[UncleVanya]

K100d is fine.

[Aaron28]

great idea and works with your budget!!! a great way to start and learn without a 2nd mortgage.......now if photography takes hold of her well ya may consider that 2nd mortgage

[old4570]

Yes , the K100D is a very capable camera .
The 18-55 Kit lens is also very capable ..


A good combination for a noob . I started with the istD , I still have an istD . And funny thing , the istD can take pictures . When I was noob , the pictures from the K5 looked much better , but the istD taught me so much more . I have owned the K100D and it is a very capable camera , and I found it to be an excellent learning camera .


But to each their own . ( Been there , done that ) ...

[THoog]

The K100D was my first DSLR, and I still enjoy taking it out from time to time. It's a fine camera, just outdated. The sensor is a 6MP CCD, so low light performance suffers. I usually kept mine at ISO 800 or less. White balance has a tendency to "go yellow" in low light (saturate yellow and to a lesser degree red). For indoors work, it really needs something better than the kit lens. At this age, it will probably have some "hot" or dead pixels.

If it has early firmware, it probable won't read an SD card bigger than 2GB, The plain K100D (not Super) only supports screwdrive focusing, not SDM or Sigma's HSM. The shutter isn't louder than a K-50, but has a different character - mine has a bit of a squeak to it. Some owners report the K100D gets more battery-hungry as it ages - cleaning the contacts and using Eneloops seems to help. There's no LiveView, video, WR, in-VF level, lens corrections, A/F micro adjustments, or any of the other modern bells and whistles, but it does have Shake Reduction (the first entry/mid-level to have it).

[carrrlangas]

She will get involved and will look to make the most out of any camera you get for her, or someone else will and, not saying there`s anything bad with older models, but newer in this case I guess is better. And if you can afford the difference of u$30 for the K-X I guess it´s really worth it. Ideally I´d try to get a K-r for that price.

[mee]

I'd go with a K-r as bare minimum at this point.. forget the old 6mp ancient body. K-r still has a decent image size, burst rate, high res rear lcd, focus points, decent high iso handling, and is pretty small (and light). It has a loud shutter that some don't like (which I find odd.. people like loud cars and motorcycles but are embarrassed about loud cameras haha).

I have a K-r as my backup body (bought it cheap on ebay a month ago) and it is fine specs wise. Only thing I really don't like about it is it is not weather sealed.

If you can find the money, however, I'd look at a used K-30 or K-50.

[sterretje]

The K100D is a brilliant camera and does not have any inherent issues (it's from an era where QC was written with a capital Q and a capital C ). It's only weakness is high iso performance and with proper PP that can be fixed (I personally find https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/6-pentax-dslr-discussion/234878-appreciat...ml#post2617125 a great example).

The menus are sometimes a bit funny; "Swtch dst msr pt" to select 'center focus', 'select focus point' or to let the camera decide on the focus point.

Be aware that the K100D does not support SDM; this is both a great advantage and a curse And that there is no option for RAW+JPG (either the one or the other).

19 pages of pictures (currently): https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/6-pentax-dslr-discussion/234878-appreciate-k100d.html

[paulh]

No green button on K-100, no green light...

You don't miss it when you don't have it but now I have it on My K-3 and K-100 feels harder to use. Actually I'm just lazy but the feeling is there.

The AE-L button is the "green button" on a K100D. I've had mine for years and love it. The color rendering is wonderful, especially on the older K, M and A lenses. If it's in good shape, for $100 it's a decent deal for a good starter DSLR.

[atupdate]

I let my son use my old DS when we go shooting. The K100D is a step up, since it has shake reduction. I would not hesitate to buy a DS or K100D for a beginner.

Tim