Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
04-27-2008, 08:25 PM   #16
Damn Brit
Guest




I think the extra weight of the K10d is a bonus for steadier shots. Add that to the extra couple of stops that Shake Reduction gives you and you will be taking much better shots straight away. I think that is worth the extra $200 bucks without taking into account the other stuff like weather sealing and ease of use. Plus for as little as $10 you can donate to help keep the Forum going and get all the wonderful help and advice from all the nice people that contribute here. Hope this helps with your decision making.

04-28-2008, 07:42 PM   #17
Veteran Member
heatherslightbox's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Gainesville, FL
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 2,599
At one point, I was looking at the Oly myself and rejected it based on what people here have already said. There are some in the photography world that complain that Pentax doesn't have a large enough lineup of lenses and they simply don't know what they're talking about--how about 40+ years worth of lenses? Sure, you can use the old OM lenses on the Oly DSLRs with an adapter, but from what I understand, they don't work very well, though. I've seen some excellent shots produced with Pentax lenses that in some cases are older than me.

If you want to save some money, you might consider getting a gently used K10D, which are running in the neighborhood of $500-550 or so--that's how I got mine. The Marketplace is good place to pick up one, as there have been a lot of people that are upgrading to the K20D and need to sell their K10D to finance part of the K20D purchase.

Put your money into good glass. Bodies will come and go, but if you get the good glass and take good care of it, it'll last and last.

Heather
04-29-2008, 06:38 AM   #18
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: midwest, United States
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 5,711
Shoot both. Have Oly E300 and E330. They take nice pics. Would never trade for my K10D. The Olympus are more consumer P&S based cameras. Things I don't like on them.
1. Small sensor is noisier.
2. Small viewfinder. Hard to see and focus (especially manually).
things others haven't mentioned:
3. Every Olympus works differently with respect to controls. Confusing to go from one to the other. Pentax all work very similarly.
4. Focus by wire sucks.
a. Camera can't be focused manually with power off!
b. Kit lens have no distance scales.
c. The focus ring just spins forever. No close focus or infinity stops. Very hard to tell when lens has maxed out at either end.
d. You can only use 1 lens accessory at a time. Can't use two extension tubes for macro. Can't use teleconverter on big lens with small extension tube (for just a few feet closer focus - like birds or small animals). Stupid. Whole idea of slr system is to allow you to do what you want.
5. Many cameras don't even have cable release socket. E510 may have a usb one. It is in a terrible place - right under 4 way controller. Same as av out. Hard to connect to tv and use 4 way controller.
6. Oly 2 lens kit is inexpensive. They did this for same reason C&N now have cheap IS lenses. Their other lenses are very expensive.
7. To use the older OM lenses you must constantly change the lens adapter. Its a pain. The Pentax screw thread adapter is a pain too but that is only rerquired on 40 year old lenses! The Oly is needed on lenses not even 10yrs old.
8. No macro lenses. 50mm only goes to 1:2 (use tube for 1:1. Then you can't use another tube for greater mag.) 35 focuses at 1:1 about 1" away. Oly used to be so macro inclined.
9. No front and rear control wheels.
thanks
barondla
04-29-2008, 08:37 AM   #19
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jun 2007
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 597
@barondla: Curious, I don't get how you can't use more than 1 lens accessory. Why? Two extension tubes can be attached together to make it one long extension tube right? Just curious...

04-29-2008, 09:26 AM   #20
Pentaxian
reeftool's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Upstate New York
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 9,543
I shopped for quite some time and was going through the same hassle of trying to decide on a digital slr. I chose the Pentax K10D based on my past good experiences with Pentax film slr and the water resistant features. Once I picked it up in the store and held it in my hands it sealed the deal, it just felt right. I like the heavier feel myself. Go to the camera store and pick up the different cameras and see what you like. I don't think anybody out there will give you anything better for the price.
05-01-2008, 05:48 AM   #21
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: midwest, United States
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 5,711
Leadbelly, can't use more than one Olympus lens accessory at a time. Every piece of the Olympus system has "brains" (chip) in them. Even extension tubes (firmware updates too). The Olympus code wasn't written to allow two accessories to be used together. They will physically mate up but the camera won't work. No way to make it go. Some Oly people will butcher a tube by rewiring it to pass info thru without the chip being there. This takes some decent soldering skill and who knows how this will effect things down the road later.
I run into this limitation all the time.
1. They only make 1 decent macro lens the 50mm. It only goes to 1:2. That sucks. Used to my two Pentax going from infinity to lifesize without any help at all. Put the Olympus 25 ex tube on the 50 and you get 1:1. What if you want a little more? Forget it. Can't use a second tube. They (nor anyone else) make a longer tube. You are dead in the water (no bellows unless you find old OM and use lens adapter and old Om lenses). The Om system was king at macro they made lenses to go to 10X! I also use ex tube and teleconverter on the Pentax for more mag- can't be done on the Oly (two accessories).
2. Big tele lenses are great for bird photography. Often use teleconverter to get more magnification and ex tube to make combo focus just a foot or two closer. (birds are small). Can't do that with Oly either.
To me the whole idea of an slr system is to put the photographer in control. Use the combos you want to get the pic you want. No one knows if the Oly system is limited because of the amount of power thru the multiple accessories or if they just didn't bother to write the code.
Canon has a similar mess too. If you put an EOS on a lens with T mount its fine (works manually of course). If you take a mirror lens or telescope and put a teleconverter on with the T mount the Eos can't fire. It locks up! If the Eos doesn't see electrical connections on the T mount its OK. If you show it electrical connections of the converter and they end in a T mount (dead end electrically) the camera spazs out and either won't shoot or locks up. Even Eos 1 xxxx. First thought it was just shorting contacts on T mount. Nope. Verifed with Canon it won't work. If pentax had this problem you would just get a converter without elec contacts (no such thing for the EOS system).
People who like to cobble things together don't know how well we have it with Pentax. Hope they think all this out for their new converter.
thanks
barondla
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
camera, k10d, pentax, photography, slr
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
dunno about the fish xjjohnno Post Your Photos! 9 02-23-2009 11:25 PM
Dunno much about the DA 40/2.8 Ltd, but... Michaelina2 Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 2 06-22-2008 08:08 AM
K100d vs. k10d for a film slr user. hoodsa Pentax DSLR Discussion 16 07-18-2007 05:02 AM
Gah!!! More birds..... Andrew Faires Post Your Photos! 12 02-14-2007 07:41 AM
Gah! Winter is boring! I need some color! NaClH2O Post Your Photos! 10 01-27-2007 10:37 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:42 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top