Have recently purchased a k200d with a sigma 18-55 standard lens and am VERY disillusioned with it. I have owned a pentax IST DL for about 5 years and have snapped some brilliant shots with it. Never had to fiddle with a button or setting since I've had it, except for turning on the RER. Have always worked in jpeg format and never had any probs.
Was very excited with my new purchase a couple of months ago (k200) but my excitement turned to disappointment when I took my first shots. i took both cameras with me and shot the same shots at the same times with both to do a comparison as I couldn't believe my eyes with the difference in colour, light and 'guts' in the photos. I shoot mainly in the northwest of western australia, where the beauty of the land lies in the blue, blue skies and the red, red dirt. No probs with the ist dl, everything is taken as I see it with the naked eye. The k200 is a different kettle of fish! On the same setting, sky is a washed out blue and the dirt a washed out brown, with the whole shot having no 'guts' in the colours. Same with sunsets, which are so beautiful up there.
I'm not denying the clarity is better, but so it should be as one camera is 6.2 and the other 10.2 mpixels. I have tried fiddling between all the metering selections and find centre weighted is best for most of my shots. Have changed the iso to 200 (which is what the ist dl is set on), and have fiddled with the magenta, blue, green, contrast, saturation etc. to boost them. Also tried adjusting the white balance to 'daylight' from auto but doesn't seem to make a lot of difference.
I'm very disappointed in this camera and when I see a 'click moment', I straight away reach for my IST as I have no trust that the k200 will capture what I'm seeing.
I've had suggestions that 'you can change it to what you want in Photoshop' but I figure that if you've paid good money for a camera, it should do what a lesser camera does and more, without having to get on Photoshop for an hour to produce the same results!
So much for upgrading to a better camera! Any feedback from anyone who has had the same experience or has any answers to my dilemma will be most appreciated. At the moment I just feel like selling this camera and cutting my losses. Have always been a 'Pentax' girl, but have almost lost my faith with this one..........