I know this thread will result in a barrage of angry comments, but this needs to be said for all those who stand before the decision to purchase their first DSLR. I recently made this choice and ended up with the K20D for several reasons. I liked the idea of being able to make really large prints, which I hade done in the past with my film SLR (also a pentax). I also liked the weather sealing, the digital preview, the ease of use and the neat little features like having an IR receiver on both the front and back of the camera and being able to fine tune the LCD. As I researched cameras I got the impression that Pentax was THINKING about things and creating features that are useful to photographers. This is in some ways true, but after having extensively played with 2 K20Ds (yes - my first one went back!), I feel that this camera is not as well thought out as it could be.
Immediately after purchasing the K20D I became annoyed with several limitations of the camera. Most of these had to do with the implementation of the flash system. One reason I bought a DSLR was for the hotshoe and the ability to use flash creatively and off camera.
1) As soon as I popped my lovely old M-series 28mm lens on the camera, the wireless flash option was disabled. Why, Pentax, why???
2) High speed sync is not available with an off camera flash if the on camera flash is set to discharge. (even when the camera's flash is simply in commander mode). You need another AF360 or 540 on the camera body to do this. Also, high speed sync is only available in PTTL mode, which doesn't work worth a damn. The paltry 180th X-sync speed is surpassed by many inferior cameras.
3) Not such a big deal for me because I like to set everything manually, but PTTL is USELESS. I have tried in numerous situations and consistently get flat underexposed results.
4) When you use the IR remote, wireless flash works great - unless you set the camera to take a photo 3 secs after pressing the remote (so you're not pointing a remote at the camera in your photo). Choose this setting and bam -- no wireless flash. Why, Pentax, why???
5) Bulb with the IR remote. It's great that you now need to attach nothing to your camera to use the bulb setting without moving the camera during an exposure. In the old days every cheap remote release cable had a feature to lock the remote button so that you could walk away from the camera during a long exposure. Unfortunately, when you use the IR remote for this with the K20D you must press and hold the remote while aiming at the camera until your exposure is complete. And this is easier said than done during any exposure longer than a few seconds. Why not have a setting to press once to open the shutter and once again to close? Would that be so hard to do, Pentax??
6) The LCD calibration feature doesn't work so well. I tried and tried, but couldn't get my LCD screen calibrated to match my macbook's calibration.
These things annoyed me and made me think the engineers at Pentax weren't really thinking about things as much as I had originally believed. However from reading about people's experiences with the K10D, I got the impression that Pentax listened to what customers wanted and made changes accordingly with firmware updates where possible. So I decided to stick with this system and let Pentax know about what I wanted changed.
Unfortunately, my first K20D was returned after taking around 5 - 600 shots. This is when I first decided to test the camera's continuous shooting ability. Yes, it did 3 fps, but I was never able to get more than 16 frames in a burst before the camera slowed down. Even at the smallest JPG setting with the lowest quality. (And no, I did not have RAW+ JPG selected). I also felt like the camera was just a little slower than it could be displaying images after shooting. I called Pentax, and the technician said the camera must be defective. So I returned it to the shop and got a new one. At this point I was torn between sticking with the K20D and just shelling out the extra cash for a D300. I tried out a new K20D quickly in the shop, and when it made it to 20 fps I stopped, thinking - ok, the first one was truly defective. At home with the camera I later discovered that its continuous shooting is somewhat erratic, and never able to surpass 25 continuous shots at 3fps. I decided this issue was not really that big a deal, so I kept the camera.
Now for the camera's final and worst flaw: High ISO performance. Here's where people will start yelling, I'm sure. Everyone seems to think this camera is noiseless, but it is extremely noisy above 1600 ISO. This wouldn't be a problem since the obtrusive chroma noise can easily be removed in post processing (Pentax's in camera NR doesn't seem to work very well - firmware update, Pentax???). However, starting at ISO 2500, my new body displays pretty bad horizontal banding. This banding appears even in RAW mode, so no hope for a firmware fix here! I will post some samples. I looked through some of the test photos I took with the first body I had and found it in one of them as well - though not as pronounced even though the shot was terribly underexposed. This shot is the final one in the series.
So there you have it. My complaints about the K20D. Will I be taking it back again and getting the D300 or something else? No. I've decided to stick with it and work within this camera's limitations for two reasons. I have already taken some amazing shots with it and I know it is capable of producing stunning results. I'll just stay at ISO 2000 and below. (with proper exposure, 1600 looks amazingly good!) The second reason is the wonderful lenses available at much more reasonable prices than the competitors' offerings. Try getting a weather sealed Nikon lens for under $1000. OK Pentax, I hope you read this and update the K20D's firmware soon!
Originally posted by pinkpants 
. 
Similar Threads 
