K2000 VS. Stormtrooper

I think this picture from DPReview forum user "JoeDaBassPlayer" is as close as I'm going to get to seeing a white Pentax K2000 with a fully costumed Stormtrooper (unless any CosPlay people are up to the task?):

Joe's new camera arrived today and he couldn't resist posting the above picture - who can blame him? (found here at DPReview's Forums). Thanks, Joe!

Pentax K20D Gets A New Low Price, And A Great Review

Pentax has just announced they're officially lowering the price of the K20D and all its kit forms. This looks like a great deal (street prices will be lower, too - some are already at $700 for the body only), especially with a free 3-year warranty:

• PENTAX K20D body only: $799.95
  
• PENTAX K20D with DA 18-55mm II lens kit: $879.95
  
• PENTAX K20D with DA 16-45mm lens kit: $1199.95
  

New Prices: “With this price reduction, PENTAX now offers consumers the highest resolution on one of the most fully-featured DSLRs priced under 800 dollars,” said Bill Zani, vice president sales and marketing, PENTAX Imaging Company.

Along with the price reductions, PENTAX is extending the K20D FREE Three Year Warranty (one year standard, two years extended) on all K20Ds purchased by March 31, 2009.

Highly rated by several consumer magazines, the PENTAX K20D digital SLR camera with 14.6 megapixels is equipped with advanced features including a dust-proof, weather-resistant body, PRIME image processor that allows full image customization, and PENTAX developed Shake Reduction that works with any of the 25 million PENTAX lenses ever manufactured. The PENTAX K20D is the most affordable high resolution DSLR camera in the advanced photo enthusiast category and allows more experienced photographers, who demand complete control, to fully customize the camera."

 - Pentax Press Release, Feb 23, 2009

The New K20D Review At Imaging-Resource.com

This good pricing news follows on the heels of a very nice review of the K20D, published by Andrew Alexander and Zig Weidelich at Imaging Resource last week (out-take pictured in screen-cap above): "We were impressed with the K10D, and thankfully, Pentax hasn't re-invented the wheel so much as they've improved it." Be sure to check out their videos of Live View and Burst Mode, and their grain/noise ISO comparisons. If like what this review shows you or you've been waiting to pull the trigger on a K20D, it looks like now is probably the time of the sweetest incentives before the camera gets EOL'd for later this year and is replaced by a potentially much more expensive model (the K20D started life at about $1200 US). As a K20D user, I have to say that it's well worth it, and the 3 year warranty is the icing on the cake.

PDML Photo Annual 2008-2009: A Closer Look

Mark Roberts has sent me some more pictures from the PDML photo book he's helped publish. He took a photo for me to demonstrate how it looked in the softcover binding and to give an idea of the book's physical size (pictured below). I'm impressed - it's very professional and looks like the iconic coffee table book it's meant to be. So please visit Mark's site for the PDML Photo Annual 2008-2009 and consider buying yourself a copy in softcover or hardcover. You'll not only be supporting Pentax photographers, but you'll be contributing to CureSearch, which is where all book profits are being donated. 


The following pictures are just a few of the many in the book, but I found them striking enough that I wanted to share them here as samples of the tremendous talent in the Pentax community and the PDML. Please click on them to open the larger version. And remember, if you like these, then maybe there's a book you'd like to buy.

Above: "Highland Cattle in Saskatchewan Winter," photo ©  by Tim Bray

Above: "Tires," photo © by Marnie Parker

Above: "Sad Ride," photo © by Bill Robb

The PDML Pentax Photo Book, Camera Price Reductions, and PMA Rumors

PDML Photo Annual 2008-2009


Mark Roberts wrote to me this weekend to share something that I had missed, but that I'm ecstatic to see: the PDML finally got around to publishing their choice collection of Pentax enthusiasts' photos, "The PDML Photo Annual", and even Mike Johnston at The Online Photographer has really nice things to say about it, especially since the PDML group are donating their profits to the Childhood Cancer Foundation. The book is available in soft cover and hardcover editions, from $32.95 to $49.95.

"This book contains the work of photographers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Israel, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, Serbia, Iceland, the Philippines, Italy, Hungary and India. Their work encompasses every photographic style under the sun: urban documentary shots, expansive landscapes, portraits, sports, macro, abstract, fashion, travel, wildlife and combinations of many of the above. Some defy categorization. All speak volumes about the talent and imagination of their creators."

"Although this book is much more expensive than any of the t-shirts, mugs, etc in out Cafe Press store it's raised more money for the NCCF in its first four days than the entire Cafe Press shop did in a year. We're off to a good start :)"

- Mark Roberts

Pentax Price Reductions In February

Camera gear consumers are being given extra incentive this spring to shop Pentax thanks to recent price reductions for some of Pentax's best-selling camera models:

• $649.95 for PENTAX K2000 two lens kit kit (camera body, DA L 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL lens, and DA L 50-200mm F4-5.6 AL lens)
  
• $549.95 PENTAX K2000 single lens kit (PENTAX K2000 body & DA L 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL lens)
  
• $499.95 for the PENTAX K2000 (body only)
  

PMA Rumors

Finally, 1001 Noisy Cameras is postulating at what could be coming later this year from Pentax, based on all the furtive postings at the DP Review Forums, and it might just be a 22MP wunderkind that uses the square image format, much like a MF camera... but no one knows for sure what Pentax has in their bag until they say it. PMA will be March 3-5, and speculation is getting to be pretty intense.