Hye dkoons and the rest of people interested in the Pentax system.
In full disclosure, some stuff to remark.
I do not have any kind of affiliation with Hoya, nor Pentax in any of its iterations.
Your mileage may vary depending on what do you expect of the SYSTEM, as opposed to lenses or bodies.
I chose Pentax for a professional standpoint but I do not sell images taken with them: it is for Design and Architecture research purposes, where some of the Pentax system characteristics are very well matched to that kind of photography. Hence, it is not my direct intention to sell or shoot professionally on a controlled environment. I still use the very old *istDS, which suits my shooting needs perfectly. Most importantly, I do not have to learn how to use it.
Bodies and system
The digital Pentax bodies have two sensor manufacturers:
Sony [*istD, *istDS, *ist DL, K100d, K110d and their iterations] 6mpx. Sony 10 mpx [K10d, K200d, Km-K2000]. Sony 12 mpx [Kx, Kr]. Sony 16 mpx [K5].
Samsung 14mpx [K20d, K7]
Overall, both of them have different characteristics: the Samsung sensors have better detail retention when postprocessing, and can easily match the detail of other sensor producers with the same pixel density, but pale in comparison if your ISO goes further than 1600 if compared to Sony or Canon sensors.
Weather sealing: Most of the pentax bodies can withstand weather problems better than other systems. My *istDS has withstood heavy rain with no problem, even when the lens was not sealed. But beware it is ocassional rain, not continuos downpouring. K10d, K20d, K200d, K7 and K5 are fully sealed, and do very well even when shot by a sea wave.
Autofocus system: below par in speed, but above par in accuracy. The Pentax SAFOX implementation is remarkably slow when compared to speed demons, but it is much more accurate, as it double checks the AF sensor infomraiton. Plus, K7 and K5 do take into account colour shift for the AF implementation.
White balance accuracy: in my experience, the Pentax white balance is by quite far the most accurate of them all. It does better reflect the light temperature of any given scene than the lightroom white balance. But, they are not driven to get the most photogenic light. Just the most accurate light for that scene.
A shame Pentax has lost the DOF preview switch on the lower cameras. It worked like a charm on the lower models.
Heft: Pentax bodies are hefty. Not heavy, but have a certain heft. They feel "dense".
Hyper modes: Quite difficult to explain, but remarkably easy to use. The hyper modes are constantly "on" on the bodies unless you specify not to have them. They are very useful on the Av, Tv, TAv and Iso preference modes. What they do [the best explanation I ever found]:
When Pentax brought out the Pentax Z-1 / PZ-1 in the early 90′s, they had re-thought the way a camera’s exposure modes should to be implemented, in a most inspired way. They had the usual range of exposures modes we all know, such as Shutter Priority (Tv) and Aperture Priority (Av). But Program mode became Hyper-Program; and Manual mode became Hyper-Manual. Sure this sounded gimmicky, until you handled the camera and realised what they achieved.
Hyper-Program worked like Program mode, except that if you dialed the shutter button, it would immediately change to Shutter Priority (Tv), as you change to specific shutter speeds. Similarly, if you dialled the Aperture dial, then the camera instantly changed to Aperture Priority mode (Av), as you set the aperture. No need to switch mode dials on the top of the camera. You just turned either the aperture dial or shutter speed dial to change between the modes at will. And if you wanted to return to the usual Program mode, you just hit the * (star) button. Intuitive and simple. (And no, this is completely different than Program Shift.)
Hyper-Manual worked a similar elegant magic in how you controlled the camera’s manual exposure mode. Let’s say you rely on your built-in meter in this scenario. If you use any other camera in manual exposure mode, you have to dial the shutter button and aperture button to get to the correct combination for proper exposure. With Hyper-Manual, you just hit the * button, and the camera entered a combination of settings for you, depending on where you pointed your camera. This combination of settings could be according to a Program-mode line, or according to the shutter speed your camera happened to be at; or the aperture your camera happened to be at. (This was set deeper in the menu according to your preference.)
Let’s say you knew you’d be working at f2.8 .. then you’d just hit the * button and the appropriate shutter speed was entered for you. Perfect for working with the camera’s spot-meter. If you’ve ever tried to spot-meter with a long lens on your camera while hand-holding it, AND looking at your metering display .. then you know how tough it is. But with Hyper-Manual mode, you just hit the * button while looking precisely where your spot-meter is aiming. Much faster. You just hit one button with your thumb, and you’re set.
Now, should you decide you have the correct exposure, but want to change your shutter speed or aperture, then you hit the Exposure Lock button, and change either the aperture or shutter speed .. and the other setting will follow in relation to the metering value that was entered.
With any other camera, let’s say you have 1/500th @ f2.8 but you want 1/200th @ f4.5 .. then you’d have to turn both dials by the same amount of clicks. But with Hyper-Manual mode, you lock the exposure combination, and just change the one dial. Either one. Doesn’t matter. [Nevil Niekerk]
Nowadays, it is the green button the one which does the magic, or the star in the older digital bodies such as the *ist series.
A problem with the system is modern lens avaliability. Cosina has dropped the K mount [not a good sing, in principle, for reasons stated below], and Sigma and Tamron implementations are very slow to appear but for consumer grade zooms.
Tethered shooting is achievable with difficulty.
Navigation through menus is easy and straightforward, with no fancy graphics.
Shutter is quite quiet.
Buffer is usually on the lower side of the competition.
They usually tend to underexpose in order to prevent highlights blowing [and stated as such on the user manual: the exposure is usually 0.5 EV below the right exposure, standard, not to have highlights problems].
And, you can´t show-off having a Pentax: they are not cameras, they are tools [except the flashy Kx and Kr colour combination, which actually is a smart decission: broader market and they look like toys].
The worst handicap is on-store avaliability. Not to worry on big cities, but very tricky for regular size cities. They are very difficult to see on consumer retailers, as opposed to Sony, Nikon and Canon bodies.
And body stabilization.
Some of the bodies can use AA batteries [a must for me].
Lenses and Flashes
The K mount was born as a Zeiss-Asahi collaboration. But Zeiss retracted, and as it was supposed to be a universal mount, it was free of royalties. That is the reason why you now can get that amount of exotic lenses with the K mount, including russian optics. They didn´t have to pay for the mount blueprints.
As said, there are not too many lenses to choose from. But everything is perfectly scaled within the Pentax branded lenses, with no real duplicates or versions to confuse. A broad selection of lenses does not indicate a good selection of lenses. Even the very long lenses can be obtained via personal order to Pentax [they still manufacture the A* 600 mm on order], or adapting 645 or 67 lenses with the propper adapter, sold by Pentax.
It is a very vertical system, not horizontal. Meaning that you can climb up the ladder in lenses with a 35mm mount into 67 mount lenses of the same brand, but very difficult to get good lenses with other brands [moreover, Tokina and Pentax have now the very same parent company, Hoya].
Flashes are very tricky [or Flash Units]. Pentax uses a propietary metering system from the *istDS on [the *ist DS had dual metering system for flashes]. P-TTL is the standard, and that very much reduces the choice to Pentax heads and some Sigma and Metz heads.
So,all in all, it is a good system with some caveats, mainly regarding marketing and brand knoweledge. It is very satisfactory if you are looking for a system as a tool, which renders very neutral images but for some lenses [the FA Limited are very "characterful"]. They are reliable, but slower than the competition. Being slower does not mean they are less responsive. They are perfectly addecuate, specially when using manual focus lenses, where the slowest part of the system is the photographer.
My best advice is not to buy them based on specs, but try them on shops with your own card, and compare the results at home. Handle them, see if you´re familiar with it, how you feel them and how ready they are when your brain goes "click!".
