The new Pentax K2000 is a very small and handy DSLR with better performance than many bigger digital SLRs.
Introduction:
The Pentax K2000 is not only affordable and with quite nice retail package, but also offers good image quality considering its small size. The camera has a 10.2 megapixel sensor, built in image stabilization and dust reduction systems which will work with practically any lens and multi-point AutoFocus system. Moreover, the Pentax K2000 is very easy to use, offers several color modes and is conveniently compact, at the same time offering what every other digital SLR has to offer
Pentax K2000 pros:
+ Good high-ISO performance
+ Small and light
+ Runs on AA batteries
+ Excellent in-camera processing options
+ Very nice user interface
+ Very good battery life
Pentax K2000 cons:
- Kit lens has plastic mount
- No manual DOF preview
- External flash has no bounce or swivel head
- Limited continuous shooting performance
The design:
Pentax K2000 measures122.5mm x 91.5mm x 67.5mm (4.8 x 3.6 x 2.7 in) and weighs 525 grams without the batteries and lens. The camera’s chassis is made of stainless steel, whereas the external body is made of high quality plastic. Although you might expect that because of its quite low price the Pentax K2000 will be made of poor quality materials, in fact the finish quality is very good. Additionally, the camera is very well balanced so even if you change for a bigger (and heavier) one the Pentax K2000 still feels comfortable. Pentax K2000 has a 2.7 inch display with good viewing angle and brightness.
Perfromance:
The Pentax K2000’s 2.7 inch display with 230,000 resolution is also of good quality and with adjustable brightness levels (yet it may influence your perception of the image you are to capture). Unfortunately, you cannot use the display for live veiw and you have to make do with the viewfinder which has about 96% accuracy. The Pentax K2000 is relatively fast and it can capture about 3.5 frames per second in the continuous mode. As the Pentax K2000 has sensor-shifting in-body image stabilization you can use practically any Pentax lens and it will have shake reduction.
The Pentax K2000 works on AA batteries which you can buy in practically any shop at any place so you can always have a spare source of energy. Interestingly, the Pentax K2000 has really good battery life and you can take over 500 photos on a single set of batteries. The built-in flash pops up when necessary and has the range of about 13 feet, or 3.5 meters.
Image quality:
Pentax K2000 has very good image quality for such a small digital SLR and also when compared with bigger cameras it scores not too bad. The images come out sharp and bright, but with slightly oversaturated colors. The automatic white balance (on by default) works well so you do not have to worry about that. You also get a large number of digital filters that can be applied after taking the images. You can choose from: soft, retro, illustration, B&W, Sepia and a few more. Again, the overall image quality is surprisingly good and ready to print just after you’ve taken the picture.
Menus / ease of use:
Pentax K2000 has the regular Pentax menu system so if you have ever used a Pentax digital camera you should have not troubles using ths one. The menu structure is logically organized and easy to go through so even if you haven’t used a Pentax before you will most probably need only a fe hours to get used to it. All in al, the new Pentax K2000 offers good array of features for its price ($699).
Selected Pentax K2000 features and specifications:
Body material
Plastic, stainless steel chassis
Sensor
• 23.5 x 15.7 mm CCD sensor
• Primary color filter
• 10.75 million total pixels
• 10.2 million effective pixels
Shake Reduction
CCD-Shift type
Dust reduction
• Image sensor moving mechanism and SP coating
• Dust-alert function
Image sizes
• [10M] 3872 x 2592 pixels • [6M] 3008 x 2000 pixels • [2M] 1824 x 1216 pixels
Image formats
• JPEG (Conforms to Exif 2.21), (Best, Better, Good) • Compressed RAW ( PEF ) • Non-compressed RAW ( DNG )
Color space
• sRGB
• Adobe RGB
Lenses
PENTAX K, KA, KAF, KAF2 and KAF3 mount lenses
FOV crop
1.5x
Focusing
• 5-area AF (SAFOX)
• TTL Phase matching
• Focus point selectable
Focus modes
• AF-Auto, • AF-Single, • AF-Continuous, • Manual focus, AF assist
Built-in flash
Shooting modes
• Auto Picture mode, • Picture mode, • Scene mode, • Program AE, • Sensitivity-Priority AE, • Shutter-Priority AE, • Aperture-Priority AE , • Metered Manual, • Bulb
Picture modes
• Portrait, • Landscape, • Macro, • Action, • Night scene portrait, • Standard Flash-Off
Scene modes
• Night Scene, • Surf & Snow, • Food, • Sunset, • Kids, • Pet, • Candlelight, • Museum, • Stage Lighting, • Night Snap
Metering modes
• Multi-segment metering, • Center-weighted metering, • Spot metering
Sensitivity
• Auto (selectable range) • Manual : 100-3200 • Bulb Mode: up to ISO 1600 • 1EV, 1/2EV or 1/3EV steps
Shutter
Electronically controlled vertical-run focal plane shutter
Shutter Speed
• 30 to 1/4000 sec
• Bulb
White balance
• Auto, • Daylight, • Shade, • Cloudy, • Tungsten Light, • Fluorescent Light (W, D, N), • Flash, • Manual setting with WB fine adjustment
Image tone
• Bright, • Natural, • Portrait, • Landscape, • Vibrant, • Monochrome
Image parameters
• Saturation (-4 to +4)
• Hue (-4 to +4)
• Sharpness (-4 to +4) (two types)
• Contrast (-4 to +4)
Viewfinder
• Fixed molded penta-mirror type • Natural-Bright-Matte II focusing screen • Field of view approx. 96% • Magnification approx. 0.85X (with 50mm F1.4 lens, infinity, -1m-1) • Diopter adjustment approx. -2.5 – +1.5m-1
Viewfinder info.
• AF frame, • Spot AF frame, • Shake Reduction, • Flash status, • Shutter speed, • Aperture, • Focus indicator, • Manual focus, • EV compensation, • AE lock indicator, • ISO warning
LCD monitor
• TFT color LCD monitor, • Brightness adjustable, • Wide angle view , • 2.7 inch , • Approx. 230,000 pixels
Record review
• Off, • 1 sec, • 3 sec, • 5 sec
Flash
• Built-in retractable P-TTL pop-up flash, • Guide number: approx. 11 (Standard Output Sensitivity 100/m), • Angle of view coverage: 28mm wide-angle (35mm equivalent), • Flash Exposure Compensation: -2 EV – +1EV (1/2EV steps), • P-TTL, • 1/180 sec flash-sync
External Flash
• Hot shoe, sync-speed: 1/180 sec.
• Wireless-sync with PENTAX dedicated flash
Flash modes
• Auto, • Flash on, • Auto & Red-eye reduction , • Flash on & Red-eye reduction, • Wireless Sync
Flash compensation
-2.0 to +1.0 EV
Drive modes
• Single-frame, • Continuous (Hi, Lo), • Self-timer (12s, 2s), • Remote control (0s, 3s), • Auto bracket
Self-timer
• 12 sec
• 2 sec
• Automatic mirror lock-up with 2s self-timer
Continuous shooting
• 3.5 fps – 5 JPEG, 4 RAW
• 1.1fps – until card is full or 7 RAW
Remote release
• InfraRed remote (optional)
• Instant or with 3 sec delay
Custom functions
21 custom-programmable functions available
Preview
Digital preview
Playback mode
• One Image, • Two Images, • Index (4 or 9 or 16 thumbnails), • Enlargement (up to 16X, scroll available), • Image Rotation, • Folder view, • Slideshow, • Histogram, • Bright/Dark area, • Calender, • Resize, • Trimming, • Index
Digital filter
• Toy Camera, • High Contrast, • Soft, • Star Burst, • Retro, • Extract Color
Digital filter
• B&W, • Sepia, • Color (18 type), • Soft (three-level amount adjustable), • Illustration (Pastel/Watercolor), • HDR (3 type), • Slim (+/- 8 level amount adjustable), • Brightness (+/- 8 level amount adjustable), • Toy Camera, • High Contrast, • Soft, • Star Burst, • Retro, • Extract Color
Other recently reviewed digital cameras:
Canon PowerShot G10, Canon PowerShot SX10 IS, Samsung TL34HD, Nikon Coolpix S610, Olympus 570UZ, Sony Cyber-Shot T500.