Originally posted by bravobrown If the highlight end is better, I don't think there is any reason at all to be pessimistic here. It is MUCH easier for the eye to see differences in highlights than similar differences in the darkest shadows. We will just need to take a more Canonic type of approach and get used to exposing to the right again. Personally, I find that easier than spending all of my time bringing up the shadows anyway. It's much more satisfying to save a seemingly blown out sky than getting a teensy bit of extra detail out of the shadows.
Just my opinion, but I think we're jumping the gun a little relying on Gordon's thoughts about DR (from a camera he doesn't own). He's really technical and comes up with some great stuff, but shouldn't we wait for an actual scientific controlled test? Even though DR typically drops with higher mgpxls, I'm guessing we may get a nice surprise once the real tests appear.
You make a couple of good points.
Regarding exposure, in my limited(so far) testing the K20D seems to expose a bit more to the right than my older cameras. Maybe Pentax has tightened up their exposure algorithm...
Regarding dynamic range, I agree that it's much to early to bail out based on Gordon's observations. We need to see if the noise floor issue is theoretical rather than observable in practical shooting. And if I'm right that the K20D exposes more to the right than its predecessors, its real-world DR will not suffer much, if at all.
Like iSteve, I continue to feel that the K20D is a nicely-sorted camera which improves on the K10D in many respects. I'm delighted with it!
Regards, Jim