Yeah, I love my Pentax K100D.

It also has in-body IS and is hella cheap. Also, compatible with all K-mount lenses going back to the 60s (by nature) and all M42 lenses (via cheap adapter). Word is you can also natively mount some old Nikkor lenses.

i'm not very far into the review at dpreview, but it seems as if the sony alpha has the same anti-dust mechanism as the olympus, with the difference being sony mechanism activates at power-off, and the olympus activates at power-on.

reviewers seem to dislike the vibration cleaning at power-on, as it extends the power-on time to a little over a second, but, in my thinking it is better to apply the cleaning before you take any pictures, rather than after.

granted, with the olympus, you can manually activate the filter anytime you want, so i'd imagine that you can do the same with the sony.

That can be changed by option though, you can tell both to not clean.. ever or, clean at start up and shut off, either or, or just by going into the menu and telling it to clean itself.

I've seen some pretty good pictures come out of (possibly straight out of) DWB's Pentax, I don't know how picture quality compares to the other two, but Pentax has decades backing them up in photography, which few people knew/know about, Pentax is a relatively unknown name in photography, until fairly recently they've been trying to grow into a larger company it seems.

But yea, size wise I believe the K100D is even smaller than the D40, I think it's a few ounces lighter too.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Word is you can also natively mount some old Nikkor lenses.

really? I've got one of those from the 80s. at least i think its a nikkor. both it, and the minolta (from the mid 90s) slrs were given to me by my parents when they upgraded to a newer camera.

the nikkor has a standard lens and a zoom lens. granted, neither of them are auto (the minolta one is), but still. having those 2 lenses potentially available is a huge bonus to the pentax. i'm definitely going to have to look into that.

Quote from XCNuse :

...but it didn't have IS, which is a MUUUUST for anything beyond 100mm

not really, my sigma 70-300 has no IS and it takes decent pics, considering the price. You just have to keep it above f8, as it tends to be quite soft with lower f numbers.

Quote from Don :

not really, my sigma 70-300 has no IS and it takes decent pics, considering the price. You just have to keep it above f8, as it tends to be quite soft with lower f numbers.

Do you hand-hold or use a tripod? The problem with sticking to higher f-numbers is that the exposure times go up, making camera shake more difficult to avoid. I've got IS on both my main lenses (17-85 and 70-300) and I love it, though it's a bit wasted on the standard zoom until you get past about 60mm.

I shoot handheld. Yes, long exposure times are problem (hence my next target is prime canon 200/2.8 ), but on 350D you can crank up the iso up to 400 and still get decent image quality and exposure times

wow...the k100d w/ lens is $499 and there is a $100 rebate through the end of the month :eek:

that's almost retardedly cheap!

and it uses standard AA batteries, which is very nice.

Pros
• the pricing
• using "normal" batteries so emergency replacements are easy to come by
• large selection of lenses, potentially including 2 i own

Cons
• Only goes as low as ISO 200
• Images seem to have a little more noise than similar competition
• IS seems to be not as effective as other models

An ISO of 200 really isn't bad, the D40 ranges from 200-3200, 3200 which becomes retardedly full of noise is absolutely pointless, which is why they made it inaccesable to the standard users that don't know the potential of a camera (litereally, they hid it from users that aren't aware of the full functionality of the camera.. seriously, there's an option to turn on "all options")

By the way, AA bateries sounds like a bad idea, my D40 I can charge it, and take around 500+ pictures easily with it, I haven't charged it in a month, and still have half a battery left, and that's after taking several long exposure shots.
No Alkaline or any sort of AA can do that.

Maybe I should look through the review of the K100D at dpreview, see the comparison shots, I've no idea what 100% magnification looks like between the K100D and the D40

edit - well I just looked through the pictures, I'd say they're relatively close, close enough to not see any difference that is.

Incorrect on the batteries, Nuse.

I use Sanyo Eneloops in mine ($20 for 4 and a charger, $10 for another 4) and I get 500 shots or so on a charge. The eneloops also don't self-discharge. Leave them sitting for a year with a full charge and they'll still have 90% when you get back to them.

ISO 200 is perfect on the K100D and it's solid all the way up to ISO 1600 in good light. 3200 is pretty unusable, but whatev.

glyphon, if I might throw this in to tempt you: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/

there's also a great forum for pentax users at http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums

lots of help available, a good b/s/t forum, and a review database for pentax lenses.

HArjun do you have sister? i should marry her

What type of batteries are those Sanyos? Li ion?
Typically it's bad to store at batteries at full power too you know.

NiMH + Alkaline. It's a unique design.

http://www.eneloop.info/whatseneloop.html

I was about to say Nickel hydride but wasn't sure, but Nickel hydride and Alkaline what the heck?!

Weird stuff I'll have to read about that.

I guess NiMH + Alkaline isn't exactly right. Read up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eneloop

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

I guess NiMH + Alkaline isn't exactly right. Read up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eneloop

LSD-NiMH, even better

No wonder all of DWB's pictures look like this to him....

Quote from mrodgers :

LSD-NiMH, even better

No wonder all of DWB's pictures look like this to him....

if i take LSD with Nimh battery i could see the world like that

ah damn. it wasn't a nikkor. its a fujica (ax-3). and it seems to use a camera mount that didn't really catch on...fujica-x.

the wide angle lens is a 50mm f1.6 Fujinon. supposedly a very nice little lens. the telephoto lens is a 100-200mm f4.5 Sigma. Don't know much of anything about this lens.

i saw on bhphoto there is a fujica-x to t-mount adaptor. which doesn't seem to be used by anything current. there's a t-mount adaptor for a bunch of other mounts, but that can't be good to use an adaptor on an adaptor. guess i'm not going to be able to use these lenses with whatever i get, which is a shame.

Keep in mind that with adapters you lose the entire purpose of an auto anything on the camera, once you put an adapter in, you get full manual, and at best (luck), you'll get a meter reading.

By the way lol, 50mm is in no way wide angle
Super wide 6(whatever the lowest is out there)-20mm "wide angle"
Wide angle 20-30mm "wide angle"
Standard angle 30-80mm "standard"
Small angle 80+mm "telephoto"
(guesstimates of course, those are by no means any benchmark)

Keep in mind they aren't called "zoom" in SLRs, a "zoom" lens in SLR talk means it has a variable angle, meaning it's .. say 18-55mm that is a "zoom" lens, it offers more than one angle of view.

Quote from XCNuse :

Keep in mind that with adapters you lose the entire purpose of an auto anything on the camera, once you put an adapter in, you get full manual, and at best (luck), you'll get a meter reading.

By the way lol, 50mm is in no way wide angle

yeah, i know that with adapters all auto functions are lost. and the 50mm lens is wider than the telephoto lens is all i meant.

also, i could have called the telephoto lens a zoom lens, because it is...says so on the barrel Sigma Zoom-K. but i didn't refer to it as zoom because that's not really description i wanted to convey about it

although, i didn't know that's what "zoom" meant. good to know.

Also remember that dSLRs have a magnification factor... mostly 1.5x but I think Olympus is 2x. So a 50mm lens, for example, is 75mm equivalent on a dSLR where it's 50mm on a full frame (film) body.

This is why fisheye lenses for dSLRs are 10mm or lower and wide angle lenses are 16 or 18mm or so.

Not all dSLRs have magnification factors, just.. 95% do lol.

I don't know any others, but Canon has a Full Frame with the 5D, and has 1.7x and 1.2x models. No idea what the 1.2x models are, but from what I can tell majority are 1.7x.
Nikon now has the new D3 with their "FX" frame, which is their first dSLR with a full frame, and their normal DX are 1.5x factors.

Imo, sensor sizes relatively with lens focal length determines the crop factor. Most entry level & mid level cameras have APS-C size sensor which those camera's sensors are smaller than original "film(35mm.)" dimensions. There are many 35 mm. dSLR out there, like Canon 5D, Nikon D2X etc.

Harjun,
If you really addicted to photography, then DSLR is most meaningfull way to go, at least at the beginning. There are many sophisticated way to go like full frame etc., but for a beginner D40/x, 400XTi, K100D/super all good and all has pros/cons, dig a little and you will find out what.
Chosing a DSLR is not like buying a point&shoot, it is about buying a SYSTEM. So, think twice and, make it real. My personal advice; dont look too much only to the bodies of the DSLR, it is temporary, it will probably change in few years, look for more permanent member; lenses, lens variation and if they satisfied you.

I am a beginner, had a K100D and it is OK. I searched long time before buy it.

Some good sites about DPhotography are here;
http://www.steves-digicams.com
http://www.imaging-resource.com
http://www.dpreview.com
http://www.geofflawrence.com
http://www.flickr.com/groups/e ... discuss/72057594138421542
http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/index.php
http://www.digitalreview.com
Night photography:
http://www.thenocturnes.com/message.html