Potential upgrades from a K110D

**Skodadriver** · 07-18-2016, 11:21 AM

Originally posted by goatsNdonkey

Well, I must finally confess that I pulled the trigger and bought a K10D. In fact, it happened just before skodadriver first posted about getting his Samsung version of it, but I thought I'd better wait to report until after the one I bought actually arrived and turned out to be in advertised condition.

What made me go for one so soon, when I had been prepared to save up money for months? I had been keeping an eye on what some of the body-only K10Ds in good condition seemed to be selling for, and I was seeing prices in the $120-140 range, more with a lens or lenses. One of the best deals seemed to be one KEH had for around $120, fully tested, along with battery and charger. Those were prices to save up for. Then I saw this auction nearing an end about 8 days ago on ebay. A body-only K10D, with battery and a charger (minus its cord). The seller had a 100% approval rating. The camera was listed as used but fully functional. The pictures showed only a little dirt or scuffing to the exterior, but no real damage. Nearing the end, the bids were still under $50, so I thought I would throw in a bid right at the end, assuming that one of the other bidders had a much higher maximum bid on file, and the price would skip instantly past mine. But that didn't happen. I won with a bid of $51 (a bit over $64 with shipping). Then I just had to wait to see if it was all too good to be true.

The camera arrived today. It was the most terrible job of packing a delicate electronic device I have seen in years. The camera and charger were in one bottom corner of the box with some of those clear plastic sheets with the large inflated sections piled in on top -- but not enough of them to keep either item snugly in place. In its travels from California to Illinois, it must have been handled by the tenderest angels of the United States Postal Service, bless their souls, for neither the camera nor the charger seem to have gotten damaged from sliding or bouncing around in the box and against one another! The flash popped up on the camera, but didn't get snapped off, as might have happened.

The internal battery still had a charge, so after inserting and formatting an Sd card and mounting a lens, I have been able to take a few test pictures, and go through all of the menus and adjust a few settings. I'm not finding anything wrong with the camera, though as with my K100D I can't test it with an AF lens, since I don't have one. It turned out to be cleaner than I thought it would be, having only a little dust in crevices, which has been easy to clean. There is a tiny amount of scuffing just behind the on/off switch, and nowhere else! I had a cord that fit the charger, so I'm topping off the charge on the battery.

I feel extremely lucky, not only because of the terrific bargain price, but also because the camera didn't get damaged because of the poor packing by the seller. Whewwwwwwww!

I'm going to go more carefully through the pdf of the manual I have, so that I can more carefully check out whether features I'm not familiar with might be functioning properly. Later I'll post a pic or two.

Bargain....though I notice Photolady might be buying one that has come up in the Pentax marketplace. I have just logged on so don't know if she has.
You might like to reset all settings on your new acquisition then customising to your taste, on the GX10 the previous owner had linked stop down metering to the AF button not the green button which I prefer. This and the ISO set to 1600 might have led me to being underwhelmed with images had I not changed them.
Happy snapping.

**goatsNdonkey** · 07-18-2016, 12:58 PM

Skodadriver, that's a good suggestion, and if I find some issue I can't sort out, I'll hit the reset! I did change some of the previous user's settings as I went through the menu. For some reason he had the image quality set at one star, so I bumped it up to three. The camera was also set to shake the dust off of the sensor every time it was turned on. That seemed like overkill to me; besides, before I figured out what was causing it, having something in the camera thud a couple of times each time I turned it on was rather unnerving! Also, at first the shutter wasn't working, apparently because I was trying to use manual focus without setting the switch on the front that way. It said MF in the viewfinder, and I thought that reflected the switch already being set that way. No problem since I corrected the switch setting.

I can't find, so far, how to get the camera to display what firmware version is loaded. I guess I have to look at the exif of a picture (outside of the camera) to determine the shutter count.

**Skodadriver** · 07-18-2016, 01:04 PM

Originally posted by goatsNdonkey

Skodadriver, that's a good suggestion, and if I find some issue I can't sort out, I'll hit the reset! I did change some of the previous user's setting as I went through the menu. For some reason he had the image quality set at one star, so I bumped it up to three. The camera was also set to shake the dust off of the sensor every time it was turned on. That seemed like overkill to me; besides, before I figured out what was causing it, having something in the camera thud a couple of times each time I turned it on was rather unnerving! Also, at first the shutter wasn't working, apparently because I was trying to use manual focus without setting the switch on the front that way. It said MF in the viewfinder, and I thought that reflected the switch already being set that way. No problem since I corrected the switch setting.

I can't find, so far, how to get the camera to display what firmware version is loaded. I guess I have to look at the exif of a picture (outside of the camera) to determine the shutter count.

Switch on whilst holding in the menu button to check firmware version.
There is a section in Pentax forums to check shutter count but you probably already know that. If you don't, sorry I don't know how to set up a link. Something I must find out how to do sometime.

**goatsNdonkey** · 07-18-2016, 04:04 PM

Thanks to Skodadriver I now know that my "new" K10D has firmware version 1.30 loaded on it, but according to the review of the camera here at PF, the current version is 1.31. So I will see about upgrading it in the next week or so.

I uploaded the first image I took with it to https://www.camerashuttercount.com, and it answered back that the shutter count is: 36800. If that is correct, it's pretty high. On the other hand, if the camera has that much use and looks as good as it does, it must have been taken pretty good care of most of that time.

Here's the best shot I've taken so far. It's an in camera JPEG with the color set on Natural and the Saturation, Sharpness, and Contrast set on the center settings:

Bee Balm flower. K10D, SMC Pentax-A f/4-5.6 35-80mm at 80mm, iso 100, 1/125 sec, f/4.5.

Last edited by goatsNdonkey; 07-18-2016 at 04:18 PM.

**UncleVanya** · 07-19-2016, 12:50 PM

Originally posted by goatsNdonkey

Thanks to Skodadriver I now know that my "new" K10D has firmware version 1.30 loaded on it, but according to the review of the camera here at PF, the current version is 1.31. So I will see about upgrading it in the next week or so.

I uploaded the first image I took with it to https://www.camerashuttercount.com, and it answered back that the shutter count is: 36800. If that is correct, it's pretty high. On the other hand, if the camera has that much use and looks as good as it does, it must have been taken pretty good care of most of that time.

Here's the best shot I've taken so far. It's an in camera JPEG with the color set on Natural and the Saturation, Sharpness, and Contrast set on the center settings:

Bee Balm flower. K10D, SMC Pentax-A f/4-5.6 35-80mm at 80mm, iso 100, 1/125 sec, f/4.5.

Looks nice! Glad you got something that you are enjoying.

Nickrs · 07-20-2016, 06:08 PM

The K50 is an awesome camera.

I've just bought a used K-01 for $220, delivery on Saturday.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
upgrades from a legendary 55mm f2	discoinfiltrator	Pentax SLR Lens Discussion	20	05-18-2016 04:02 PM
Potential New Sensor from CMOS Inventor	interested_observer	General Photography	4	10-13-2015 11:36 PM
Potential upgrades in K-50 successor?	IchabodCrane	Pentax DSLR Discussion	7	11-06-2013 12:37 PM
Questions from a potential K5 purchaser	Mujibyepi	Pentax K-5 & K-5 II	18	12-19-2011 06:33 PM
Upgrading from a K110D	geekkt	Pentax DSLR Discussion	9	11-22-2010 10:45 AM

07-18-2016, 11:21 AM	#61
Skodadriver Site Supporter Join Date: May 2015 Location: Hampshire Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 892	Originally posted by goatsNdonkey Well, I must finally confess that I pulled the trigger and bought a K10D. In fact, it happened just before skodadriver first posted about getting his Samsung version of it, but I thought I'd better wait to report until after the one I bought actually arrived and turned out to be in advertised condition. What made me go for one so soon, when I had been prepared to save up money for months? I had been keeping an eye on what some of the body-only K10Ds in good condition seemed to be selling for, and I was seeing prices in the $120-140 range, more with a lens or lenses. One of the best deals seemed to be one KEH had for around $120, fully tested, along with battery and charger. Those were prices to save up for. Then I saw this auction nearing an end about 8 days ago on ebay. A body-only K10D, with battery and a charger (minus its cord). The seller had a 100% approval rating. The camera was listed as used but fully functional. The pictures showed only a little dirt or scuffing to the exterior, but no real damage. Nearing the end, the bids were still under $50, so I thought I would throw in a bid right at the end, assuming that one of the other bidders had a much higher maximum bid on file, and the price would skip instantly past mine. But that didn't happen. I won with a bid of $51 (a bit over $64 with shipping). Then I just had to wait to see if it was all too good to be true. The camera arrived today. It was the most terrible job of packing a delicate electronic device I have seen in years. The camera and charger were in one bottom corner of the box with some of those clear plastic sheets with the large inflated sections piled in on top -- but not enough of them to keep either item snugly in place. In its travels from California to Illinois, it must have been handled by the tenderest angels of the United States Postal Service, bless their souls, for neither the camera nor the charger seem to have gotten damaged from sliding or bouncing around in the box and against one another! The flash popped up on the camera, but didn't get snapped off, as might have happened. The internal battery still had a charge, so after inserting and formatting an Sd card and mounting a lens, I have been able to take a few test pictures, and go through all of the menus and adjust a few settings. I'm not finding anything wrong with the camera, though as with my K100D I can't test it with an AF lens, since I don't have one. It turned out to be cleaner than I thought it would be, having only a little dust in crevices, which has been easy to clean. There is a tiny amount of scuffing just behind the on/off switch, and nowhere else! I had a cord that fit the charger, so I'm topping off the charge on the battery. I feel extremely lucky, not only because of the terrific bargain price, but also because the camera didn't get damaged because of the poor packing by the seller. Whewwwwwwww! I'm going to go more carefully through the pdf of the manual I have, so that I can more carefully check out whether features I'm not familiar with might be functioning properly. Later I'll post a pic or two. Bargain....though I notice Photolady might be buying one that has come up in the Pentax marketplace. I have just logged on so don't know if she has. You might like to reset all settings on your new acquisition then customising to your taste, on the GX10 the previous owner had linked stop down metering to the AF button not the green button which I prefer. This and the ISO set to 1600 might have led me to being underwhelmed with images had I not changed them. Happy snapping.

07-18-2016, 12:58 PM	#62
goatsNdonkey Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Fulton County, Illinois Posts: 3,728 Original Poster	Skodadriver, that's a good suggestion, and if I find some issue I can't sort out, I'll hit the reset! I did change some of the previous user's settings as I went through the menu. For some reason he had the image quality set at one star, so I bumped it up to three. The camera was also set to shake the dust off of the sensor every time it was turned on. That seemed like overkill to me; besides, before I figured out what was causing it, having something in the camera thud a couple of times each time I turned it on was rather unnerving! Also, at first the shutter wasn't working, apparently because I was trying to use manual focus without setting the switch on the front that way. It said MF in the viewfinder, and I thought that reflected the switch already being set that way. No problem since I corrected the switch setting. I can't find, so far, how to get the camera to display what firmware version is loaded. I guess I have to look at the exif of a picture (outside of the camera) to determine the shutter count.

07-18-2016, 01:04 PM	#63
Skodadriver Site Supporter Join Date: May 2015 Location: Hampshire Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 892	Originally posted by goatsNdonkey Skodadriver, that's a good suggestion, and if I find some issue I can't sort out, I'll hit the reset! I did change some of the previous user's setting as I went through the menu. For some reason he had the image quality set at one star, so I bumped it up to three. The camera was also set to shake the dust off of the sensor every time it was turned on. That seemed like overkill to me; besides, before I figured out what was causing it, having something in the camera thud a couple of times each time I turned it on was rather unnerving! Also, at first the shutter wasn't working, apparently because I was trying to use manual focus without setting the switch on the front that way. It said MF in the viewfinder, and I thought that reflected the switch already being set that way. No problem since I corrected the switch setting. I can't find, so far, how to get the camera to display what firmware version is loaded. I guess I have to look at the exif of a picture (outside of the camera) to determine the shutter count. Switch on whilst holding in the menu button to check firmware version. There is a section in Pentax forums to check shutter count but you probably already know that. If you don't, sorry I don't know how to set up a link. Something I must find out how to do sometime.

07-18-2016, 04:04 PM	#64
goatsNdonkey Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Fulton County, Illinois Posts: 3,728 Original Poster	Thanks to Skodadriver I now know that my "new" K10D has firmware version 1.30 loaded on it, but according to the review of the camera here at PF, the current version is 1.31. So I will see about upgrading it in the next week or so. I uploaded the first image I took with it to https://www.camerashuttercount.com, and it answered back that the shutter count is: 36800. If that is correct, it's pretty high. On the other hand, if the camera has that much use and looks as good as it does, it must have been taken pretty good care of most of that time. Here's the best shot I've taken so far. It's an in camera JPEG with the color set on Natural and the Saturation, Sharpness, and Contrast set on the center settings: Bee Balm flower. K10D, SMC Pentax-A f/4-5.6 35-80mm at 80mm, iso 100, 1/125 sec, f/4.5. Last edited by goatsNdonkey; 07-18-2016 at 04:18 PM.

07-19-2016, 12:50 PM	#65
UncleVanya Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2014 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 28,401	Originally posted by goatsNdonkey Thanks to Skodadriver I now know that my "new" K10D has firmware version 1.30 loaded on it, but according to the review of the camera here at PF, the current version is 1.31. So I will see about upgrading it in the next week or so. I uploaded the first image I took with it to https://www.camerashuttercount.com, and it answered back that the shutter count is: 36800. If that is correct, it's pretty high. On the other hand, if the camera has that much use and looks as good as it does, it must have been taken pretty good care of most of that time. Here's the best shot I've taken so far. It's an in camera JPEG with the color set on Natural and the Saturation, Sharpness, and Contrast set on the center settings: Bee Balm flower. K10D, SMC Pentax-A f/4-5.6 35-80mm at 80mm, iso 100, 1/125 sec, f/4.5. Looks nice! Glad you got something that you are enjoying.

07-20-2016, 06:08 PM	#66
Nickrs Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: "The Green Desert" Photos: Albums Posts: 175	The K50 is an awesome camera. I've just bought a used K-01 for $220, delivery on Saturday.