k10D vs D80

dLight said:

It's may be to get an somewhat OK price for a D80 when you at some
point in the future want to sell it, because the Nikon market is
larger.

The K10D seem to have slightly punchier, sharper RAW files.

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But less sharper JPEGs on default or even probably any parameters. K10D also shows some problems with vertical banding at high ISO but mostly in quite unrealistic scenarios. It's up to you weather JPEG softness and VPN issues bother you. They don't bother me in a single bit.

dLight said:

The K10D has Digital Preview.

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Questionable value, imo. K10D just takes a photo as normal and then displays it without saving to the card. But in this mode it repalces optical DOF preview which's much more important, imo.

dLight said:

The D80 has dedicated buttons for WB and ISO.

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But K10D has awesome Hyper Program mode and with firmware 1.1 one can assign ISO change to one of the wheels.

Lack of direct WB and even burst mode buttons on K10D is really annoying.

dLight said:

The D80 has a dedicated Auto-focus assist lamp.

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And D80 AF can focus in lower light and in general faster and more precise. Better tracking. Nikon has a bunch of AF-S lenses with ultrasonic motors in every price range. Pentax just promises few DA* lens in an upper price bracket.

dLight said:

K10D has a RAW-button.

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That's indeed an awesome feature.

dLight said:

The K10D may be slightly more suitable for smaller hands.

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Probably.

dLight said:

The graphics on the LCD-menus of the D80 has a cleaner design.

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Much better than k10D. There's also a builtin extensive help system. D80 menu puts on top most frequently used menu items which's great.

D80 also comes with protective LCD cover.

dLight said:

The D80 RAW files use less space.

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Than what DNG? Compressed PEF seems similar in size to NEF.

Speaking of RAW files K10D also supports DNG (manufacture neutral RAW format) which's a big plus in my book.

To continue the list:

K10D has builtin shake reduction (SR) which's great.

K10D body is weather sealed which's great.

K10D has anti-dust shake which doesn't seem to to work all that well.

K10D offers some unique exposure modes that add greatly to flexibility while shooting.

K10D can develop RAW in-camera (why?) but D80 has a bunch of helpfull in-camera postprocessing features such as D-Lighting, overlay, etc.

Nikon's lens and flash systems are incomparably vaster and much more available than that of Pentax. One may argue that Pentax has unique offering of light, small and optically perfect primes but Zeiss also makes some exquisite primes for Nikon. Support for Nikon mount among 3rd party manufacturers is much bigger. If you are into macro flash Pentax currently doesn't offer ring-light flash.

Nikon is a very established and bigger company. Pentax future is a little bit cloudy at the moment.

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http://www.pbase.com/klopus

tapir said:

Nikon is a very established and bigger company. Pentax future is a little bit cloudy at the moment.

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But then again, underdogs like Pentax (vs. Nikon) and Apple (vs. Microsoft) seem to work harder to prove that they are worth buying...

dLight said:

dLight said:

Nikon is a very established and bigger company. Pentax future is a little bit cloudy at the moment.

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But then again, underdogs like Pentax (vs. Nikon) and Apple (vs.
Microsoft) seem to work harder to prove that they are worth
buying...

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That's all nice but the question is whether Pentax waited too long to started trying harder. And then the field alredy is full of other hungry underdogs like Oly and Sony (yes, in DSLRs Sony is an underdog). In latter case much better funded underdogs.

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http://www.pbase.com/klopus

tapir said:

dLight said:

tapir said:

Nikon is a very established and bigger company. Pentax future is a little bit cloudy at the moment.

Click to expand...

But then again, underdogs like Pentax (vs. Nikon) and Apple (vs.
Microsoft) seem to work harder to prove that they are worth
buying...

Click to expand...

That's all nice but the question is whether Pentax waited too long
to started trying harder. And then the field alredy is full of
other hungry underdogs like Oly and Sony (yes, in DSLRs Sony is an
underdog). In latter case much better funded underdogs.

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I think the success of the K10D and K100D show that Pentax did not wait too long. Not to mention by the end of this year Pentax will have a very full line of lenses IMO...

tapir said:

--
http://www.pbase.com/klopus

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--
mike
Gallery: http://www.pbase.com/mrgphoto/

pic_ist said:

tapir said:

That's all nice but the question is whether Pentax waited too long
to started trying harder. And then the field alredy is full of
other hungry underdogs like Oly and Sony (yes, in DSLRs Sony is an
underdog). In latter case much better funded underdogs.

Click to expand...

I think the success of the K10D and K100D show that Pentax did not
wait too long. Not to mention by the end of this year Pentax will
have a very full line of lenses IMO...

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So when K100D and K10D were released, mid and end last year respectively? Don't you think that Pentax took its sweet time for few years rehashing one and the same 6MP body until finally deciding less than a year ago to work harder and differentiate with SR? Success can come too late as KM (which beat Pentax to the punch with in-body stabilization) can certainly testify. Being bought out by Hoya and not for DSLR business doesn't also seem like a success.

pic_ist said:

Gallery: http://www.pbase.com/mrgphoto/

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--
http://www.pbase.com/klopus

tapir said:

Being bought out
by Hoya and not for DSLR business doesn't also seem like a success.

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Unless you're bought out because you're small and profitable.

nosnoop said:

Only if you plan on having a 3, 4, 5 or more Nikon flashes set up
for its multi-channel wireless flash. For one or two external
wireless TTL flash, Pentax system works well.

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I thought the Pentax P-TTL system had exposure quirks (less w/ firmware 1.10...before that, it had consistent underexposure)? Someone switched from a 540 flash to a Metz in Auto mode as a result. It almost sounds like the gripes from Canon users w/ the first version of their I-TTL

I've heard good things about the Nikon SB600/SB800 flashes and the D80's metering is supposedly better...

not really... even Nikon did the same thing with the Sony 6MP sensor and its cameras in the classes that Pentax had its models aimed...

D100... D
D70, D70s.... DS, DS2
D50... DL/DL2
D40... K100D

Looks to me like they were running along side Nikon...

If they had a sensor I am sure the K10D would have been out sooner as well. However, Nikon's agreement with Sony gave them a full years access to that unit prior to Pentax having access to it.

The KM story is a FAR different one from Pentax... its way too long to get into here though... if you do a search you will find some interesting reading...

--
mike
Gallery: http://www.pbase.com/mrgphoto/

pic_ist said:

Questionable value, imo. K10D just takes a photo as normal and then displays it without saving to the card.

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Can the Digital Preview show the results of various White Balance settings without having to take a new 'preview picture' for each WB setting? Or is it possible to activate digital preview, change the WB settings, and see the results in real time on the taken picture?

Yes. It uses whatever was the last picture taken or previewed. I think even if you have erased all the photos on the card, it still keeps the last one stored internally for use in WB.

Bart
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http://www.pbase.com/zumbari