Originally posted by benjikan I am quite taken a back by many of the questions regarding the pro capacity of the K10D. There have been the doubting Thomas's that ask.."Is there a Pro Pentax?" or why doesn't Pentax make a pro camera etc etc etc. The answer is this. The K10D is the Nikon D200 of Pentax. It compares favorably with all of the top end dslr's on the market. So why these insecurities? I think it has more to do with the perceived value of the camera. If it sold for 1500€, the public perception would be the contrary. Perhaps Pentax should re-consider their pricing just to satisfy those who perceive value solely by the price tag.
Ben, I have to disagree with you. The K10D is not in the D200 class and it is never a D200 equivalence.
1. It focuses much slower and less accurate than the D200;
2. It meters far less accurately and consistently than the D200;
3. Continous shooting speed is less: 3fps Vs 5fps;
4. Continuous AF is slow with much lower hit rate;
5. Low light AF speed and accurate is of huge difference (just check the pophoto lab test results to see the differences);
6. If you use both continuous AF with continuous frame mode, the K10D cannot keep the frame rate of 3fps and D200 can keep at 5fps with more frames in focus;
7. Time lag figures as measured by the Imaging Resource in lab is a huge difference, no matter what focusing mode is chosen. The D200 is only having a mere of 57ms which is close to the D2 series. The K10 figures is more or less around 200ms except for prefocused in AF single mode, which is still around 100ms (yet slower than the Canon 30D which is 68ms);
8. Construction and build are felt differently. D200 is of metal alloy body whereas K10 is of plastic. The weather sealed buttons, switches and knobs of D200 is sharp and crisp to turn with clear cut positioning where as the K10D ones are rather stiff - the K100D is much better here and similar to the D200;
Afterall, in a few words, you get what you pay for, it is the universal truth. What do one expect for a DSLR body with the feature riched specifications of the K10D but it is just sold at a price a little bit more expensive than the 400D and D40X?