[hinman]

Hin,
You have not answered the question that most of us are dying to know...

Does the white body show greasy, grimy finger/face dirt!

When the white-bodies cameras first came out, the first thing that came to my mind is brownish yellow wear patterns on the grip and skin contact surfaces.

Steve

(Oh...and nicotine stains too, for smokers...)

I used it for a month and I don't see any smudges of any kind. It seems to hold up so good so far and I have less a concern as Frank has answered this very same question before when I asked him. It is very clean for both Frank and myself. He got his white K-x before me. The material is of a glossy and smooth type of material and it is made to avoid smudges. It is unlike the black matte type.

Hope that clears up one of the concern.

Hin

[hinman]

About the MF without the red dot. Let me re-iterate my points. No one MF the same way. Some rely on the focusing aid with magnifier, some uses the best aid with Katz eyes and some may use combination of AF-C and burst mode , so there is unlikely a single approach that apply to all. I am the ONE of the minority who uses the red dot on all the time as I find it handy especially in indoor dim light setting where the noise in surrounding overpower the beep and that the dim light doesn't show the green hexagon in bottom of VF easily than the distinctive red center point

I prefer the red dot to guide me for the rough location in macro and in difficult shooting in indoor, I prefer red in center over green in bottom as I wear progressive bifocal glasses and it is much harder to see the green in bottom in indoor dark scenes. I use red center to tell me where I aim in MF. I actually don't have perfect vision and I use the red dot to help me to close in to the eyes from a far distance or close up in macro. Another point to note is that VF in K-x is not as bright and big as in the K20D and the red is more obvious to the eyes than the green, especially in dim light indoor setting.

And in shooting moving objects, there are times that I use AF-C and auto select points as I do benefit from the feature. I use AF-C and auto select points with the K20D and the red point can confirm me the target at point of shooting and adjust the movement for the next shot in burst. The confirmation can give hint on framing of the next shot for the subject as well as panning aid . The missing of the red dot will make it a guessing game at the time of the shooting.


All can be retrained with more practices but I stil prefer my K20D for MF lenses than my K-x. Again, this is my personal opinion.

It was a year before I even realized the green Hex had anything to do with focusing. I still use the red dot! The green hex is too unreliable for MF IMHO

Just used the red dot only on these the other day...
K100d + $20 dollar helios 44M wide open with red dot confirmation... EDIT the shot of the oldest girl is actually with the Nikkor PC 105 2.8 not the helios




I would miss the red dot confirmation, so I dont think I am gonna get the KX...

[greymda]

who knows, is there available some sort of body protection known as "Full Body Coverage skin" for Pentax K-x ?

smth like this: ZAGG | invisibleSHIELD | Canon Powershot A470 Cases, Screen Protectors, Covers, Shields, Skins, Invisible Shield

[o_bender]

anybody knows yet if it is white plastic or painted black plastic? i would hate to see the black marks of my fingers on it after long use
i think there was a k-m white edition too, those are probably mnore used than the new k-x, any news from their users?

[brkl]

I think it needs to be pointed out that the red dot was never focus confirmation, only confirmation of the focus point the camera is using, that is, where the camera is trying the get focus. The red dot can light up even if the camera cannot get focus. The focus confirmation symbol is among the rest of the information at the bottom of the viewfinder. If you're using a Helios 44, the focus point is always center, so you don't need the red dot anyway.

[Recercare]

I think it needs to be pointed out that the red dot was never focus confirmation, only confirmation of the focus point the camera is using, that is, where the camera is trying the get focus. The red dot can light up even if the camera cannot get focus. The focus confirmation symbol is among the rest of the information at the bottom of the viewfinder. If you're using a Helios 44, the focus point is always center, so you don't need the red dot anyway.

I am not too sure that this is correct? If you turn the focus ring until the centre area is blurred out, then the red AF will NEVER show on my K10d. However, the red indicator can show even when focus is not 100% where you want it to be.

Kind regards
.lars

[brkl]

If it showed when you were completely out of focus, it'd show all the time.

If you check your manual, it always talks of focus confirmation as the hexagonal symbol at the bottom. The red dot is only an AF point indicator.

Why do you argue with success???? I may be wrong, but I am perfectly wrong!





I am telling you that for two years and two Pentax bodies I have used the center red dot in the viewfinder exclusively for focus confimation...
Never even look at the green hex


I don't use the hex because if the hex lights up, you can continue to turn the focus ring forward and back a little and it is still lit!!!!
The depth of field is so shallow on a f1.4 lens, that there is no way it is still in focus if the hex comes on and then you can turn the ring and it still be on.

I am more than happy to continue to post photos showing red dot focus confirmation if you would like...

[hinman]

Gus,

The next time if I ever hear you whine about the Pentax system, I am going to remind you with your beautiful photos with MF lenses. Very impressive MF shots.

Due to my use with bifocal glass, I myself take the red focus dot as the main focus reference no matter how wrong the approach is. I am aware of the green hexagon as the AF confirmation but I treat both of them to be equivalent of each other. Whether which one is the one to rely on is debatable. But my preference has always been the red dot in MF as I like to focus on where I am aiming in MF without the need to shift my attention from center to bottom of the VF.

I don't want to undermine the outstanding K-x with this minor inconveniences. Yes, I still consider it minor thing as there are workarounds and the inconveniences don't apply to AF lenses and MF in good lighting and quiet shooting scenes.

Let me summarize briefly on scenes related to missing red focal point:

1. With AF lenses -- I find it quite easy to adapt to the green hexagon on bottom with beep for confirmation. To me, it is almost an non issue.

2. With AF lenses in AF-C in sports, birding, panning type of shooting -- this will be a bit lacking when you choose the 5 point and 11 point auto focal point select. At point of focus lock in half-press, you are only confirmed with AF in the green hexagon in bottom of VF while you are not given a indication on which of the 5 points or 11 points is chosen in the auto selection.

3. With MF lenses in good lighting, with some practices, I would say this is almost an non-issue especially if you have good eyesight or if you have focusing aid with magnifier, katz-eyes, split screen where you rely on your eyesight instead of the red dot. Even in my case where I rely on the red dot, I can re-train myself with the green hexagon. It is almost an non-issue but if I am asked to choose a better body for manual focusing between my K20D or K-x, or even my previous K100D, it will not be the K-x.

4. With MF lenses in poor lighting, noisy environment and perhaps macro. I find this more difficult to do with K-x as I can hardly hear the beep in a noisy venue as in a performance. And in the dim lighting, I can hardly see the green hexagon. I see red much easier than green in a dark venue. I feel under-whelmed and not empowered to make the shot with confidence. It is more to do with security and confidence in the shooting. Focusing will also be hampered if I turn catch-in focus to be ON in the dark, it can be frustrating at times where I miss the red dot to help me to close in to small object as the eyes of a person from a distance in the dark. In my use of MF lenses, I often rely on the red dot to guide me as a reference to the shooting object.

Thanks,
Hin

[hinman]

The K-x does extremely well in indoor kind of shooting with DA 40mm f/2.8. All the following are done with K-x and DA 40mm f/2.8 with all default settings with no post processing. No flash is used. Default NR is medium.

1/80 sec, f/2.8, 40mm, iso 1600, 0 Ev


1/80 sec, f/3.5, 40mm, iso 2500, 0 Ev


1/60 sec, f/3.2, 40mm, iso 6400, 0 Ev



1/80 sec, f/3.5, 40mm, iso 3200, 0 Ev


1/60 sec, f/2.8, 40mm, iso 6400, 0 Ev


1/30 sec, f/2.8, 40mm, iso 6400, 0 Ev
This is quite a dark scene


Pentax K-x White High ISO

The K-x is quite excellent in indoor shooting and it works extremely well in the dark with DA 40mm f/2.8 limited, Focus hunting is very minimal and all AF is quite responsive and I feel very empowered to make the shot in indoor. The high ISO performance in K-x is the best that I have seen in Pentax. With raw and more powerful noise handling software, I think the K-x can do even more than the few jpg pictures that I show here.

Thanks,
Hin

[Recercare]

If it showed when you were completely out of focus, it'd show all the time.

If you check your manual, it always talks of focus confirmation as the hexagonal symbol at the bottom. The red dot is only an AF point indicator.

I never said it showed when completely out of focus......

The point is that the red indicator will show as long as the subject is within DOF. That means it's not 100% accurate. For example, when taking pictures at a concert the red dot can show when focusing on the eyes, but then it turns out that focus was on the microphone. However, the eyes are still sharp because they're within DOF.

Kind regards
.lars

[PentHassyKon]

Hin, and others with the K-x

It sure looks like the Pentax strategy of pancakes (DA Limited) with what appeared to be "slow" speed is finally coming to fruition with the K-x. Being able to carry the pancakes and using them with a sensor that matches appears to be here. Shots shown here are good enough for me. Curious to see if some B&W shots at ISO 3200, 6400, 12800 can be shown. My interest would be to use the camera for available light photos at night, street candids while on travel.

Additional question for those of you who have one - I'm trying to see how the K-x compares to the K-7 and more specifically, the K200d (which I currently own). One of my kids' complaints whenever I bring my k200d with us is "you're camera is too big and you like a tourist".

I can trade the WR of my K200d for the small(er) size and high ISO performance of the K-x; just need to see what the size delta is between the K-x and the K200d.

[dragonfly]

You need a sticker for your camera body that reads "Not a tourist" just to cheese them off.

[deadwolfbones]

The K-x convinced me to complete my set of DA Limiteds... my DA 15 should be getting here sometime after Christmas.

Will probably end up getting the FA Limiteds as well, dammit.