You know who LOVES the K20D? DPReview, that's who.

From the review that calls the K20D "Highly Recommended":

"In short, the K20D is a great stab at making a photographers' camera - a camera for people who love taking images, are happy to invest in lenses (perhaps the primes that can make the most of those 14.6 million pixels), but aren't going to be recouping the cost of their equipment through regularly selling images. It offers a very pleasant, near pro-level, photographic experience at a reasonable cost and in a body that feels solid, well built and as if it was designed by someone who used one themselves.

Because the K20D offers so much that the enthusiast photographer would enjoy, it would be churlish to let the sensor-based flaws, which have little impact in real-world shooting, prevent us giving the camera our highest award. This isn't to say it's a faultless camera or one that's suited to everybody but one with only minor drawbacks that should only dissuade a small number of potential buyers."

Link: DP Review's IN-Depth Review of the K20D

DP Review previews its Pentax K20D review (whew!)

It looks like the big review a lot of people have been waiting for is almost ready at DP Review, thanks to Richard Butler. There's nothing here we don't already know, but it shows that we're going to get an in-depth appraisal when the final review is ready. I, for one, think that if you have any Pentax DA lenses, this camera is the best thing since sliced bread (or the *ist original DS). 


Links: DPReview K20D Preview

Apple Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.1

Apple Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.1: This update extends RAW file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto '08 for the following cameras: Pentax K200D, Pentax K20D - yes! But only for 10.4.11 or 10.5.2 or higher... (2.4MB download via Software Update)

Link: Apple Support for DC RAW Comp. Update 2.1

Lightroom 1.4.1 Update Now Supports K20D and K200D

Good news for Adobe Lightroom users: the Pentax K20D and K200D are now officially supported (although if you used the native DNG format or JPEG for capturing pictures with you camera, you were good all along).

Link: Lightroom 1.4.1 Update for Mac and PC, Adobe LR 1.4.1 Update Information PDF

Pentaxium Global Shoot Day: Saturday, April 5th, 2008

This is a reminder that Pentax Forums has organized a global shoot day again, and this year it's April 5th - this coming Saturday! Yes, even I'm going to be coming out of hibernation and I'm going to participate.

What does it mean? Well, all over the world, Pentax owners (Pentaxians) are going to take pictures specifically on that day so that they can share the best of them at the Pentax World Day website. That way, everyone around the world can see what sort of shenanigans Pentax users can get into in the course of a day.

The rules: images must be captured between 12:00AM and 11:59PM on April 5th, 2008. But you only get to submit three (3) photos, each between 800 and 850 pixels on the longest side and no bigger than 1MB (for the web). You can submit until April 19th, 2008. It's not a contest, so there are no prizes except for the satisfaction of a job well done.

For more info, visit Pentax Forums.

A Quick One While I'm Away

I'm still hibernating until April, when I'll do a big recap. But you know what wakes me out of slumber? Apple actually getting around to releasing RAW support for the *ist DS2, *ist DL2, and the K100D Super. Yep, hell hath officially frozen over. And no, there's no K20D support yet. That should happen, oh, like at the end of 2009. *sigh*

Now back to slumber and dreaming of the K20D!

Link: Apple RAW Update 2.0,

How Close Was/Is the Pentax 645D?

The British Journal of Photography, as I mentioned earlier in the K20D roundup, spoke with Hiroshi Onada of Pentax Europe just last week. They managed to tease some very revealing details about the 645D Medium Format camera Pentax has been working on, namely how it was almost announced a year ago, and why it's still not the right time... yet.

"And what of Pentax’ digital medium format camera? Publicly, Onada re-iterated the line Pentax has been peddling since news of Hoya’s proposed ‘merger’ first broke in 2005 – that ‘it’s too early to say’. He said that the company had been concentrating on ‘core business’, which apparently means medium format is on the back-burner.

However, in an interview with BJP, Onada revealed just how close Pentax had come to launching the 645 AFD. ‘Before the Hoya deal went through we were actually quite ready. We were very much prepared for a launch. But one of the key issues was with distribution. You need huge resources to launch across many countries.’

He was equally reluctant to say when Pentax might introduce a pro-level DSLR, saying it didn’t have the ‘resources or the desire’ to compete with Canon and Nikon at this point. However, he did say that Pentax’ eventual ambition is to have three levels of camera, with one a higher-end model.

The same applies to high-end lenses. ‘Once we have enough resources, we can concentrate on development,’ says Onada. ‘I thought Hoya might invest separately, but no one is going to give you money for no reason. Hoya is unique in that’s it is extremely profitable. But there’s a reason for that. Working with them these past months, I have learnt that they never lose money – and that’s a very strong philosophy. In the past, management would often say, “If you have the guts and commitment, go and do it”. Hoya takes a longer view.’"

Link: BJP (thanks, George)

Roundup of First Reactions to the K20D Announcement and First Sample Pics

(Updated 11pm Friday, 1/25/08) Well, it was a big week of camera announcements, with Olympus, Fuji, and Canon getting a lot press, but ultimately the big scene stealer was the K20D. It's been getting a lot of advance praise and generating interest across the web thanks to news of its 14.6MP CMOS sensor. Here's a fast and loose look at most of the bright spots, including links to the various sample photographs that have started popping up.

Special thanks to 1001 Noisy Cameras and all the readers who helped submit the following links.

PopPhoto: Jack Howard had the chance to play around with pre-production unit, and they took it around on the streets of New York City as well as Las Vegas.

"Pentax has once again swung for the fences with the K20D, packing a ton of high-caliber features, heaps of megapixels, tons of customization, and a pro-caliber build into a camera that should manage to distinguish itself in a crowded pack of high-end enthusiast/entry-level pro SLRs. We've just begun our full lab test with an early production Pentax K20D and out initial findings show that the Pentax K20D is very class competitive (particularly at ISOs 100-1600) against other cameras in this category including the Canon EOS 40D, Sony Alpha 700, and the Nikon D300."

- Jack Howard

Another highlight from PopPhoto? When their slideshow of "Image Quality" sample pics compared ISO 100 and 3200 with pixel level samples (seen below). Remember, these are just fast snapshots without additional processing, but whew, what noise control.

Above: K20D Samples of ISO 100, from PopPhoto, (c) 2008.

Above: K20D Samples of ISO 3200, from PopPhoto, (c) 2008.

DP Review: Even though they didn't have much to say yet, they had a brief hands on that compared the K20D visually with the K10D and they appreciated how much Pentax kept what was ergonomically great about the K10D. Also:

"The Pentax K20D is the first DSLR we've encountered that offers the ability to adjust the representation of color on its screen, allowing the user to calibrate the screen to more accurately reflect the output or the user's tastes. This is typical of the sort of high-level touches that cropped up all over the K10D and shows Pentax taking the same attitude towards the K20D. Another instance is the addition of an X-sync socket that will really benefit studio shooters."

Trusted Reviews: Here's a more comprehensive "hands on" review of the pre-production camera, but with lot's of sample pics taken at Pentax's Dubai event. Am I the only one who is glad they got nice overcast weather in the desert that day, but still ever so slightly flummoxed that the camera's metering is doing such a good job at not overexposing that things look a little too dark? (click here for an example). Anyhow, Jaime Harrison is pretty upbeat about the camera, including its revamped menu system: "The menu in particular has seen a few changes, with a better tyoe face and importantly much clearer labelling of some of the functions. One of my criticisms of Pentax cameras in the past has been their somewhat esoteric naming conventions. The sensor cleaning function for example, is no longer named ‘Switch dst msr pt'."

Photography Blog: Mark Goldstein posted 40 sample pics from a trip to Pentax's Dubai Press event with a pre-production K10D, shooting JPEG with the new Premium Quality setting. It's hard to tell much, but it's obvious he was having fun.

PentaxForums.com: Codiac2600, a regular contributer to the PentaxForums, was right out of the gate on Wednesday with "2500 word essay on the K20D," based on his experiences playing around with one. He underscores a few times that Pentax didn't make any changes to their autofocus system, which is something he had been hoping for, but he iterates all the things they did right from a very personal perspective and energetic voice. I'm looking for more information about what he describes as a "self-repairing" sensor, which sounds like a bit of an exaggeration. But it's a fun read.

"Somewhere a rep told me that each pixel has a base ISO1600 sensitivity, but this could be different or an interpretation. It’s basically magic like Ken Rockwell always says when he doesn’t want to understand how something works. Not only does this sensor have great sensitivity per pixel, but is self repairing! With a couple of button presses you can fix dead pixels on your sensor while you wait. Huh? You know those dead pixels that happen from time to time. Basically you’d send your camera in to be repaired and they’d send it back with that dead pixel mapped out of the equation. The K20D can do this for you in camera folks! So let’s sum this up… a 14.7MP, high resolution sensor, low noise, and self healing!"

The Online Photographer: Referencing the sample pics at Pentax, Mike Johnston, appreciates the black and white test shot. As he tells you himself, no surprise.

Benjamin Kanerek: Here's the best gallery of shots, from a fashion photographer long associated with Pentax. What's great here is that you can access all the metadata about each shot as well as the hi-res version. These are arguably described as the sharpest samples on the net right now.

Photo by Benjamin Kanerek, (c) 2008.

British Journal of Photography: These folks don't exactly draw a conclusion that the K20D is using the sensor chip that might have been the brains of an earlier incarnation of the 645D, but what you do get is a lot of thoughtful insight into comments made by Hiroshi Onada, Pentax Europe's main man, at the Pentax Dubai press event. Pentax is looking to achieve 15% of total DSLR sales in the market by 2009, with 3 levels of DSLR cameras, including a yet unannounced top-tier. That's a big step over where they are now, but it's starting to look like it will be possible if this momentum keeps up.

(more updates to this list to come)

YouTube Video Demonstrations of the K20D and K200D

Pentax's US Product Manager, John Carlson, has put up some new YouTube videos, like he did previously for the K10D. This time, he gives you a demo of the two new cameras from Pentax, the K20D and K200D.