my palm awkwardly falls off the side when I don't use it.

As far as the K-7 being the same megapixels and no full frame sensor yet, it makes this a much better deal, unless you need the slight tweaks and HD video that the K-7 offers. For me, I got this camera body for $820 less than what the K-7 retails at, so it was a no brainer.

[lunelson]

Overall, a great camera. I'll give it a 9 for doing so many things so well. Note: I shoot exclusively in RAW so anything to do with picture styles or JPG output will not be considered.

First, the bad, to get it out of the way:
- the autofocus is slow compared to the competition, but is actually better in low light than some other cameras I've used. Forget about using AF-C to track anything moving very quickly
- the shutter is kind of loud
- live view is useful for some things (difficult angles, etc) but lack of HDMI output and lack of a good manual focus zoom (the actual pixels are enlarged on the screen when zooming in live view, so you don't actually see more detail!) restrict its usability
- sort of a problem with Pentax system in general, but P-TTL is very inconsistent and usually gives bad exposures for me with my AF540 flash

And now, the good:
- image quality is fantastic -- big, detailed files even at ISO 1600
- handling is great, and the body is built very well
- the camera is very responsive, with nearly no shutter lag or lag when turning it on
- auto ISO is extremely handy...TAv mode, where you set the shutter and aperture and the camera selects ISO, is great for a range of things
- the overlaid histogram on image review is nice and much better than some other manufacturers' methods of shrinking the photo to display a histogram to the side
- shake reduction is indispensable -- with it in-body and a fast prime, you have low light shooting Canon and Nikon simply can't match without going full frame

[embedded]

I really like mine. It's my first Digital SLR because it was the first one worth having after a Canon A1. Not bad to have a Three Year Guarantee from Pentax either.

I have only one issue. If I take the same subject in quick succession (or use fast "motor drive") generally every third exposure is "Light" ie ev +2 to 4 on 14mpixel jpeg. Other than that the thing takes amazing pictures.

I have never used it RAW except for play and run the 16gig HDSD into my opensuse 11.1 laptop and play with the image in Gimp.

With the Katz Eye viewfinder it like the Canon A1 and the Pentax's before that is a real pleasure to use after a 8 year adventure into Digital. And Kodak's digitals were the best before 2006 so we are not saying much.

[bdery]

This is the camera that really introduced me to SLRs as a whole... Not much to hate, but much to love! Here's what I wrote about mine :

What I like and dislike about the Pentax K20D