[andie80]

I just got my k200d and so far I am confused about its perfomance. The shutter never seems to go below 0,3 seconds (isnt it supposed to be able to go down to 1/6000 of a second?) and as most modes have a way of compensating for other things by means of adjusting the shutter images come out blurry even on a bright afternoon. I am beginning to feel as though I bought a copy! I see no improvement, thus, when using the image stabilization.
Maybe it should be there but I also hear a strange humming sound from the camera as the shutter is activated. For long exposures it's there throughout the duration of it.
In the evening and in total darkness my k200d is pretty much out performed all the time by my 5 year old compact.

What settings can I tweak with to boost things up?

[southy]

post some samples?
what mode are you shooting in?
What aperture are you shooting at, and with what lens?
Does shooting in full manual and adjusting the shutter speed have an effect? Tv?
Av?

The humming sound is the shake reduction attempting to work its magic.

As for total dark conditions, you can boost the ISO of the sensor. Take a look through the manual, even if you skim through it you will learn a lot about your camera.
-southy

[Wheatfield]

I just got my k200d and so far I am confused about its perfomance. The shutter never seems to go below 0,3 seconds (isnt it supposed to be able to go down to 1/6000 of a second?) and as most modes have a way of compensating for other things by means of adjusting the shutter images come out blurry even on a bright afternoon. I am beginning to feel as though I bought a copy! I see no improvement, thus, when using the image stabilization.
Maybe it should be there but I also hear a strange humming sound from the camera as the shutter is activated. For long exposures it's there throughout the duration of it.
In the evening and in total darkness my k200d is pretty much out performed all the time by my 5 year old compact.

What settings can I tweak with to boost things up?

Your compact is using a passive AF system which supplies it's own focus assist. Your SLR uses active AF, which doesn't.
This is why AF SLR cameras can't focus, or have trouble focusing in very dim light, and is why they do things like strobe the pop up flash or have other focus assist methods such as infrared emitters in the flash.
It's also why they put a manual focus switch on the camera.
I can't answer your other question, other than to recommend that you read your owners manual.

[Marc Sabatella]

Definitely describe more about how you are shooting - what mode you are in, what ISO, etc. If you are in Av or M mode, you can select any shutter speed you want (although 1/4000 is actually the fastest, not 1/6000). If you are in any other mode, the camera will select shutter speed, but you'd have to be using a very low ISO or a very small aperture or shooting in total darkness to always see speeds slower than 0.3".

As for performance in low light, assuming you've picked appropriate settings, there is no way any comapct is going to come close to the performance of the K200D. Images from the K200D at ISO 1600 are cleaner than those at ISO 400 from most comapcts. You'd have to post some exmaples and include the EXIF info and/or simply tell us what exposure settings you were using on each camera.

[Wheatfield]

Definitely describe more about how you are shooting - what mode you are in, what ISO, etc. If you are in Av or M mode, you can select any shutter speed you want (although 1/4000 is actually the fastest, not 1/6000). If you are in any other mode, the camera will select shutter speed, but you'd have to be using a very low ISO or a very small aperture or shooting in total darkness to always see speeds slower than 0.3".

As for performance in low light, assuming you've picked appropriate settings, there is no way any comapct is going to come close to the performance of the K200D. Images from the K200D at ISO 1600 are cleaner than those at ISO 400 from most comapcts. You'd have to post some exmaples and include the EXIF info and/or simply tell us what exposure settings you were using on each camera.

My read on his concern is that his compact will lock focus faster than his DSLR in low light. If he isn't using an AF assist on the DSLR, this is quite possible, even likely, and is an entirely separate issue from image quality differences.
If it gets dim enough, my wife's Optio 60 "outperforms" my K20 in the AF department if I forgo the use of AF assistance with my K20.

[asdf]

I just got my k200d and so far I am confused about its perfomance. The shutter never seems to go below 0,3 seconds (isnt it supposed to be able to go down to 1/6000 of a second?) and as most modes have a way of compensating for other things by means of adjusting the shutter images come out blurry even on a bright afternoon. I am beginning to feel as though I bought a copy! I see no improvement, thus, when using the image stabilization.
Maybe it should be there but I also hear a strange humming sound from the camera as the shutter is activated. For long exposures it's there throughout the duration of it.
In the evening and in total darkness my k200d is pretty much out performed all the time by my 5 year old compact.

What settings can I tweak with to boost things up?

The humming is shake reduction working. Shake reduction means that, in equivalent conditions, you may shoot 1/30 s, instead of 1/60 s, and get the same sharpness. BTW, without a tripod, you want to shoot at least 1/(focal length) s shutter speed to prevent blur. If you shoot around 1 s, use a tripod and shoot with 2s mirror lockup (mirror slap causes vibrations in SLRs).

As for your problem, you may want to increase ISO speed. By default K200D's auto-ISO goes to 400, but you may increase it. To get a more predictable behavior out of your camera, set the auto-exposure to center weighted, focus point to central, use Av mode and read the fine manual.