Real question from .:Julia:.: What are the pros and cons of the Pentax K200D?
I’m looking ino buying the Pentax K200D, and I’ve read a few user reviews… But what does the Y!A community think of it? And if you don’t like it, what other camera in the same price range would you recommend?
Thanks!
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Answer by Mere Mortal
Outstanding build and weather sealing. The best in it’s class and price range. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxk200d/page29.asp
Legacy access to a huge, affordable manual focus lens repertoire.
Not nearly as many modern accessory or lens choices as Nikon or Canon. Hard to find lens rentals for Pentax. No f/1.2 AF lenses available. Rumors that the sensor tends to clip highlights too much.
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I own a Pentax 67 camera and love it but have no first hand experience with their miniature format cameras. However, I don’t see you going wrong with any current production dSLR camera.
Answer by Edwin
Pentax is an old established camera company. Over the years it has often been overlooked by the masses while garnering praise for its lenses and quality.
The K200D is “weather sealed” which doesn’t mean its waterproof but does give it an edge in damp or dusty conditions.
The K200D is still using the venerable K-mount introduced around 1975. Only Nikon boasts a longer-lived lens mount. Canon abandoned its FD mount when they introduced their EOS Rebel auto focus cameras in the late 1980s. Olympus abandoned the OM mount when they adopted the 4/3 mount. Minolta abandoned their SR mount when they introduced the world’s first full-featured auto focus 35mm SLR – the Maxxum 7000 of 1985. The auto focus A-mount is used today by the Sony DSLR line.
The K200D has Pentax’s version of Image Stabilization (IS) in the camera body so every K-mount lens ever made becomes, in effect, an IS lens. Nikon cannot say that since it chose to put its version of IS (Nikon calls it Vibration Reduction – VR) in mostly longer focal length lenses. Canon does the same.
Of course there are some limitations inherent with using a 30 year old lens on a 2009 K200D DSLR. Manual focus and stop-down metering will be required but those are easily over-come with practice. The same holds true for the venerable Nikon lenses from 1960.
Buy the K200D and enjoy it. No doubt someone will answer your question and tell you that “… pros only use Nikon and Canon …” which will likely come as a surprise to pros using Leica, Hasselblad, Mamiya, Leaf and those using 4×5 film view cameras.
Answer by greglovern
Hi Julia,
The biggest advantage of the K200D over other cameras is that it is the smallest and lightest weathersealed DSLR ever made. And it’s excellent weathersealing; made to withstand a “torrential downpour” according to a Pentax engineer in an interview, and I’ve seen pictures of another weathersealed Pentax DSLR being rinsed off under a kitchen sink faucet. I’ve never heard of a weathersealed Pentax DSLR dying of water exposure, which I have heard of for other brands — though to be fair, there are also a lot more people using the other brands, which raises the odds of one dying.
(As a side note, possibly the most common reason for DSLRs to die of water exposure is by changing lenses in a hot, humid environment, like a crowded ski lodge, then taking the camera out in a cold environment. The humid air then quickly condenses and creates a short circuit, zapping the camera.)
When the K200D was released, it was somewhat of an enigma because although it was an entry-level, inexpensive weathersealed camera, there were no entry-level, inexpensive weathersealed lenses for it. The cheapest weathersealed lens then was the Pentax 16-50mm f/2.8, at about US$ 750. But that’s about to change in a couple weeks with the release of two inexpensive weathersealed lenses:
Pentax 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 WR:
http://www.adorama.com/PX1855AFWR.html?searchinfo=pentax+18-55
Pentax 50-200mm f/4-5.6 WR:
http://www.adorama.com/PX50200AFWR.html?searchinfo=pentax+wr
The biggest disadvantage of the K200D compared to other choices is slow autofocus in dim light. You can speed it up by popping up the built-in flash, which operates as a focus-assist light. The K2000/K-m has faster auto-focus in dim light.
Other pros and cons:
If you don’t care about the weathersealing, you might want to look at another model, such as the Pentax K-m, because the weathersealing adds weight and size.
If you’re going to do a lot of shooting in dim light, the Pentax K2000 (also known as the K-m) is about a stop better in dim light than the K200D. But the K2000/K-m is not weathersealed. The Pentax K20D is also about a stop better in dim light than the K200D, and it is weathersealed, but it’s a bit bigger. Still smaller than other other brand’s weathersealed DSLR, though.
Large, bright viewfinder compared to other brands at similar price points.
No ultra-professional, US$ 8,000 DSLR models, with super-fast frame rates and gigantic buffers, to aspire to. Also no models with “full-frame” sensors to aspire to — all Pentax DSLRs have “APS-C” size sensors. Professional portrait photographers like larger sensors because, all else being equal, they allow throwing the background more out of focus. On the other hand, Pentax is about to release to the Japan market a medium-format DSLR, which has a sensor much bigger than the Nikon & Canon “full-frame” sensors.
You’ll hear a lot about how Nikon and Canon have more lenses. But the lenses they have for which excellent equivalents are not available for Pentax are mostly very specialized and very expensive. If you’re anxious to spend US$ 5,000 and up on huge, fast telephotos for extreme sports & wildlife shooting, you’ll find Pentax limiting. But the vast majority of Nikon and Canon owners never buy a lens for which they couldn’t have just as easily bought an excellent equivalent for Pentax.
Also, Nikon has a lot of medium (normal-range) zooms. It’s nice to have all those choices, but I still only want one medium zoom. And even if I used Nikon, the medium zoom I’d want for it would be the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, which is what I use on my Pentax, because it crams such high image quality in such a small and lightweight package. The Nikon equivalent is much more weight than I’d want to carry around most of the time (the Pentax equivalent is also heavier than the Tamron, though lighter than the Nikon).
Pancakes! Pancakes are tiny, extremely lightweight lenses that are great for travel or just walking around. Pentax has more of them than any other brand:
40mm, less than 2/3 of an inch long:
http://www.adorama.com/PX4028AFD.html?searchinfo=pentax+40mm
21mm, one inch long:
http://www.adorama.com/PX2132AFAB.html?searchinfo=pentax+21mm
70mm, one inch long:
http://www.adorama.com/PX7024AFD.html?searchinfo=pentax+70mm
Lens compatibility. Pentax has the best compatibility with old lenses. I have lots of old lenses that have excellent image quality but were very inexpensive because they don’t have modern conveniences. I don’t shoot with them all the time, but it’s fun ocassionally. I’d have a lot less of that kind of fun with other brands.
No live view, if you care about that. The K2000/K-m has live view.
In-body image stabilization. That’s a pro in that it stabilizes with any lens, even very old lenses. But it’s also a con in that in-lens stabilization (Nikon & Canon) works better on long telephoto lenses. But now Tamron is making stabilized lenses, so soon you may have a choice with Pentax.
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39/365 Canon EF Lost and Found
Picture by simply 39/365 Canon EF Lost and Found
Found this while spring cleaning. So cool! Vintage Canon EF. It’s produced between 1973-1978, making it 30 years old! You even have to turn the lever(I dunno what is it called!) before the shutter can be pressed.
Turns out that this camera originally belongs to my fifth aunt. Apparently she grew sick of the toy and my dad took it over from her… My mum kept it, and took the camera with her when we shifted from attap house to HDB. Then when we moved again from Pending to Senja Road, I saw the camera hidden away in a corner of our cupboard and decided to bring it over.. I have forgotten this camera until my recent interest in photography. However, it can’t be found when I looked for it a few months earlier. Then while doing spring cleaning today, I rediscover this baby again.
Yeah! Shall be getting the film and battery tomorrow. I hope alkaline batteries works!
What are the pros and cons of righteousness PENTAX K200D?
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