 Excellent entry level DSLR |
| Review Date: October 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Jinsoo Kim, |
I received this camera last Friday. I had 2 full days to take great shots with this camera. I purchased two bundle kit, which comes with 18-55mm lens as well as 50-200mm lens. I have another manual focus lens, which is A50.7.
One of the most asked questions about this camera is AF speed. Yes, AF is pretty quick. To test AF speed, I sometimes turn focus ring to opposite direction and checked the time it takes to set the focus. It was usually less than 0.4s. Even in low light situation, it worked fine. I took many shots with only one small table light in the living room so, ISO was 6400 and shutter speed was 1/4. Camera doesn't seem to have any problem for AF. Nice thing as a entry level camera is that it supports up to 11 AF point and you can choose your AF point. Some may say, it lacks super impose. mindazonáltal, simply touching 'ok' button reveals current AF point in the LCD screen. So, that's not a problem. AF is sharp and accurate. In MF mode, camera indicates the right focus in two ways both sound and indicator. So, there's no problem using manual focus lens. in Liveview mode, Camera magnifies focus point to assist you, which is very useful since viewfinder is very small.
High ISO support. This is the best part I like about this camera. It supports up to 6400, and can be expanded to 12800. I took several shots outside around 6:00 óra. My friends used flash but my K-x didn't require flash. with 3200 or 6400 ISO, it still gave me clean bright pictures. Pentax did a great job reducing noise, especially color noise. It's hard to find the noise from the pictures. Now, 3200 is something you can use everyday. Actually, scene mode for the kids uses very high ISO to get 1/1000s or faster shutter speed. Thanks to that, pictures for my kids are all sharp and crispy.
User interface is very intuitive and simple. Since this camera is small, most of the buttons are within reach of your thumb and index fingers. Though it's small, grip is ergonomically designed so that camera is very stable in your hand. It has one auxiliary button (green button), which you can assign other functions. It has drive mode, ISO, White balance, aperture and flash buttons. It also has dial to navigate menu faster.
It uses 4 AA batteries and this is really nice. You can use your Ni-MH batteries or Lithium-ION batteries. It your camera is run out of juice, you can go nearby stores and buy one quickly. I took about 250 shots and I didn't need to recharge yet. Camera recognizes battery type automatically and optimizes the operation.
with all the bells and whistles, I think Pentax K-x is super buy for the beginners. Not only it has all the features needed, it outperforms higher grade DSLRs in certain area like low noise. Thanks to great compatibility for the mount, even 30 years old lens can be used for this fresh new DSLR. It was quite fun to look at postings to sell old, student film camera kit at bargain price and you can use lens out of it. I also got 50mm fast lens which is excellent to take portrait shot from used market.
A few updates.
1. Some folks reported battery compatibility issue. Below is the blog of Pentax USA President. He recommended user to put batteries and wait for a few seconds so that Camera recognizes the type of batteries.
[...]
2. It also reveals a few problems related to Shake reduction. First, it produces noise from magnet handling CMOS censor. Bad thing is, this noise is recorded in movie mode. K-7 also has same issue but it supports external microphone. K-x doesn't allow that so, this can be one issue.
3. It also shows color overflow problem under low light situation, especially red and blue. When there's bright light, for example traffic signal, red color or blue color spread around as if it overflows.
A few users reported above problems to Pentax R&D and they are supposed to return by 11/9. I hope firmware upgrade will fix those problems. |
Little Wonder
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| Review Date: November 5, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Enche Tjin, Philadelphia, PA |
Pentax Kx is Pentax digital SLR for beginner and enthusiast. Pentax Kx replaces Pentax KM / K2000. There are many improvements from KM, such as three stops higher ISO setting, video recording, faster continuous shooting, 11 selectable auto focus points and 12.3 megapixel image resolution (compare to 10 mp). Kx shares same body as Km, so it is still very compact but not weather-sealed like Pentax k200, k20d or k7. It also use four AA batteries instead of lithium batteries.
BODY & HANDLING
Pentax Kx weights 581g, and its dimension is 122 x 92 x 69 mm. It is one of the smallest DSLR camera around, but not the lightest because of body material and 4X AA batteries.
Using batteries has been always been debated, some people like to have lithium battery with their camera, especially those who does not or concern about reliability of rechargeable batteries. Some might prefer the universal AA batteries because they are available everywhere and the rechargeable one is relatively cheaper compare to lithium one.
Built quality of this camera is generally good for beginner digital SLR, sturdy and substantial. Ergonomic is not the best especially for people that has big hand or finger, but it is good in general.
Like KM, the camera interface has been simplified yet very accessible. It has one thumb dial which you will use this a lot to change setting values. There are dedicated trash button, AF/AE-L, exposure compensation button, customizabe green button, live view button, info button, four way buttons which are shared with ISO, WB, Flash, self timer. These are basically what you will need and expect from a good digital SLR camera.
There is also a shooting mode dial, where you can find manual and semi automatic control. There are also some popular scenes mode and video mode. Unique to Pentax, there is Sv (sensitivity mode), which allow you to set preferred ISO and let the camera decide on aperture and shutter speed value.
Changing setting is fast and easy because of availability of many dedicated buttons. Main LCD screen could be activated by turning the camera to ON position or pressing INFO button. Pressing INFO button twice, you will get 12 squares representing popular settings such as auto HDR, image size, shake reduction, etc.
This small control panel is a great help and better than Nikon's info screen, but it is not better than Olympus super control panel.
LCD SCREEN & VIEWFINDER
LCD screen is basic, plain 2.7" , 230k. Compared to recent years DSLR, this screen is a bit outdated but it is not bad. Viewfinder is relatively big compare to beginner DSLR camera. Only Canon 500d and 450D can match the size of the viewfinder.
AUTO FOCUS PERFORMANCE
Auto focus (used with 18-55 kit lens) is surprisingly fast in bright light or low light situation. You will get AF confirmation in the viewfinder (hexagonal green dot) but there is no indicator where the active focus point is. For who that rely on automatic 5 points, 11 points or central point AF, it might not be a problem, but for those who usually use other individual AF point, it might be a bit of inconvenience.
IMAGE QUALITY AND ISO
Pentax Kx images in natural setting are not bright and saturated like competitor like Canon DSLR, but they are more muted and a bit cold. It is similar to Nikon DSLR such as Nikon D90. Nikon and Pentax Kx uses Sony sensor, and that might explain the similarity.
But don't too worry if you don't like muted color, because you can always set higher saturation in Pentax custom setting or deal with it later in your favorite photo editing program. But off course it won't match Canon color when you both set the saturation setting to the max.
The sensor strength is on high ISO setting. It matches Nikon D90 and even slightly better. Combined with built in shake reduction, this camera is very good in low light photography such as night scene or indoor performance. This performance might be the best for crop sensor camera up to date and only to be beaten by expensive full frame camera such as Nikon D700 12.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) or Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
OTHER FACTS & FINDINGS
* Pentax Kx is available in 100 colors combination in Japan
* Built-in photo processing like auto HDR is slow (takes approx. 10 sec to process and to make a good HDR, you need tripod). It also drain batteries power quickly. Live view, movie recording is very basic for DSLR standard and it also drain batteries. Prepare plenty of rechargeable AA batteries if you keen on using these features.
* The kit lens 18-55mm is generally an OK kit lens, but to get better image quality especially sharpness and image acuity, I recommend you to look for some better lenses such as Pentax 16-45 f4 or 17-70mm f4.
COMPETITOR
Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens Price: $750
is a leading beginner cameras with 3" hi-res LCD and 15 megapixel image resolution. The most important maybe the access to Canon extensive lenses. But this camera is more expensive and slower in continuous burst (only 3.5 fps), no built-in image stabilization, and image is not as clean as Pentax Kx' image in high ISO setting.
Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Lens and 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD Price: $700
D5000 is also a great low light performer like its brother Nikon D90, but the problem with this camera is lack of built-in auto focus motor. This limit your lens selection. There is no built-in image stabilization either. Like Canon and Pentax beginner DSLR cameras, D5000 has live view and movie mode, plus swivel screen.
Olympus Evolt E620 12.3MP Live MOS Digital SLR Camera with Image Stabilization and 2.7 inch Swivel LCD w/ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Lens Price: $700
The E-620 is very small and compact because of smaller image sensor (which is actually a disadvantage). E-620 has swivel LCD screen and built-in image stabilization. Click the camera name for review.
CONCLUSION
Pentax Kx is a small wonder. It is great camera for low light condition, very portable (especially combined with Pentax pancake lenses), and the design is very user-friendly. It has two problems that prevent this camera to be the perfect beginner/enthusiasts camera: the active auto focus indicator is absent , and battery life is short when you use photo retouching features and record movie often. mindazonáltal, with the current price point, this camera gives you a better value than its competitors.
Subjective Rating - Relative to entry level DSLR cameras 2009
Image Quality : 5/5
Features : 5/5
Performance : 5/5
Body and Handling : 4/5
Value for Money : 5/5
For image samples and iso comparison please visit my blog. You can find the link through my Amazon profile.
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