Originally posted by Rondec I have never figured out all of the nostalgia for the K10. I loved it when it came out, but it didn't do great on iso over 400, had not so great auto focus, and I didn't think the colors were that much better than those of the CMOS cameras from the K5 on. The K20 and K7 I didn't like as well, but most of Pentax's other cameras since then have better features and better functionality.
I just looked back at my K10 images and honestly, I don't see anything special about them. I was a worse photographer then, but I wouldn't just look at them say "Wow, look at that CCD sensor shine!"
I guess, like most aspects of equipment and indeed photography as a whole, it's largely subjective. I didn't harbour any nostalgia for the K10D, having never owned one when it first came out. By the time I bought my first GX-10, the K-3 had been my main camera for some time (and a very fine camera it is too). Since then, though, the GX-10 has become my camera of choice (when it suits the shooting conditions).
There's no doubt the K-3 has more features (some of them very useful), much greater resolution, way better high ISO performance, better AF, faster continuous shooting etc. It's just an all-round more versatile camera. And the raw image quality from the K-3 is really excellent. But there's something about the K10D / GX-10 files that works well for me.
When all's said and done, though, I can get images I'm happy with from any of my cameras.
You might recall one of my earlier threads on this, but just in case, here's a link:
Colour and tone rendering - CCD Samsung GX-10 (Pentax K10D) vs CMOS Pentax K-3 - PentaxForums.com