Pentax K200d or Sony A200

Howdi guys,

Getting my first DSLR and am a complete newbie at it and am seeking abit of advice. Going to be getting a Sony/Pentax 18-250mm lens with either camera as its mainly for holiday snaps etc. (for the time being)

The camera will be used mainly to shoot jpegs while travelling on holidays etc.

Both are similar cameras with features that I am after. One has AA's the other has a Cell battery.

Both camera's feel good in the hand. I was happy to choose the Sony A200 before I read a review that concluded by saying: If you are after a DSLR mainly for jpegs probably look elsewhere......

So now am strongly considering going back to my original choice - the K200d

I am after a camera that I can grow with as I get a little more confidence.

Both cameras felt great to hold so I can't really decide based on that.

Does the K200d take "good-ish" jpeg shots?

Thanks for any advice.

Steve.

From the few samples I have seen, JPEGS from the K200D look great, so no problems there. They did a lot of work on the JPEG engine since the K10D which used the same sensor, so you have a decent range of processing parameters in the camera.

For travelling I would say the environmental sealing and AA batteries give the Pentax the edge.

The A200 looks like a minor upgrade on the A100 only this time they overdid the noise reduction to cope with the high ISO noise problem. The A300 seems like the same camera with live-view.

sr32 wrote:

Howdi guys,

Getting my first DSLR and am a complete newbie at it and am seeking
abit of advice. Going to be getting a Sony/Pentax 18-250mm lens with
either camera as its mainly for holiday snaps etc. (for the time
being)

The camera will be used mainly to shoot jpegs while travelling on
holidays etc.

Both are similar cameras with features that I am after. One has AA's
the other has a Cell battery.

Both camera's feel good in the hand. I was happy to choose the Sony
A200 before I read a review that concluded by saying: If you are
after a DSLR mainly for jpegs probably look elsewhere......

So now am strongly considering going back to my original choice - the
K200d

I am after a camera that I can grow with as I get a little more
confidence.

Both cameras felt great to hold so I can't really decide based on that.

Does the K200d take "good-ish" jpeg shots?

Thanks for any advice.

Steve.

Hi Steve,

Thanks so much for the reply mate.

I am leaning more toward that K200d and think you have just sealed the deal! :O)

Have been viewing numerous threads within this excellent forums and some of the jpg photos from the K200d look stunning. Let alone the RAW images when I eventually get around to playing with them.

I was actually going to buy it on the weekend but the salesman convinced me that the A200 was the better buy.....but from everything that I have read (and seen) the K200d seems to suit me a little more. I am a little concerned that the Sony may be more user friendly but am sure that I would get used to the Pentax menu system. (Its all a little daunting for me at this stage but am looking forward to having a play around :O)

Thanks alot for your input - really appreciate it mate.

Steve

sr32 wrote:

Hi Steve,

Thanks so much for the reply mate.

I am leaning more toward that K200d and think you have just sealed
the deal! :O)

Have been viewing numerous threads within this excellent forums and
some of the jpg photos from the K200d look stunning. Let alone the
RAW images when I eventually get around to playing with them.

I was actually going to buy it on the weekend but the salesman
convinced me that the A200 was the better buy.....but from everything
that I have read (and seen) the K200d seems to suit me a little more.
I am a little concerned that the Sony may be more user friendly but
am sure that I would get used to the Pentax menu system. (Its all a
little daunting for me at this stage but am looking forward to having
a play around :O)

Thanks alot for your input - really appreciate it mate.

Steve

As you know Salesmen work for commission. Sony have 4 fairly new cameras which they are very eager to promote.

Also if you ever decide to get some other lenses for your camera, You wont have to pay an arm and a leg for the Sony lenses.

Hi guys,

Thanks again for taking the time to reply

Think will be going with the Pentax k200d based on the above. The camera is mainly going to be a hobby and travel camera so will be reassuring to know that I can have the AA's for convenience and the added assurance of a weather proof body.

Funny, when I asked the salesman (who told me to go with the sony) he said the weatherproofing was a pointless advantage as the lense i was getting isn't waterproof......surely the ruggedness of the pentax is an advantage.....

Thanks again!

Steve.

Wise choice!

Even though the lens may not be sealed, having a sealed camera body is advantageous since there are many more openings on a camera body. You should keep a large plastic baggie and a cloth with you at all times when you are outside.

The baggie can be used as a rain cover if you use a tripod, or a place to dump your gear in case the heavens open up and dump on you.

You can still take cameras in the rain by quickly removing the camera from the (water-resistant!) bag, shooting, and wiping the barrel of your lens before stowing the equipment back in your bag.

Enjoy your new camera!

Nick

sr32 wrote:

Hi guys,

Thanks again for taking the time to reply

Think will be going with the Pentax k200d based on the above. The
camera is mainly going to be a hobby and travel camera so will be
reassuring to know that I can have the AA's for convenience and the
added assurance of a weather proof body.

Funny, when I asked the salesman (who told me to go with the sony) he
said the weatherproofing was a pointless advantage as the lense i was
getting isn't waterproof......surely the ruggedness of the pentax is
an advantage.....

Thanks again!

Steve.

Thanks Nick!

and also thanks everyone else for the help. The choices can be pretty daunting when you are a novice hehe

Also thanks for the tips Nick - they will come in handy i'm sure

Steve.

The 18-250mm lens is very versatile for travelling photos. I got one with my K10D body. Should be as useful on a K200D as well.

If you are in the US, do consider the Tamron 18-250mm instead of the Pentax 18-250mm. The Pentax one is a re-badged Tamron with 1 year US warranty. Instead, Tamron gives 6 year US warranty.

Hi,

has anyone experience or is aware of some information/comparison/review of autofocus speed of K200D + DA 18-250mm and A200 + SLA 18250 and Tamron 18-250 on both bodies?

Thanks,
Petr

Personally, I never like sony because they are either cheaply made or crazily expensive. I think the new Sony camera feel better, yet lens prices are still way too much.

Just my $0.02

Steven Lam wrote:

Personally, I never like sony because they are either cheaply made or
crazily expensive.

I have not noticed the former but do agree with the later part of your sentence.

I stopped all Sony purchase when they added Digital Rights Management rootkit software to their CD's. How lond before DRM infested Sony .jpgs? I dont trust them.

My dad picked up a sony slim camera and when it was hooked up to a computer it created a whole bunch of weird directories. The photography part of the camera works good though... ; - )

Hi John!

Any comments from pentax users on battery life. Do the AA batteries
let you take plenty of shots before they are shot. I know they are
easy to get, but it is still annoying to have to replace them during
a photo op.

I have a DS (small screen, no SR = less energy consumption). I bought a new set of Hähnel AAs and on their first charge, I was able to fill a 4GB card with 400 RAWs and the camera was still going strong.
When I was still shooting JPEGs, I often hit 1000 JPEGs on one charge.

A colleague of mine bought the K100D Super and after buying a proper charger and batteries, he was intrigued by the long lasting batteries, several hundred JPEGs for him.

None of those numbers were done with Eneloops. Some people love them, but I prefer the higher capacity of "normal" AAs, as I usually shoot so much that self-discharge is not a huge problem. Plus the battery indicator on my DS gives me plenty of advance notice.
It might make sense to have a set of each.

Changing batteries is slower than with proprietary batteries, but that's a price I gladly pay.
I also use rechargeable AA batteries in:
my flash
my other cameras
my GPS logger
my travel razor
and some non-photo related stuff.

Cheers
Jens

I was in the same boat as you, I just got the K200D as my first DSLR and find that I don't need to access the menus all that much. I use mainly Program and Aperture Priority modes and the single thumb wheel can do most of what I want. The exposure compensation button is great. The only time I go into the menus is to change the ISO, which confuses me every single time. I wish they got rid of the RAW button and change it to ISO.

A summary of why I got the K200D http://www.gaslounge.com/2008/06/why-i-chose-pentax-k200d-over-xsi-d60.html

JensR wrote:

None of those numbers were done with Eneloops. Some people love them,
but I prefer the higher capacity of "normal" AAs, as I usually shoot
so much that self-discharge is not a huge problem. Plus the battery
indicator on my DS gives me plenty of advance notice.

FYI, most people report that the Eneloops, despite not having as high a capacity as other batteries, actually do allow you to take more shots, even when self-discharge is not an issue. The reason is that standard nimh cells start to drop in voltage pretty steadily with shot (eg, each shot uses up 0.1 volt of power, or whatever) and hit the point at which the camera can't use them any more (1.15 volts-ish?) long before you've actually used up much of their capacity. Whereas Eneloops tend to hold closer to their initial voltage through more shots, meaning power remains above 1.1 (or whatever) volts through more shots, before it starts declining rapidly.

So while if you put the batteries in a device that is capable of draining them completely, Eneloops won't last as long, but in the Pentax DSLR's that take AAs, they really do allow more shots for most people, because while they have less capacity over, they take longer to hit that magic knee in the curve where the voltage drops below the camera's threshold.

Of course, I haven't done any controlled tests to prove or disprove this, but that's the usual claim, and my experience does seem consistent with this. In particular, I would observe that since switching to Eneloops a year or so ago, I cannot ever recall ever having to change batteries in the field. Whereas it was not terribly uncommon before, if I went several days in a row with a hundred or more shots. Now that just isn't a problem.

I also use rechargeable AA batteries in:
my flash
my other cameras
my GPS logger
my travel razor
and some non-photo related stuff.

Similar story here, but in most of the other devices, the lower overall capacity of the Eneloops really is an issue, and they definitely don't last as long. The Eneloops I reserve for the camera itself, because as far as I can they are superior in every way, and also for my flash, because I use it seldom enough that self-discharge is a bigger issue than number of shots.

The grip for the K200D is pretty cheap. It's around $100 only. You can put one set on Eneloops in the camera and another set in the grip and you can take an awful lot of pictures.