Originally posted by SimonMW (snip) So how come the K10D gets such a bad rap for soft JPEGs while I haven't heard anything about the Canon?
I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that many of those other reviewers are Canon users with a built-in bias which makes them want to see the Canon images as sharper than the K10D's. Some, however, have been very fair to the K10D. For example, Jeff Keller over at the the Digital Camera Resource Page uses a Canon EOS-20D, yet still rates the K10D very highly.
DCRP Review: Pentax K10D
Regardless, while the K10D's unadjusted JPEG files are slightly soft, I like the overall results. When printed, images look very similar to those produced using some of the finer 35mm films. And on those occasions when I want something sharper, tweaking the camera's sharpness and contrast settings gets the job done very nicely (or just shoot RAW).
stewart