Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
01-26-2009, 06:55 AM   #1
Inactive Account




Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Way over on the left side
Posts: 4
Still using K100D (NOT Super)

Still using K100D (NOT Super) and love doing so. BUT looking to upgrade. It doesn't need to happen immediately.

Is there was a "good time" to buy?

And what Pentax models to consider?

Thanks in advance.

01-26-2009, 07:24 AM   #2
Veteran Member




Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Minnesota
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,529
I have a K100D Super... and really if you are not looking to upgrade immediately you may want to sit back and watch what happens down the line. At least that is what I am doing. The more and shoot with my K100DS the more I find that it is a pretty special camera it terms of size, weight, performance and features. I also find that I surprise myself with the photos that I can produce with an "old" and "outdated" camera body. Until Pentax releases something truly amazing that moves me to upgrade I will continue to capture images using my little K100DS.
01-26-2009, 07:42 AM   #3
New Member




Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Singapore
Posts: 1
Its a good camera. Perhaps you can keep it as spare?

I am using K100D too and not planning to upgrade since it suits me well.
01-26-2009, 07:45 AM   #4
Senior Member




Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Blacksburg, VA
Photos: Albums
Posts: 286
You can pick up K20D's off ebay for $580-$620... That's a pretty damn good deal.

01-26-2009, 08:02 AM   #5
Veteran Member
alohadave's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Quincy, MA
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 2,024
If you want a discount on an existing body, look at prices a couple weeks before Photokina or PMA. If there is a new model coming out, prices will generally drop as vendors try to clear existing stock to make way for the new models. I got my K100DS last year just before the anouncement of the K200D and the K20D, on sale for a great price.
01-26-2009, 08:07 AM   #6
Veteran Member
arbutusq's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Vancouver BC canada
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 380
I love my K100d, the only reason I upgraded is that my wife wated a camera and I figured I'd rather have the new toy... But the K100d is usable for almost any situation a hobbyist can find himself in.
01-26-2009, 08:14 AM   #7
Veteran Member




Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Toronto (for now)
Posts: 1,748
Upgrade to what exactly? The 20D sees a severe weight and size penalty, the Km a feature penalty and the 200D is essentially more of the same.

01-26-2009, 08:43 AM   #8
Veteran Member
arbutusq's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Vancouver BC canada
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 380
I actually upgraded to the K-m and don't consider it to have a feature penalty compared to the k100, at least for the way I use the camera.
01-26-2009, 12:07 PM   #9
Veteran Member
awo425's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: NYC, USA
Posts: 481
I would wait and see what options you will have in a month or two.
I am waiting myself, I still use istD. I tried to upgrade to K10D unsuccessfully 2 years ago. My K10D had inconsistent focusing and metering issues, not mentioning famous cracked bottom cover, and I sold it.
K20D is a good candidate for upgrade, mainly because of ergonomics, speed of operation and ability to do micro focusing adjustments for each lens. It is bigger though. If you can't wait I would probably get k20D, not sure if the price will go down more then it is now, otherwise I would wait and see what Pentax will bring next to the table.
01-26-2009, 01:32 PM   #10
Veteran Member




Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 1,812
QuoteOriginally posted by Scrapalina Quote
Still using K100D (NOT Super) and love doing so.
So am I -
kind of out of choice too.

The K100D's high ISO performance is "good" and the fact it has ISO3200 can be a life saver.

I took some photos at a gig with Randall Bramlett, Caroline Aiken & Geoff Achison in the round at Eddie's Attic, Atlanta - this is a dark venue - awkward to get good shots - although I have had success with flash assisted shots - no flash available light is better there.

I do know that a wide aperture lens like the 50mm f/1.4 would help - but I like the flexibility of zooms to get better framing.

This means shutter speeds in the range of 1/15 sec (@ f/4) even at ISO3200 -
ISO1600 would give much cleaner results - but would have just too many unacceptable blurred shots
- as it is, I did get a lot of blurred shots - mostly because of subject motion.

But despite all these disadvantages I still managed to get a reasonable set of photos
- just because the K100D had ISO3200 - of barely acceptable quality
- but for me it was better to get the shot than not.....

Photo set Here




Both shots ISO3200 - first at 1/20sec, lower shot was at 1/8sec.

No I am not claiming any outstanding quality -
but these are reasonable considering the circumstances

Of course in normal concert shooting the results are more like -


rest of Album

For me the K100D is a wonderful camera - yes, of course I still covet other more advanced dSLR's like the Nikon D90 (for clean ISO3200 and usable up to ISO6400) - but for my normal shooting the K100D is more than adequate.....
01-26-2009, 11:30 PM   #11
Veteran Member
Marc Sabatella's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Denver, CO
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 10,685
QuoteOriginally posted by UnknownVT Quote
The K100D's high ISO performance is "good" and the fact it has ISO3200 can be a life saver.
It's not really necessary, though. All ISO 3200 does on the K100D is shoot underexposed at ISO 1600 and then push the result in the on-camera processing. You could achieve exactly the same results yourself.

QuoteQuote:
the K100D had ISO3200 - of barely acceptable quality
I'd say those look better than "barely acceptable". Of course I'm not seeing the full sized version. But considering the limitations you were dealing with in terms of aperture, quite impressive. Nice shots!
01-27-2009, 12:01 AM   #12
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
skid2964's Avatar

Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 614
I use a *istD, was thinking about upgrading to a K100D Super!
01-27-2009, 08:59 AM   #13
Veteran Member




Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Toronto (for now)
Posts: 1,748
QuoteOriginally posted by Marc Sabatella Quote
It's not really necessary, though. All ISO 3200 does on the K100D is shoot underexposed at ISO 1600 and then push the result in the on-camera processing. You could achieve exactly the same results yourself.
Weird thing is though, when i do this I get a right mess after increasing exposure in post and find the RAW ISO3200 files easier to work with in terms of IQ.

Here are some ISO32000 images from the 100D ......




01-27-2009, 09:08 AM   #14
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
skid2964's Avatar

Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 614
Another ISO3200 image:
Taken with the *istD, same sensor as K100D...


But why the fuss? Here's what it looks like with film! (Kodak tmax 3200):

Last edited by skid2964; 01-27-2009 at 09:15 AM.
01-27-2009, 01:25 PM   #15
Veteran Member




Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 1,812
QuoteOriginally posted by Marc Sabatella Quote
It's not really necessary, though. All ISO 3200 does on the K100D is shoot underexposed at ISO 1600 and then push the result in the on-camera processing. You could achieve exactly the same results yourself.
Thanks Marc.

I was skeptical about pushing ISO1600 -
since film pushed normally is not as good as film with the higher ISO rating.

So I did some ad-hoc experiments late last night and thought I got results that showed straight ISO3200 was clearly better than ISO1600 pushed 1 stop....

However I thought about it this morning and re-did my experiment with slightly better control and got the opposite result - so much so I repeated it two more times to be sure.

Under incandescent light - 60 watt (closer) and 40 watt softwhite household light bulbs. K100D tripod mounted - Shake Reduction Off - Tv - shutter speed set at 1/15sec to be similar to my actual shooting conditions, Incandescent White balance.

Target -


I deliberately set my lens to get a crop of about 450x300 from the central area that would give enough coverage at 100% to be meaningful.

Processed the ISO3200 crop to get the best image I could - then processed the ISO1600 (1 stop Underexposed) try to match the ISO3200.

100% (actual pixels) Crops JPG (top set) -




one can see in JPG (the top set) the ISO1600 Pushed shot is noisier/grainer -
BUT it is also noticably sharper!!

How about RAW?

There seems to be lot less difference between ISO3200 RAW and ISO1600 RAW pushed -
(beacuse of I cannot see the shots side-by-side it was hard to match the ISO1600 RAW shots to the ISO3200 - so I did it twice (being relatively a novice in RAW and Pentax Lab) as it was I still had to do a bit of brightness/contrast adjustments to get the ISO1600 RAW pushed shots to match the ISO3200 RAW.

I think the straight ISO3200 RAW may just be a bit better.

I'm impressed for the Pushed JPG results -
in fact of all the crops the ISO1600 Pushed JPG seem to me to be the best.
so perhaps under similar circumstances I'll be pushing ISO1600
even though it does take quite a bit more post-processing to get the image just right
and experiment with some noise reduction.....

However in RAW shooting straight ISO3200 seems to be as good (or a just a fraction better) as ISO1600 RAW pushed without the slightly extra post-processing effort.

Last edited by UnknownVT; 01-27-2009 at 02:58 PM. Reason: added RAW results
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
camera, dslr, k100d, photography
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
For Sale - Sold: Battery Grip for K100D/K110D/K100D Super Camera, K10D/K20D D-LI50 Battery frank Sold Items 12 05-30-2009 06:10 PM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 06:47 PM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top