10 mp or 6 mp?

[lebritches]

Trying to decide what camera to get. The K10 or K100D Super?

 

[Roland Mabo]

The differencies between 10Mp and 6Mp is not that great, but the K10D and k100D are very different cameras. The K10D is a far more advanced model tailored to the more advanced photographer or the photographer that wants to learn about photographic technique. The K100D has several beginner-features that the K10D does not have - such as auto picture modes and scene modes. The K10D body is weatherproff, the K100D is not. The K10D has a larger and bigger pentaprism viewfinder, the K100D has a simpler and smaller pentamirror box. If you are familiar about aperture and shutter, and has no use of scene modes, the K10D is easier to handle.
--
Take care
R
http://www.flickr.com/photos/raphaelmabo

 

[Austrillium]

There is great advice available on this forum, I would suggest however that you give more detail about how you see yourself using the camera.

Outline what you need, want, would like, don't want.

For instance do you need to be able to print large poster size prints or crop a lot.
Will you be taking photos in low light regularly.
etc.

As I said there is alot of great help on this site but it helps other help you if you can provide a little more info about your needs.

 

[simonkit]

It's worth knowing too that the extra MP of the K10D does make a difference if images need cropping, I find it comes in very useful

simon

--
http://www.landscapephotographyuk.com/

North Wales photographs - Snowdonia & Anglesey

 

[RickS]

Simon is quite right, here, and it can be a big issue.

And Roland is right about the many advantages of the K10D's feature set and overall design, but I don't necessarily agree that the difference of 10MP vs. 6MP is not that great. I've been shooting an *istDS for three years and bought a K10D last month. There's a noticeable improvement in resultant image quality between the two (raw to raw).

If you are truly interested in photography as a serious hobby or more, you would benefit from owning the K10D, but it does require a bit more dedication and study to extract the very best from it. No scene modes in that camera (thankfully).

Rick

 

[lebritches]

To further my question here, I guess I should tell you what I would be using the camera for the most. I love taking landscape pictures and a lot of that is of the sky - sunrise, sunset, clouds etc. I know the K10 takes excellent pictures, I have found a lot on the web by that camera. Would someone post landscape photos from the K100D Super so I can see if I would be satisfied with those. I just trying to see if the extra money for the K10 would be worth it or not. Thank you for all your info.!

 

[Russ Houston]

http://www (dot)pentaxphotogallery(dot)com

You can search for images by specific cameras. This will give you tons of images to compare.
--
Russ
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rfortson/
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/russfortson
Even bad photography can be fun

 

[jim yeats]

To further my question here, I guess I should tell you what I would
be using the camera for the most. I love taking landscape pictures
and a lot of that is of the sky - sunrise, sunset, clouds etc. I
know the K10 takes excellent pictures, I have found a lot on the web
by that camera. Would someone post landscape photos from the K100D
Super so I can see if I would be satisfied with those. I just trying
to see if the extra money for the K10 would be worth it or not.
Thank you for all your info.!

Go to http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com and look in the menu for image data and you can pick the camera.

 

[Avi Lewis]

Here's something else you might try to help yourself choose, go to Flickr and check out the K100D group. See if you think the quality of the photos posted there would be sufficient for the picture-taking you envision doing. If it is, I'd say save the weight on your shoulder, and use your savings on the purchase towards other gear. If you feel that you'd do better with the extra pixels, then that choice is clear, too.

One last thing, I don't understand the objections to having the scene modes on board; I've had my K100D for over a year and do not recall using any scene modes (except when first checking that everything was working) ever, but their existence on a menu or on a rotary dial has never intruded on my camera use.

 

[leopold]

Hi,
here is a couple of shots taken with my DS2 (same sensor).

They were taken in RAW and saved in JPEG for here.I made some 11"x14" and they look sharp and colorful,the advantage of the K10D is that it will allow you some cropping.









--
Leopold
Pentax forever

 

[Tom__Brown]

Great summary but I'd like to point out that the K100D is at least a full stop faster than the K10D so if you like to shoot low light, the K100D Super will out perform the K10D with regard to low light performance.

• Tom

--
K100D, DA 16-45, DA 14, DA 40, DA 50-200, and others

 

[henryimages]

I have the K10 and the DL. I do make good use o fhte cropping leeway of the 10 mp sensor. And the on-camera controls are useful, instead of going through the menu. But, the K10 is too heavy when I back pack. I still use mt DL (similar in size to K100) alot for the backcountry, and am very satisfied with the image IQ. Good luck.
Brent

HENRYIMAGES
My gallery: http://www.pbase.com/henryimages

 

[distudio]

Trying to decide what camera to get. The K10 or K100D Super?

It's really swings and roundabouts for me. I shoot both 6 and 10MP bodies, I shoot RAW and I always up-res on RAW conversion so my working files end up the same number of pixels from both sensor types. The real difference is minimal, far more often your overall quality is marred by focus errors. In any case the resolution point is moot for me because when I'm shooting landscapes or other subjects that really benefit from high resolution I generally shoot multiple images and stitch.

So it really depends what you intend to shoot and your expectations but don't be fooled into thinking that there's a world of difference between 6 and 10MP. If speed and buffer size is important the K10D is a clear winner.

--
Rob

 

[Dave Lewis]

the fact that the K100D was far lighter and smaller, uses AA batteries, and cost a lot less. The image quality is also probably a little better on average than the K10D, though the K10D guys will jump up and down about that one. I weighed out the differences and got the 100 and am not sorry.
--
Dave Lewis

 

[simonkit]

To further my question here, I guess I should tell you what I would
be using the camera for the most. I love taking landscape pictures
and a lot of that is of the sky - sunrise, sunset, clouds etc. I
know the K10 takes excellent pictures, I have found a lot on the web
by that camera. Would someone post landscape photos from the K100D
Super so I can see if I would be satisfied with those. I just trying
to see if the extra money for the K10 would be worth it or not.
Thank you for all your info.!

To be quite honest looking at other peoples photos on the web wont provide a valid basis for deciding between 2 cameras - web display images look good from most cameras & its really only in print & at reasonable sizes that any difference will be evident.

Both cameras are capable of excellent results, as are all modern DSLRs - its more a case of deciding on the functionality you require & the added "cropping" benefit of more pixels

simon

--
http://www.landscapephotographyuk.com/

North Wales photographs - Snowdonia & Anglesey

 

[GordonBGood]

Trying to decide what camera to get. The K10 or K100D Super?

It's really swings and roundabouts for me. I shoot both 6 and 10MP
bodies, I shoot RAW and I always up-res on RAW conversion so my
working files end up the same number of pixels from both sensor
types. The real difference is minimal, far more often your overall
quality is marred by focus errors. In any case the resolution point
is moot for me because when I'm shooting landscapes or other subjects
that really benefit from high resolution I generally shoot multiple
images and stitch.

Rob, the difference between the two cameras would be even less if you went the other way and down-res'ed your 10 MP images after a blur to get rid of the Nyquist effect introduced to the same effective resolution as the 6 MP camera. If you did this, the so-called one stop sensitivity advantage of the 6 MP camera would disappear, as it only applies on a pixel by pixel basis and not to an entire image area.

So it really depends what you intend to shoot and your expectations
but don't be fooled into thinking that there's a world of difference
between 6 and 10MP. If speed and buffer size is important the K10D is
a clear winner.

This is really what it boils down to: all the extra features of the K10D against its extra cost and weight; the extra resolution barely counts in the consideration or as just one of the features.

Regards, GordonBGood

 

[emem]

.......... I think you posted this comment to a more recent thread of mine re comparing the K100D Super to the Canon XTi, now lost of course. What do you mean by this? Are you talking about ISO?
Mike M. (emem)

 

[ellarsee]

I went with the K100D Super a month ago.

If you need to make prints larger than 13x19 consider the K10D.

If you need to shoot in lower light situations, consider the K100DS.

If money is a concern, get the K100DS.

If you don't need it this week, wait a week or two until the K20/K200 are announced/released, either you'll get more and better features, or a better deal on the remaining, soon to be "obsolete" models.

Remember, choosing the right body is not as critical as choosing the right lenses. Or for that matter, the right "family" (Pentax, Canon, Nikon...). The first lens I bought after the kit lens that came with the camera, cost more than the body and kit lens. (FA 31 ltd) and gets used more than the kit lens.

My advice is to spend the next few weeks researching glass and thinking about what sort of pictures you plan on taking.

 

[emem]

.... I have long suspected that scene modes are disparaged by folks who want to establish their credentials as "advanced amateur" or even "semi pro" rather than rank amateur. Like you, I fail to see that it's even worth commenting on, if you don't need them, don't use them. On the other hand, I can let my wife use my DS any time she wants to because it's easy for her with the scene modes, but my K10D is a bit more difficult to use so she doesn't bother with it. Hmmm - maybe some think that's a plus?
Mike M. (emem)

 

[emem]

... between the K100D and the K10D - can someone please explain why this is so? Someone else mentioned this a little while back. Is it a difference in the sensor size relative to magapixels or what? Surely it isn't in ISO? I'm puzzled.
Mike M. (emem)