[monkeybear]

I went out shooting with a friend today and I had a chance to use her Canon 50D. All I gotta say is wow, what a cool camera. I have a K200D that I love but the 50D kinda made me wish for a camera with a few more bells and whistles. Something a little faster with the auto focusing and continous mode.

How much of an improvement is the K20D over the K200D and how close dose it come to the 50D?

[er1kksen]

For autofocus and continuous mode? Not much of an improvement, not very close to the 50D. Image quality is a big step up from the K200D and quite on part with the 50D, imo.

[monkeybear]

For autofocus and continuous mode? Not much of an improvement, not very close to the 50D. Image quality is a big step up from the K200D and quite on part with the 50D, imo.

Is there anywhere I can get some side by side images from both the K200D and the K20D?

[leeak]

Try here to compare images of different cameras: Imaging Resource "Comparometer" ™ Digital Camera Image Comparison Page

[leeak]

BTW does anyone know if Imaging Resource post shots straight from jpeg or from RAW? TIA

[monkeybear]

Well, I can barely tell a difference between those pics. Maybe. So I guess I am still pretty staisified with my K200D.

[WRB]

My very good photography friend has a 50D. We actually plan days and shoot together often. The better exposures usually come with better glass. I have never struggled to keep up with the 20D in our shooting situations. We were one morning before sunrise and the 20D with better glass had the better exposures.

It is interesting to read all of the discussion regarding camera bodies when glass can really have as great an impact when the bodies are similar.

[ohfrankyboy]

Well ive compared too the K20D to the 50D and the K20D seems to be sharper in many images up to 3200 ISO, the 50D seems softer, the K20D has better saturated colors then the 50D but yes the 50D is better in noise réduction.

[Raybo]

Try here to compare images of different cameras: Imaging Resource "Comparometer" ™ Digital Camera Image Comparison Page

Thanks for the link leeak!

This is the first time that I have looked at such a comparison, I have to say that the K20's detail is just OUTSTANDING!

[Clicker]

You might want to work on your lense collection, a crappy lense on any body only gives you crappy images but a good lense on a decent body will give you good to great images. That said the focusing on Pentax vs the others isn't comparable, they need to improve there which they're doing with their newer SDM class.

With the other brands if you mostly P&S; they work great, with Pentax you need to know what you're doing. You can get away with sloppy technique using the others but with Pentax you really need to have more than introductory photography basics, this is just my opinion.

Pentax didn't keep up with "simplifying" the shooting experience for the masses with their DSLRs, they stuck to the philosophy from the old film days, people will be willing to learn photography and this is where imo they missed the boat.

If you look around here, the guys who really produce good images really know their stuff and then there are those who are willing to learn and their images have improved a lot (yes i've lurked here awhile before signing on) but like everywhere some get lucky ever so often with the "right" everything and capture that one good image never too be repeated again till they learn some more

Sorry for the babble but that's the mood i'm in trying to explain/discuss/argue *for and against* Pentax vs the world and i've used them all. The more i discuss it the more i come to realize as i've said above you either know how to shoot or you don't but are willing to learn and that's how we choose brand X over brand Y over and over again never learning what we truly want from photography or having some false sense of one brand being "better" over another, till we die. Unfortunately this is what humans are like.

[sebberry]

Pentax didn't keep up with "simplifying" the shooting experience for the masses with their DSLRs, they stuck to the philosophy from the old film days, people will be willing to learn photography and this is where imo they missed the boat.

I know very little about photography, but this is partly why I went with the K10D instead of the Canon XTi or the Nikon D40.

I wanted a camera that was like a photographic tool than a computer. Sure it takes much more effort to master and many photos taken P&S style come out looking like utter crap, but the good ones are great and I enjoy using the camera. Even little things like the lift and turn dials to access the battery and memory card doors make the camera feel more like a camera than the similar offerings from Canon and Nikon.

[soccerjoe5]

I shoot regularly with my photography partner and he uses a canon system. The only thing I really wish I have (from my K20D system) is a better tethered/display capability. I need HDMI output for my shoots badly, so much that I'm actually thinking of going dual system just for that. I need a way to show my clients the output quickly.

Tethered via USB is just too slow. 15-30 seconds per photo is too long. I can't lug around a CRT TV to my shoots for the video out and using an LCD looks terrible.

HOWEVER, my partner is always envious of my glass (I use the DA 21, 35, 40 and 70 Limiteds) and the way they render. He's always saying WOW that's sharp compared to his L glass.

Here's a photo from our latest shoot that was blown up to 3x2 feet :


Incredibly sharp at that size

[RiceHigh]

I went out shooting with a friend today and I had a chance to use her Canon 50D. All I gotta say is wow, what a cool camera. I have a K200D that I love but the 50D kinda made me wish for a camera with a few more bells and whistles. Something a little faster with the auto focusing and continous mode.

How much of an improvement is the K20D over the K200D and how close dose it come to the 50D?

Nothing, they are totally different things. The K20 has weather sealing though, but that's the only thing you would get, IMHO. K200D has the sealing too, so you won't get anything more with the K20.

[Haakan]

The image quality of K20D is superior to the 50D.

Look at these crops, both at ISO1600 to stress them somewhat (downloaded from Imaging Resource). The crops first show K20D and then 50D. The K20D crops show a lot more detail, IMHO it is not even a close race.

Haakan

[mickey]

If you look around here, the guys who really produce good images really know their stuff and then there are those who are willing to learn and their images have improved a lot (yes i've lurked here awhile before signing on) but like everywhere some get lucky ever so often with the "right" everything and capture that one good image never too be repeated again till they learn some more

This is a fair point.

I'm quite a new Pentax user, switching from Canon.
Some of the pictures on here are magnificent, no doubt about it.
Wouldn't matter if it was a Pentax/Canon/Olympus/Canon/etc user. The actual photographer has taken his/her skills to the next level.

Rather than maker v maker, think about one's own skills with the equipment that you have and look to further your ability.
A swith to a "better" camera might improve your pics to some extent, but you really got to kow your stuff to consistently turn out quality pics.
I know I have a long way to go, but I am enjoying it and the advice here from everyone helps a lot.

This is just a bit of a rant, cus I see a few make v make threads going on lately.