Originally posted by kayakfari I find the limit on the K20d at iso 800, so I always stay below that. For an old cam it's still surprisingly good for outdoor and telephoto work. Something about that sensor, although noisy, it presents almost a kind of grain. I especially like the look when converted to b&w after the fact, reminds me of Tri-X film. I never use the built in b&w settings, way toooo much noise. It pairs well with legacy super tele lenses and resolves excellent details, in comparison the KP produces kinda 'milky smooth' results with same lens .. BUT there's that shadow noise on the K20d. Still I use mine most often with the cheap Sigma 70-300 for decent results. Since the cam is weather sealed (and the lens so cheap it's almost disposable) it's great to use when paddling. The build quality is pretty good, even if mostly plastic the weatherproofing seems more substantial than the likes of the KP. Also .. like others mentioned it's ergonomically nearly prefect the way it fits in my hand!
Originally posted by mikesbike This is interesting. I've never made such comparisons. Some talk about the K10D's CCD delivering better colors, but then I've seen others say the K20D is unique for a CMOS sensor in delivering colors at least as rich as the K10D can provide.
I still have my (low use) K20D, bought new, but as I have long since had my K-5 IIs, K-S2, and KP, all of which I've found to be superior for my uses, it has done a lot of sitting- I hardly ever fire it up. I should play around with it more often.
Someone talked about banding phenomena, it could even be, I bought mine new in 2008, after the *.istD,
and I've never had any problem, obviously twelve years in digital age are many, however if you do the hand you still get good images, you have to know strengths and weaknesses, it is so for everything,
the sensor was produced by Samsung and in fact had presented the Samsung GX20, an exact copy of the K20D.
At that time Canon and Nikon equivalents rarely equipped their DSLRs with real pentaprism (glass) but pentamirror, they had from 6 to 8 mpx, and were neither robust nor sealed like Pentax, they had to do it later.
So Penta(X) teaches and holds many primates.
Well enjoy the conversation,
Ciao Mario